E3 2010: Puzzle Quest 2 Hands-On

In Puzzle Quest 2, the marriage of match-3 puzzling and fantasy gameplay will reach new heights. Kombo jumped at the opportunity to meet with the game’s producer, Joe Fletcher, at Namco Bandai’s makeshift E3 headquarters today. Fletcher outlined some of Puzzle Quest 2‘s new features before we battled it out in some of the game’s multiplayer modes. We focused on the Xbox Live Arcade iteration, and though the versions on mobile phones, iDevices, and DS will differ in UI elements and will lack the tournament mode, they all share the same code base, meaning the game’s basic elements- like balance- will remain the same (the PC version will most likely be nearly identical to the XBLA version).

Brand new this time around are mana and gauntlet gems, which regenerate mana and grant players ability points, respectively, dozens of new spells, and four new character classes. Assassins’ spells are based around combos. Barbarians, most comparable to the original Puzzle Quest‘s Warrior class, focus on physical attacks with a great balance of other skills. Sorcerers are different from PQ‘s wizards in that their skills are focused on board manipulation, and the Templars rely heavily on defense, a stat that didn’t exist in the previous game.

The addition of more stats, spells, gems and characters is only one way in which Puzzle Quest 2 is bigger and better than its predecessor. In the XBLA version, the game’s world is much more fleshed out. Players can explore the game’s central town, receiving storyline and optional quests from NPCs, and shop for new equipment. Even some battles are optional, and players can choose which enemies to defeat and which quests to complete first.

“It’s a lot more interactive, and a lot more personal,” said Fletcher, the game’s producer. He wanted to make the town seem like a much more believable environment than PQ‘s citadel. In addition, D3 has worked hard to remove or alter unintuitive aspects from the first game so that newcomers can easily pick it up and have fun, while at the same time maintaining the series’ complexity.

I found that out when I went head to head with Fletcher in versus and tournament mode. Though I mercilessly pummeled him in our first match, I suspect it’s because his character was several levels below mine, because he easily wiped me out in tournament mode. Tournament allows players to choose one monster from each of four tiers of enemies and pit their team of beasts and horrors, including the favorite “gelatinous cube,” against one another’s in a four round ladder style competition. The mode added a lot of depth to the multiplayer experience, mixing up the standard versus battles and proving a lot of fun, as well.

Look forward to playing the game on June 23 on XBLA. Look out for our upcoming video interview with Joe Fletcher, and stay tuned to Kombo for more E3 coverage!