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Macworld's Game Room has posted a new review of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. The game, available for Intel Mac owners, combines elements of the popular match three genre with a role playing game adventure. The Game Room gave Puzzle Quest a score of 3.5 out of 5 mice.

What makes Puzzle Quest unique is that all of the combat involves a “match three” puzzle game, similar to Bejeweled or one of its seemingly infinite number of clones. In Puzzle Quest, there’s a grid-based game board filled with pieces marked with different colors. You pieces one at a time to create a horizontal or vertical line of three or more pieces. Succeed and you’ll collect those pieces; their color corresponds to mana (or magic points) that you can redeem for different magic spells or actions against your enemy. You can also take direct action against your enemy if you’re lucky enough to match three or more skulls on the playing field. There are bonus multipliers, special tokens that give you instant cash or experience, and more. When you can reduce your enemy’s hit points to zero, you win the battle.

There’s a fierce amount of strategy involved in this exercise. On the surface, collecting mana points sounds easy, but it’s vital to understand what your enemy’s defenses are and how to overcome them. Some spells and attacks will work better than others, and you don’t want to leave yourself vulnerable to an attack on the board by making an unwise move. What’s more, if you or your opponent are left with no moves possible on the board, the board resets, and any mana you’ve collected during the preceding moves will drain out.

Macworld's Game Room: Puzzle Quest CotW Review

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Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

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