Puzzle Quest: Galactrix
Released today!!!
I cannot wait to get my hands on it. From the demo, I can say that the classless system is probably an improvement, and I'm going to be interested to see how the factions system plays out. The hexagonal board is a bit wonky, but I'm sure I'll eventually get used to it.
Anyone else a big PQ fan who's looking forward to/already enjoying Galactrix?
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
Originally Posted by Think
Yes. Do you know if it is in stores for the DS today, or will that be tomorrow? I called GameStop but the guy just sounded confused as fuck.
Yeah; that's why I tend not to rely on Gamestop for things like this. Their employees always have no idea what's going on.
I have no idea. The PC version is generally better anyway, but of course it's not nearly as portable...
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
I'm getting it on my DS and PS3. Picking it up today after work for the DS so I can fiddle with the game, then next Thursday after I get paid on my PS3 so I can play it in HD. Also because I own Puzzle Quest: Warlords on DS and PS3. Very fun games.
Anyways, I called back and talked to someone else who was slightly more knowledgable, and it came in today. So all is well.
Initial thoughts:
So far, I like the battle system better. The damage is much easier to calculate, and battles seem to go much faster.
There's plenty of non-battle stuff to do, from mining to item creation. The economy aspect and GTA style factions are good, and I'm actually paying attention to the story.
I like equipping items instead of spells, I think that's a nice touch.
Earning money is fun, and I like having different ships.
I like the simplicity of leveling up in this game - instead of having a dozen stats to manage, you have four, at least, so far, so that's a big plus. The lesser number of colored squares (3 to cast spells, as opposed to the 4 in Warlords) makes using items much easier and intuitive. Being able to regain shield in battle is nice, as well.
Things I do not like:
Hacking warp gates is tedious and the fact that they randomly close (I've literally opened one, ran to the store, and gone back and it had closed) is annoying as hell. This is the only mini-game I do not like. Having 5 warp gates between me and an objective, and having to hack some of them twice is just not doing it for me. However, the quest rewards are nice.
So far, I like it much better than Warlords, which managed to keep my attention for a few quests until the battles became randomly tedious. My guy would overpower the other in every way, and I would still lose because they had a crap load of HP and the items were too tricky to work my stats out for. Blerg on that. Blerg, I say.
I might NOT get the PS3 version, though, due to the warp gates. I have a little bit of trouble making the quota on those so far, with a touch screen, which I assume makes things about as easy as a mouse. Twin sticks probalby won't work for me as well.
Though my opinion may change, for now I liked Warlords much, much better. Even with the many improvements made over Warlords, there were some new problems introduced with the pacing and with some poorly conceived new elements.
The Gate Hacking is fucking stupid. Also, the whole bit with the factions is fucking annoying as hell too. I accidentally became Suspect to the Quesdians because of the stupid quest for the statue from that Jahwa-whatever crew member. Then, to advance the story line, I had to travel through Quesidian space, and of course that meant getting chased by a ship whenever I warped to a Quesdian system.
So I either had to attack more Quesidian vessels and become even more hated by them or dash through each of their systems, hoping that I could get through before they caught up with me. It took quite a while to make up for the negative reputation I got from that one quest (and maybe one attacked ship).
Also, you can get contraband automatically from attacking an enemy ship. You cannot discard it unless you land on a planet that lets you check your inventory. But that means that if you don't notice you have it, and if you go through a gate with it on board, you have to eitherr attack the system's vessels when they detect you have contraband on board, or you have to make a dash for a planet or station where you can discard it. That's just rediculous.
So yeah; even though there has been a lot of improvements made, there were also a lot of new and completely uneccesary elements added that make the game simply less enjoyable. It's completely mind-boggling why they actively made the game worse than it had to be.
EDIT: Okay... on the other hand, I later learned about the "Psi" powers you get from The Lost which allow you to avoid ship encounters. But still, it seems rather odd that you can only have 4 active missions at a time -- what motivated that change?
Last edited by sycld; 02-27-2009 at 01:06 AM.
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
You can smooth things over with a faction by unloading cargo at their bases. While you may take a pay hit, it's not like the asteroids don't replenish. If you gained EXP or something from hacking gates, or something made hacking gates less tedious I would love it. Maybe there's a psi power that lets you stop hacking gates, or keeps gaits permanently open.
No clue about the quest limit, though.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/puzzle/ga...ry;read-review
Gamespot gave Galactrix a score of 5.5/10, and I agree with most of what they said. Thanks to the hexagonal board with variable gravity, the battles are now determined way too much by luck as compared to Warlords. The story and presentation are also disappointing. At least in Warlords, the graphics had some charm, but here they are dull and uninteresting. The characters are also rather boring and lifeless, and the story and dialogue are rather monotonous.
Somehow I also feel that in Warlords, there was some excitment to the pacing of the game. I looked forward to each battle and to utilizing new strategies as well as trying out new and exciting equipment against opponents with different characteristics. In Galactrix, I just don't have that same feeling. For example, in its predecessor, there were interesting ways that equipment and spells interacted with each other. In Galactrix, with the removal of equipment and the replacement of spells with ship systems, this layer of interest has been completely done away with. There is relatively little variety in the "spells," in that they are mostly variations of a few types.
Moreover, opponents also all tend to be the same, as the unique equipment they wielded in Warlords really made them unique. Now, all they have are the exact same variations of lasers, mine-layers, Time Warpers, etc. that you can obtain.
The universe is "huge," but who cares when it's just more of the same planets and stations? At least in Warlords, there was some feeling that each region of the world was different.
And where are all the cool little extras from Warlords like sieging cities, capturing enemies, and the like? You can still make equipment, but that's it.
And I could go on, but in a nutshell, the changes to Galactrix have tended to make the game "flatter" and more monotonous by stripping away the variety and charm that made Warlords so exciting to play. What a huge disappointment.
Last edited by sycld; 03-01-2009 at 02:00 PM.
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
Yeah, I quit when I found out there was no way to keep warp gates open.
Total shit, avoid.
Maybe it's just me or I'm not far enough into the game yet but all my warp gates are still open, and I have about 20, but I'm taking a break from Galactrix for now, too much ass wooping BS for me.
Okay, so... Puzzle Quest 2 came out yesterday for the PC on Steam. Cheers? Jeers?
It hooked me in, and even though some changes were welcomed such as the simplified stat system and less silly, more subtle and more ambient music, some were not such as the far smaller variety of gear and the stripping away of the game-extending elements centered around your personal keep (capturing prisoners and mounts, etc.).
As for the treatment of weapons now as active use items rather than passive buffers was something I was skeptical about at first but now have come to appreciate. It just gives the players another strategic choice, and sometimes even matching skulls is not always the shortest path to victory.
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
hahahaha
PQ2 was way too long. I didn't even finish but I'm sure I put at least 40 hours in it for a puzzle game. There were like 6 huge ass dungeons or so -______-. *on the DS*
PQ 1 is pretty long too, or I suppose it at least could be if you were to do a lot of stuff on the side.
PQ 2 is alright, but I really miss the greater variety that PQ 1 seemed to have. I felt more of a need to alter my strategy in PQ 1, and the extras it offered helped to spice things up a bit. However, I do like the active use weapons, as I said before, as well as a a few other changes such as the new stat system.
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
Sad to admit, but I've never finished any of the three games. They just took way too long for me.
On PQ2 I was an assassin, took a while to beat some battles, but I had an 18dmg 5 action point katana or something, as well as some strong ass spells with my multipliers.
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