Review – Puzzle Chronicles

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Infinite Interactive

Platform(s): Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo DS, Playstation Portable, PC

Genre: Puzzle

Rating: E for everyone 10+

ESRB Content Descriptors: Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes

Players: One for main quest, 2 local and online multiplayer for the 360 and PS3 versions

Official site: http://www.konami.com/games/puzzle-chronicles/

The Scoop: Infinite Interactive, the creators of Puzzle Quest, bring you more puzzle adventure with Puzzle Chronicles, a fun game, but not without some presentation issues.

The Setup: You play a “name him yourself” character who is the spitting image of Rambo dressed like He-Man.  A tribe named the Slavers has kidnapped you along with your entire village.  A mysterious sorceress frees you alone from the Slavers’ market and you now have no choice but to cautiously follow her lead for the freedom of your people.  The levels are set up almost like an old school point and click adventure except your options of where to go next are labeled with an exclamation point or a question mark.  You select which one you want to go to and other than the odd shop or object you’ll find a monster and be challenged to a head to head puzzle duel.

He-Rams has a lot of potential.

What’s Hot: The puzzling is enjoyable.  Unlike many other games, instead of playing side by side on separate fields you battle head to head on one.  Puzzle gems are horizontally dropped in groups of three onto a center divider.  Properly color matching gems and destroying the skull shaped Rage gems with fill your Rage meter will allow your character to attack.  This will push the divider one step onto your opponent’s field and therefore shrink it.  Do this enough times and your opponent will no longer be able to move giving you the win.

Your character evolves as the game progresses along with your Warbeast, a sidekick you pick up along the way.  Upgrading your characters attributes and equipment, as well as taming your Warbeast will unlock special moves and attacks, which does flesh out the game and keeps it interesting.  Unfortunately, there were a couple of times where some old school RPG level grinding was required to progress the story and it is tedious with only one type of enemy to puzzle challenge over and over again.

What’s Not: This game is tough to look at.  The 3D character models look very plain and unfinished.  The backgrounds and still shot 2D cuts scenes are going for a cartooned look but again they are very plain and seem to be missing a layer or two of shading and depth.  None of it is truly ugly enough to make you turn your head from the screen, but has all the personality of dry toast.

A less than stellar background.

Multiplayer was added as an afterthought.  There is no variety of characters to choose from other than the ones you have created for the main storyline and are stuck with only the equipment and items they were last using.  For instance, if your character was carrying a special item during the main quest to defeat an end stage boss and this was not changed before a multiplayer match, that’s the item he’s stuck with.  You will have to quit the match, go into the main quest to save and change the item before exiting, and then start a new multiplayer match.

Final Verdict: Puzzle Chronicles is not a bad, but it is ugly.  Thankfully, the main quest is deep with gameplay and has enough side quests to keep the puzzling fun and save the game from being a throw away.  There may not be enough here for the average gamer but if you are really into puzzle games definitely check it out.  If not, feel free to give this one a pass.[ad#Rectangle - Image Only]