Magic: The Gathering Puzzle Quest

In 2007 a game called Puzzle Quest caught my eye. It was an RPG game that used a match-3 mechanism to resolve encounters. I became very quickly addicted. A player chooses a class and then walks on a map where they complete main quests and side quests. I spent countless hours playing this game and crafting items (playing this game on Nintento DS will clearly show since the grid will be forever scratched into the surface). I wanted more games like this and later we even got a sequel for this game. At that time I had no idea how many different Puzzle Quests would be produced later on. Unfortunately none of the later released Puzzle Quest matched the quality of the original one. The quality went downhill pretty fast. Galactrix tried something new by introducing a hex grid but it simply wasn't THE Puzzle Quest.

Lately there were three different licensed games named Puzzle Quest. Marvel Puzzle Quest, Adventure Time Puzzle Quest and Magic: The Gathering Puzzle Quest (released yesterday). Starting with the Marvel one the games are free-to-play. The first free-to-play Puzzle Quest was actually ok. Adventure Time Puzzle Quest though on the other hand was more of a joke. Not only the game looked terrible, it was very poorly done. It did not even offer any kind of a story or challenging battles at least.

After experiences with the newer Puzzle Quest games my expectations for Magic: The Gathering Puzzle Quest were pretty low. I did not know how the Magic element would be incorporated in the game so I was surprised with how the game actually turned out. What I expected was an RPG game set in the Magic multiverse, but there was actually way more to it than that. Magic is a trading card game that requires a player to build a deck and that is something I did not expect to be part of the game.

The game has two modes a classic campaign Mode - Story - and a battle mode - Quick battle - in which you play against other players online. To win a battle you need to reduce your opponent's life total to zero.

Each player starts with Nissa, Sage Animist but other Magic Origins planeswalkers can be bought. The planeswalker color limits the player in deckbuilding. Only cards of the corresponding color or colors (white, blue, black, red or green) can be played in the deck. Each planeswalker has unique abilities that can be gained by leveling up. After each battle the planeswalker's hit points need to regenerate (welcome to F2P). You can either wait till this process ends or buy an instant regeneration.

A player chooses one of the Planeswalkers to play with. A planeswalker can cast spells or summon creatures. Casting spells is different from the original Puzzle Quest and it is something that really surprised me. Each planeswalker has abilities that can be used once per turn if the player has enough loyalty. Each planeswalker also has a deck of ten cards. Each turn the planeswalker draws a card at the beginning of their turn. You can choose the order in which the cards are played by simply dragging them around. The topmost card will be played first. The cards have a mana cost. In order to play it the cost has to be paid. To pay for it you need to generate mana by matching mana symbols. Each planeswalker gets different number of mana by matching 3 mana 'crystals'. For example Sorin, Lord of Innistrad is black and white planeswalker. Thus matching white or black crystals produces the most mana (6 for each 3 matched). Matching different color crystals won't produced that much mana (the number can even be negative, -1 will produce 2 mana). As in other Puzzle Quest titles matching more symbols than 3 has an additional effect. Matching four will make a whole line disappear and matching 5 will give you another turn.

Cards that can be in a deck include three different types - creatures, spells and support cards. Creatures after being played stay in play until they are destroyed. Creatures that come into play have summoning sickness which means that they cannot attack that turn unless they have an ability named Haste. The creatures are of three different types. There are creatures that attack the opponent (attackers), defenders (block opposing creatures) and berserkers (attack opposing creatures). These creatures can also have abilities. If a player knows the cards from Magic they will probably have an idea what certain card will do. Spells have one time effect after they are cast. Casting of the spell can be delayed (if the effect wouldn't do much). Certain spells target so a target has to be chosen first. Support cards stay in play and do something until they are destroyed (matched a certain number of times, they are disguised as a mana symbol).

As you can see Magic: The Gathering Puzzle Quest is actually about deckbuilding. And for deckbuilding one needs cards. These need to be unlocked and bought though (via real money or in game money one earns). You cannot buy single cards, you buy packs from which you get random cards.

Graphically the game is a mixture of high quality paintings from Magic: The Gathering and low quality graphics created for this iteration of Puzzle Quest. What doesn't help the game is the fact that animations take quite a while and while they happen you cannot do anything except wait till they end.

The game can be quite buggy at times, so sometimes you also need some patience.

Verdict
For a free to play game, this game is good. Magic: The Gathering Puzzle Quest is a surprisingly good game mechanics-wise. You need to think about deck building, how to play your cards, how to match mana symbols (you can either generate mana for yourself or try to lock your opponent out of mana) and how too use abilities. Graphics-wise the game does not look good even though you can enjoy high quality illustration for Magic: The Gathering. If you are looking for a new Puzzle Quest experience and you like a bit more strategy in your games this may be the game for you since it offers more than just match-3 mechanism.

S'Tsung (stsungjp @ Twitter)