Puzzle Quest Challenge of the Warlords Xbox 360 Review

So I've been waiting for a good Xbox game to come out. No, I didn't buy Halo 3. I hate first person shooters as I've said few times before. It did peak my interest though since it was an event game, so I watched some hour long video of some fat guy playing it over on Gamespot. It confirmed everything that I hate about first person shooters. The stupid hidden objects, can't tell where you are being shot at from, oddly placed barrels to get in your way, no character building, etc. At least Gears of War had an awesome commercial. Didn't make me buy it, but it sure made me -want- to buy it.

So anyways, yesterday I downloaded Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords from Xbox Live Arcade. 1200 points ($24? 50 points/dollar right? I forget now). And I was playing it for a few hours.

So the game is really just Bejeweled where you fight monsters and do quests. The quests are, from what I've seen, go there kill that (insert generic reason here). I did get a quest where I had to kill - don't be shocked - 3 monsters to complete the thing and get the reward. The RPG element in the game is that you can level up your character and make him stronger. The different monsters you fight have different abilities which they can powerup by collecting gems from the board (matching 3 or more of the same color) and use their powers against you. Your character also has special abilities to do the same. I chose a knight so I've been leveling up my hit points and my attack power, which helps me do more damage.

So I'm fighting these monsters and trying to figure out the rules (I turned the tutorial off) and I get the fact that 3 or more skulls in a row cause damage to me, but I seem to take damage by other methods. But I'm doing okay (I'm not a Bejeweled fan anyways so take this into account) but the repetition is stupid. Yay, I've killed a Skeleton and got some experience points. Maybe a piece of equipment. So, let's go kill more of them and do it all again!

Or not. Maybe I'd rather shoot myself in the head first. Really, come on. Every fight is exactly the same. Either you get lucky and get a ton of jewels to kill the monster or luck works against you and they kill you. I won't deny there is an element of skill and pre-planning here but not it's not quite enough to keep me interested.

One thing that I think could have improved the game is more puzzle varieties. Why is it always Bejeweled? Why not make like I'm fighting a bat in a Zuma type environment - shooting marbles before it gets me. Or, spelling words when fighting a monster to do damage. Or, making potions similar to Alchemy. A little variety would be nice. Bejeweled still gets old after a while. Yeah, going up against a skeleton instead of a rat is nice, but it's still Bejeweled. I dunno, I'm not a game maker but variety is key (for me, at least) in video games. And I wish it existed here.

I played a much better version of this type of game a few months ago. It was called Bookworm Adventures. Where you are a worm dude spelling out words to defeat monsters and save the girl. There is some skill there. The better your vocabulary the better you'll do. Yes, the element of luck is there as well (damn J's) but your success is almost always determined by your ability to spell the longest word you can. Better monster animations, better power-ups, exactly the same linear gameplay. Except Bookworm Adventures also has a good sense of humor and cute dialogue. Want a simple adventure game? Bookworm Adventures is where it's at.  No, I don't believe its on Xbox Live Arcade yet, but it should be.

As for this, it's passable (I'd maybe rate it a 5 or a 6) but not quite my type of game.