Puzzle Quest: Galactrix

[Trippy]

Anybody tried this yet? Just saw it on Steam when I went to go check on the TF2 update.

[Tebonas]

Played the demo, didn't like it as well as Puzzle Quest. The gameplay is comparable, but for me it works better in a Fantasy theme.

[Trippy]

Hmm...demo...good idea.

[Ironwood]

Holy Co-incidence, Batman.  Just saw this advertised on a banner ad and was trying to find a download.

Is it only on Steam ?  No Steam at work, alas...

[Trippy]

Well over here you can buy it in stores.

[Tebonas]

http://www.gamershell.com/pc/puzzle_quest_galactrix/downloads.html

[Ironwood]

Yup, Google came to my rescue.

This is one of those things where it's all different, yet the same.

I like it.

[Nebu]

I liked Puzzle Quest, but got bored with it after a few days.  Is this iteration any better?

[Trippy]

Not sure yet. Dunno if I like the new hexagon setup. I'm not particularly good with puzzle games so the extra complexity just makes my head hurt.

I'm also bummed there's no PSP version planned. That's what I played Puzzle Quest on and I much prefer playing it on that than my DS.

[Ironwood]

Actually, I kinda like the hexagon stuff.  It gives a more 3D feel to kicking your opponents head in.

Is there no multiplayer on the demo tho ?  Mine is greyed out. 

[Trippy]

My version of the demo doesn't have MP either.

[Nebu]

When I played the demo, the hex setup seemed to introduce more RNG to the game and I didn't appreciate this.  I want to calculate and have some predictive abilities on my moves.  When I played this demo, it felt like I was more at the mercy of the new blocks coming in from off screen.  Know what I mean? 

I liked the look and interface, but felt like my games were won or lost more by what blocks popped than what choices I made. 

[Hindenburg]

Did they keep the computer as a cheating son of a bitch?

[Ard]

The computer still cheats.  The demo is also buggy as hell.  It's making me seriously think twice about purchasing any console version of the game, given how buggy the original puzzle quest proved to be.  Plus no PSP version annoys me.  I really want to like and buy this game, but they're trying my patience this time.

edit:  by buggy, I mean, how the hell did you miss this in a basic play through by a single tester, the same sort of crap that happened with the actual release of the last game.

[Trippy]

When I played the demo, the hex setup seemed to introduce more RNG to the game and I didn't appreciate this.  I want to calculate and have some predictive abilities on my moves.  When I played this demo, it felt like I was more at the mercy of the new blocks coming in from off screen.  Know what I mean? 

I know what you mean but that's an "illusion". The first game had the same "randomness" problem, it's just that in this version there are 6 directions the blocks can fall instead of just one so there are more "end positions" to consider before making the swap (that's part of my "complexity" complaint above).

You actually have a little more control over the randomness than the first one because the order of your swap makes a difference in which way the blocks fall so you can control if you want a "shallow" or "deep" drop for any given swap (assuming you aren't swapping in the middle) and which "side" potentially might cascade on you or your opponent.

[Ingmar]

When I played the demo, the hex setup seemed to introduce more RNG to the game and I didn't appreciate this.  I want to calculate and have some predictive abilities on my moves.  When I played this demo, it felt like I was more at the mercy of the new blocks coming in from off screen.  Know what I mean? 

I know what you mean but that's an "illusion". The first game had the same "randomness" problem, it's just that in this version there are 6 directions the blocks can fall instead of just one so there are more "end positions" to consider before making the swap (that's part of my "complexity" complaint above).

You actually have a little more control over the randomness than the first one because the order of your swap makes a difference in which way the blocks fall so you can control if you want a "shallow" or "deep" drop for any given swap (assuming you aren't swapping in the middle) and which "side" potentially might cascade on you or your opponent.

This. The puzzle game is mostly just harder than the first one rather than more random, I think, and I really haven't gotten used to it yet.

[Jerrith]

I got the PC version and just finished the first "hard" battle (the enemy ship is significantly more powerful than yours, if you've just been following the main storyline).  I'm enjoying it so far.  Having played the demo, it's basically what I expected.

I do have one complaint:  Matchmaking, where are you?  Seriously, you click "Multiplayer", and then "Find Games", and it pops up a dialog box asking you to type in the ip address of the game you want to connect to...  I guess if you want to play multiplayer, you're going to need the 360 version.

[Tebonas]

Its on Impulse as well for the same price. Just a heads up.

[OcellotJenkins]

Anyone played the DS version?  Some reviews were saying the graphics and controls were a bit clunky.  I'm debating whether to go 360 or DS on this.

[Trippy]

Okay I can see now that gate hacking is going to cause me to give up the game in frustration unless there's someway to give myself a massive advantage (like a special crew member or ship part or something). Anybody far enough along that knows if there is stuff that makes it easier later on?

Edit: ooo aah, you can hack the code (it's in Lua) to change this behavior

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=942612&topic=48317330

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=942610&topic=48317956

[Trippy]

Anyone played the DS version?  Some reviews were saying the graphics and controls were a bit clunky.  I'm debating whether to go 360 or DS on this.

