Puzzle Quest returns after a ten-year absence. Puzzle Quest 3 once again combines match-3 and RPG mechanics along with original designer Steve Fawkner at the helm, but this time it will be – possibly er-oh – free to play.
Based on that trailer, or in the press release, which vaguely promises “a twist on traditional puzzle games” and “an intense 1-on-1 combat system realized in a 3D game world,” there’s not much to say.
Match-3 gets a bad rap, but there’s little more satisfying in games than matching a bunch of gems of the same color. In Puzzle Quest, different types of matches gave your hero different resources that they could then spend on attacking different fantasy monsters. There was a quickly recognizable pattern in your pattern matching, but it was more-ish in the extreme.
I would be unequivocally excited about Puzzle Quest 3’s announcement were it not free to play. There are plenty of great examples of F2P games out there these days, but I haven’t seen a model for match-3 games that doesn’t hurt the gaming experience. I play match-3 games to relax, but it’s hard to relax when there are limited lives or a diminishing energy source that will end my gaming session or ask me to cough up coins to continue.
John wrote a Puzzle Quest 2 review for us in 2010 and found himself forced to keep playing despite finding it repetitive.
It’s ridiculous that after playing it for days, I’ve repeated the same actions over and over, knowing that once I’m done writing I’ll go back and play some more. I’m pretty sure what it offers cannot justify the interest I have in playing it. But I will not stop. I don’t want to stop. I want to repeat that action. And repeat that action. And repeat that action. And I hardly care if the context changes.
Puzzle Quest 2 doesn’t seem to be available to buy anywhere on PC as it was removed from Steam by the publisher, but the original Puzzle Quest is still available. Puzzle Quest 3 has an official site where you can sign up for updates.