Game Stooge

PREVIEW: Puzzle Quest: Galactrix (Multi)

• Scribbled on July 17th, 2008 by Jonathon Howard
• Filed in Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, PC, Previews, Puzzle, RPG, Sony PSP, Xbox Live Arcade

You’ve already seen screenshots of it and watched videos of the developers play it, but how much do you know about the next great puzzle game, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix?

So far information on the game has been sporadic and decentralized, a bit here and a piece there. Since I’m excited about this game, as is my girlfriend,, I thought I’d round up everything we know about it in one place, so you can start salivating now for its release this fall.

Galactrix like its predecessor Challenge of the Warlords in that it will combine a puzzle game with roleplaying elements to create new experience, a larger whole for the player. In Warlords, the puzzle game was as about as familiar as you could get: a straight adaption of Bejewled, tweaked and coaxed a few times to keep it fresh.

Galatrix is using Hexic as its puzzle springboard, tweaking it though so that pieces do not fall from the top but from any side dependent on the players location, as the put it, “heeding to gravity according to a player’s location in the universe.” Furthermore if you look at gameplay videos, unlike Hexic (where groups of 3 or more tiles lumped together to score), Galactrix counts strings of tiles to count as well. That, and the fact that new tiles enter from any side of the board, should create some dynamic and interesting games, where location of the battle can be just as important as how well you play. Special tiles will be strewn throughout the board which when activiated will have special effects like increasing defense or attack power, leting loose spice mines on your enemies, and more.

So the puzzling in Galactrix is a little more involved than that found in Warlords, that isn’t all that is getting re-worked the gameplay experience. It is going to be much more varied this time as well. Besides battling, you’ll be able to create and customize multiple ships: tweaking some for attack; some for defense; and, others for exploration. With multiple ships and a huge map to explore players will participate in negotiating, mining and trading commodities, hacking jump points, hiring additional help human and alien, and gain access to blueprints, new weapons, and cargo. All of this takes place in what D3 is calling a “rich and detailed story”. I don’t know how rich or detailed it is, it does sound like standard sci-fi fare, a story of human hubris and greed. You’re part of the Human Empire which is controlled by 4 corporations who have engineered creatures that are now bent on wiping out human and alien life from the galaxy.

With Puzzle Quest: Galacrtix coming out this Fall, you still have some time to get acquainted with its predecessor Warlords, if you already haven’t, and experience just how great these puzzle RPGs are. If you do it now your puzzle solving skills might be ready for the next big thing.