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Puzzle Quest: Galactrix
Sometimes messing too much with a winning formula means trouble.
March 31, 2009 | 4:12 PM PSTKombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game's About
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix is a spiritual sequel to Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. Same in name, the two games are quite different from one another. Warlords started with a humble beginning and surprised the gaming world with the unique gameplay blend. Galactrix evolves the Bejewled crossed with action and RPG elements formula once again with the hopes of creating something from out of this world. Galactrix hopes that the same magic lightening will strike twice.
What's Hot
The cult hit status Warlords achieved afforded Galactrix some better production values. The game feels more fleshed out and designed with more time. The story is a stronger element by incorporating a more interesting story that starts with a mystery that unravels versus laying out the goal right from the beginning. Supporting characters have stronger, more memorable personalities and are more important to the story. The space setting isn't taken for granted and the feeling of being a space captain exploring the galaxy is dyed in the wool.
The basic theme of the puzzle battle gameplay remains intact. You must match three or more tiles to rack up points and score damage to the opposing player. The back and forth strategizing is somewhat of a mix of a casual game and a mind bending game of chess. Using a new board with hexagon pieces, the pace is considerably more frantic with new colored pieces refreshing from all sides.
This new and evolved gameplay departs from the original Puzzle Quest and prevents any feeling of sequelitis. The developers delicately balanced the game feeling familiar and new perfectly. With very little instruction, anyone can pick up the game and play instantly to start having fun. That is the largest draw to Galactrix, the accessibility to instantly start enjoying the game. At the same time, there is a duality where another layer of depth is omnipresent and is just as accessible but only when you want it to be.
What's Not
When you first start the game, you aren't given many choices to customize your character. No class or race differentiation is made to the basic player. The thought was that you can acquire and customize spaceships to change your playing style on the fly. Unfortunately, it doesn't work as well in practice as it does on paper. You'll find that there aren't many drastic differences.
Shuttling between missions is a necessary but tedious task in Galactrix. The problem arises from the Jumpgates that are in a constantly uncertain state. Moving between star systems involves a two step process. First, you need to find the correct gate. Second, you need to hack inactive gates to operate. When you are accepting missions and navigating the stars, the last thing you want to do is worry about what barriers there are to enter other star systems. The hacking challenges are timed and due to the random nature of the game's puzzle pieces can either be easy breezy or DS throwing frustrating.
The worst thing that happened to Galactrix is that the basic puzzle battle idea from Warlords has been totally over developed. With the hexagon pieces, it might be more frantic and exciting but it is actually less fun. The random element has taken over the gameplay and repelled planning elements by throwing so many places pieces can refresh from the sides. It is admirable that the developers didn't want to exactly copy the original title and try something new but that is like the equivalent of throwing out the dictionary every year and adding fancy endings to already elegant words.
Final Word
With Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords being one of the best puzzle games ever, Galactrix isn't. Even though both games share the same name, the magic is sucked into the vacuum of space with Galactrix. The result is a game that is unique and interesting but leaves much to be desired for lasting appeal. The real shame is that the first Puzzle Quest will always be remembered with reverence while Galactrix will be forgotten like unimportant space dust.
What the Game's About
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix is a spiritual sequel to Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. Same in name, the two games are quite different from one another. Warlords started with a humble beginning and surprised the gaming world with the unique gameplay blend. Galactrix evolves the Bejewled crossed with action and RPG elements formula once again with the hopes of creating something from out of this world. Galactrix hopes that the same magic lightening will strike twice.
What's Hot
The cult hit status Warlords achieved afforded Galactrix some better production values. The game feels more fleshed out and designed with more time. The story is a stronger element by incorporating a more interesting story that starts with a mystery that unravels versus laying out the goal right from the beginning. Supporting characters have stronger, more memorable personalities and are more important to the story. The space setting isn't taken for granted and the feeling of being a space captain exploring the galaxy is dyed in the wool.
The basic theme of the puzzle battle gameplay remains intact. You must match three or more tiles to rack up points and score damage to the opposing player. The back and forth strategizing is somewhat of a mix of a casual game and a mind bending game of chess. Using a new board with hexagon pieces, the pace is considerably more frantic with new colored pieces refreshing from all sides.
This new and evolved gameplay departs from the original Puzzle Quest and prevents any feeling of sequelitis. The developers delicately balanced the game feeling familiar and new perfectly. With very little instruction, anyone can pick up the game and play instantly to start having fun. That is the largest draw to Galactrix, the accessibility to instantly start enjoying the game. At the same time, there is a duality where another layer of depth is omnipresent and is just as accessible but only when you want it to be.
What's Not
When you first start the game, you aren't given many choices to customize your character. No class or race differentiation is made to the basic player. The thought was that you can acquire and customize spaceships to change your playing style on the fly. Unfortunately, it doesn't work as well in practice as it does on paper. You'll find that there aren't many drastic differences.
Shuttling between missions is a necessary but tedious task in Galactrix. The problem arises from the Jumpgates that are in a constantly uncertain state. Moving between star systems involves a two step process. First, you need to find the correct gate. Second, you need to hack inactive gates to operate. When you are accepting missions and navigating the stars, the last thing you want to do is worry about what barriers there are to enter other star systems. The hacking challenges are timed and due to the random nature of the game's puzzle pieces can either be easy breezy or DS throwing frustrating.
The worst thing that happened to Galactrix is that the basic puzzle battle idea from Warlords has been totally over developed. With the hexagon pieces, it might be more frantic and exciting but it is actually less fun. The random element has taken over the gameplay and repelled planning elements by throwing so many places pieces can refresh from the sides. It is admirable that the developers didn't want to exactly copy the original title and try something new but that is like the equivalent of throwing out the dictionary every year and adding fancy endings to already elegant words.
Final Word
With Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords being one of the best puzzle games ever, Galactrix isn't. Even though both games share the same name, the magic is sucked into the vacuum of space with Galactrix. The result is a game that is unique and interesting but leaves much to be desired for lasting appeal. The real shame is that the first Puzzle Quest will always be remembered with reverence while Galactrix will be forgotten like unimportant space dust.
November 20, 2009
