Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (PQ) is a Bejeweled clone. Before you stop reading, being a clone doesn't make a game bad. KC Munchkin is an excellent game despite being a Pac-Man clone, as is Ms. Pac-Man. What matters is the degree to which the clone diverges from the existing pattern of play in its progenitor, and whether or not those changes help to provide an interesting or different spin on the game that distinguishes it enough from the original to make an original and interesting take.
Candy Crush Saga, for example, is an excellent Bejeweled clone, as it adds in the novelty of having preset and challenging levels, an excellent presentation, and the ability to compete against and help out your friends.
So is PQ a bad game? That depends on the innovations it provides! In this case, Puzzle Quest provides a polished version of Bejeweled, but throws a layer of classic RPG onto it. The Bejeweled portions of the game are the simulation of combat, and throws in a few wrinkles on the classic Bejeweled formula. For the first point, this is a competitive puzzle game, but not in the same way that the vs. versions of Tetris, Puyo Puyo (Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine), or Dr. Mario are. In those games, you both play simultaneously on separate boards. In PQ, you both use the same board, and take turns. This completely changes the pace of play, changing it from a race to rack up points to a thoughtful game in which you survey the landscape and make not only the play that's best for you, but also the play that blocks your opponent from making a good play on their next turn.
In addition to the "battling" nature of combat, the game also enables you to gain levels and specialize in a certain kind of strategy. You can select from a few classes, and each has their own strengths. Some classes specialize in gathering the colored mana to use spells to damage your opponent directly, protect yourself from damage, or heal yourself. Others specialize in collecting the skulls on the board to damage your opponent through making matches. Once in the game, you can level up to add more to your skills, allowing you to strengthen your chosen approach to victory.
The AI of the game is excellent, which means that you'll need to be good at Bejeweled to win. The bosses in particular have stacked the deck against you, but once you've mastered the mechanics, every match is winnable.
You can travel the world discovering more of the story, and completing quests, almost all of which involve playing Bejeweled to defeat enemies and returning back to the questgiver. The combat is fun, because it's Bewjeweled, which rules! The little twists on the established formula makes it a unique approach using familiar rules.
So the core gameplay is fun and unique, but the game isn't perfect. The soundtrack is positively dreadful. Imagine finding a 90s keyboard (musical instrument), and hitting a preset titled "medieval". The sound vomit you're imagining, like every terrible band at every terrible medieval festival you've ever been to, is the result. Play this one on mute, please. All the two and three tambourine anyone could ever hope to avoid.
The game is, frankly, way too long. What exacerbates this is that randomly generated creatures appear on the world map all the time, making getting from one area to the needed one to complete a quest a 15 minute affair, every time. While the combat is fun, after 20 hours it can get a bit dull, and you can really want to get to the final boss, as I did.
In the PSP version, which I played, you can get companions you provide your team with certain abilities, including doing 10 damage to undead enemies, adding to your masteries and resistance percentages for spells, and others. While a cool idea, from what I can tell, these companions do not actually do anything, which is a critical bug in a cool function.
The plot for the game is incredibly stupid, as is the dialogue. It tries to weave some interesting narrative, but fortunately spends far more time on the core matching mechanic, which lessens the blow a bit.
So if you like Bejeweled, I'd recommend giving PQ a shot! It's a good and unique clone with plenty of warts, but will give you hours of enjoyment if you like the archetype. I'll give it a 7.8/10.
-TRO
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