Lots of complaints about the DS version on gamefaqs.com.

[Trippy]

Much better

[Sjofn]

Man, and here I am thinking hacking is the easiest part of the game to start with. 

[Trippy]

Not very good with these sorts of puzzle games as I mentioned up top and putting a timer just makes it for me.

[Sjofn]

Yeah, but you don't also have the motherfucking cheater of an opponent in that one.

That said, I AM good at these sorts of games, if I may toot my own horn, so I can be safely ignored. I WAS BIG IN PUZZLE PIRATES. 

[Xilren's Twin]

Enjoying it so far, but getting some decent equipment make battles much better.  Spend some time flying around delivering food, and finally found a shop where i picked up some useful abilities.  On ship 2, the frigate, you can mount 4 items so im using a laser, a supressor that stops your opponent from regenerating their shields for 6 turns (both when they use equipment or matching blues), a virus to reduce their shields to zero, and a sweeper that removes all mines and gives me red energy.  Using them i can lock opponents in shield down mode, then just blast away with the laser feeding it reds from the mines cleared.  Course im only level 10 thus far too so i havent seen a wide spread of abilities.  I need to find me something to regen my own shields or hull.

I did some equipment you can get which changes the direction the gems fall; i.e. reverse gravity, and a random gravity.  Those might be fun in multiplayer.

The hacking jump gates 40 bazillion times is annoying, but im liking it.

Oh yeah, one more thing.  The pc version on dvd has annoying DRM (the CD checking kind).  If you get it, do it as a digital download

[Venkman]

There any reason why Steam doesn't offer the Trial? They seem to be inconsistent about this. Or perhaps they only offer the full purchase for X time before then also offering the demo, in some deal with publishers?

In any case, thanks for posting a demo link!

[Paelos]

I picked this up and I'm going to play it solid for a week, at which point I'll consider writing up a proper review of it. My first impression is that I'm hacking things all the live long day. I could do without that annoyance on every single gate.

[OcellotJenkins]

Stupid question, but is this on XBOX Live Arcade yet?  I looked for it late last week and didn't see it.  Granted I'm not too keen on the new xbox interface and might have missed it shuffling through the screens.

[Ingmar]

I'm with Trippy, I find the hacking to be the most annoying/hardest part of the game. The ship to ship combat is totally the best part.

[Paelos]

I'm with Trippy, I find the hacking to be the most annoying/hardest part of the game. The ship to ship combat is totally the best part.

This is going to be part of my review, but as a small preview: Hacking is annoying because it makes mechanics that are awesome from ship to ship combat worthless.

[caladein]

Stupid question, but is this on XBOX Live Arcade yet?  I looked for it late last week and didn't see it.  Granted I'm not too keen on the new xbox interface and might have missed it shuffling through the screens.

Not yet at least.  It was supposed to launch at the same time as the DS/PC versions, but for some reason didn't.  I'm debating just getting it on Steam at this point.

[Ingmar]

I'm with Trippy, I find the hacking to be the most annoying/hardest part of the game. The ship to ship combat is totally the best part.

This is going to be part of my review, but as a small preview: Hacking is annoying because it makes mechanics that are awesome from ship to ship combat worthless.

Or even detrimental. I can't count how many hacks I've had to redo because the timer doesn't stop while shit I can't control is falling in from the sides and making lines.

[Jerrith]

Or even detrimental. I can't count how many hacks I've had to redo because the timer doesn't stop while shit I can't control is falling in from the sides and making lines.

Here's one point I disagree with - you do have some control over it, and making use of it is what makes the hard hacks doable (unless you happen to be lucky).  When hacking, you want to look for matches of the type you need around the edge of the board, and then move the pieces such that only a few pieces move to fill the empty space, instead of lots.  Doing that makes a big difference in hacking. 

What bothers me the most so far is actually crashing...  It's a good thing they auto-save frequently, because the game crashes fairly frequently.  I've tried it on both my desktop and laptop - and I'd guess it's crashing somewhere around once per hour or so. (My character is up around level 30 or so, so far, and I'm enjoying the game.)

[Ingmar]

Or even detrimental. I can't count how many hacks I've had to redo because the timer doesn't stop while shit I can't control is falling in from the sides and making lines.

Here's one point I disagree with - you do have some control over it, and making use of it is what makes the hard hacks doable (unless you happen to be lucky).  When hacking, you want to look for matches of the type you need around the edge of the board, and then move the pieces such that only a few pieces move to fill the empty space, instead of lots.  Doing that makes a big difference in hacking. 

What bothers me the most so far is actually crashing...  It's a good thing they auto-save frequently, because the game crashes fairly frequently.  I've tried it on both my desktop and laptop - and I'd guess it's crashing somewhere around once per hour or so. (My character is up around level 30 or so, so far, and I'm enjoying the game.)

Any given 3 piece line will only move 3 pieces on to the board (unless you complete multiple lines at a time.) There are some minor differences in number of *potential* lines that you can end up making with the things that fall in, and yes, making moves around the edge helps with that, but honestly often there is only one possible move you can make to advance the hack anyway. Obviously there's a random element in all the minigames, but the timer really compounds that with this particular one.