Puzzle Quest: Galactrix Preview

[GameBanshee News]

GameSpot has whipped up a quick GDC preview of Galactrix, Infinite Interactive's sci-fi version of Puzzle Quest due out later this year.

Blue tokens will recharge your own shields when you match them. Purple ones represent "psi power," which sounds a bit like the experience tokens in Puzzle Quest. However, your psi rating will also directly affect subsequent minigames and non-player character interactions outside of battles. Silver tiles are for intel; the more of these you match, the more scuttlebutt and information you'll be able to collect as you travel from one star system to the next. Lastly, the attack tiles (represented by skulls in Puzzle Quest) have evolved here. They're now numbered, and the base damage you do by matching them will be a sum of the numbering on all the attack tiles you've matched.

D3 was only focusing on the core puzzle gameplay in Galactrix during our demo, so that's all we got to see firsthand. But in talking with company reps, we discovered there will be more going on between battles here than there was in Puzzle Quest. That game took place only on a single world map, but in Galactrix, your quest will span planets, star systems--and perhaps even the entire galaxy. A number of other gameplay systems will underpin your mission. There's a diplomacy system that will track your standing with various factions throughout your interstellar travels, governing the interactions you're able to have with them. A commodity system will tally your income and dictate what resources you're able to amass to assist your offensive effort. And, there will be ship building, allowing you to collect blueprints you can use to construct new and varied ships for your fleet then customize their weaponry for different kinds of enemy encounters.

[fable]

"That game took place only on a single world map, but in Galactrix, your quest will span planets, star systems--and perhaps even the entire galaxy."

In other words, instead of using city icons to play Match-3 games, they'll use world icons to play Match-3 games. I don't know that I can stand the excitement.