Puzzle Quest: Galactrix

The original Puzzle Quest has made its mark as one of the most memorable (and commercially successful) puzzle games of recent times. The fact that it did brilliantly in just about every platform it was released in was proof enough that a sequel was much required. With Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, developers Infinite Interactive did the noble deed of not doing a cheap “more of the same” fantasy-themed sequel, and instead they came out with a game that preserved the best elements of the original while adding enough to give the sequel its own identity.

Being one of the rare puzzle game series that actually boast a somewhat interesting storyline, this time the game takes place in space, which is the RPG genre’s second favorite love-child. Skipping the narration wouldn’t take much away from the gameplay, but it definitely adds a good RPG-like feel to what you’re doing. All you need to know is that a long time ago, Earth was destroyed in a great war, and now mankind lives scattered across the galaxy along with other alien species. In your quest, you will be interacting and confronting many of these species, and some of them may even accompany you in your quest by becoming a part of your crew.

The main puzzle interface may look new with hexagonal gems instead of the square blocks that were used in the original Puzzle Quest. If you’ve ever played Puzzle Quest, Galactrix will feel right at home to you. Every puzzle is a one-on-one match between you and an enemy, where the idea is to deplete your opponent’s health before he does the same to you. You play by matching three or more gems in a straight line — the colored gems refuel your ship’s various attributes (shields, weapons, engineering and science) and the black gems (mines) do damage to the enemy’s ship.

With the well-designed RPG elements included in the game, you level up by collecting experience points and you collect credits through various means that allow you to buy new equipment for your ship like weapons and other items that can help you in a battle. You can also purchase better ships, which will become a necessity as the opponents gets tougher during the course of the game.
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The best thing about Galactrix is its overwhelmingly huge universe. There’s a lot for you to explore and many quests for you to complete. After spending 20 hours in the game and trying to do justice to the main quest as well as the side-quests, I noticed that I hadn’t even traveled to 50% of the planets on the map.

Besides battling against enemy ships, the quest mode requires you hack leapgates for opening passage to other planets, and also mining asteroids. Mining asteroids give you different types of raw materials that you can use to construct new items or simply sell them for credits. Both these modes use a variation of the gem-matching gameplay. In fact, just about everything that constitutes as an important gameplay aspect is done through these puzzles.__STARTQUOTE__There’s enough entertainment value and challenging elements to