Puzzle Quest 2 Previews

GamerNode and Kotaku have both kicked up new previews of Puzzle Quest 2, courtesy of the playable build that Infinite Interactive had available on the show floor of PAX East.

A little something from GamerNode:
The puzzle battle portion is the same as the previous game, but with some refinements. Gone are the experience point and gold gems, replaced with a new color: Purple. Players will match lines to collect gems as they did in the first game, and those gems will be used to attack the opponent with spells or defend with buffs. Skulls are still part of the board, and they still do direct damage to the opponent, but the new additions to the equipment system allow players to have multiple opportunities to deal damage.

Speaking of those new additions, the equipment system has received quite an overhaul. Aside from basic attribute bonuses, equipment can now be used to directly attack the opponent, which one can do by gathering the other new type of gem: the Gauntlet. Each weapon (in my case, the Bastard Sword) has a gauntlet amount assigned to it: once you collect that many gauntlets, you can do direct damage to your opponent by selecting the weapon.

And a snip from Kotaku:
Puzzle Quest 2's map looks more like an isometric RPG or possibly even an adventure game than the original top-down, war game looking affair. Characters with quests appear on the map with the now industry-standard exclamation point over their heads, giving you tasks that generally revolve around fighting against monsters in a puzzle environment.

My first quest, a tutorial, simply had me making groups of three or more skulls, which is one of the ways to do damage in Puzzle Quest 2. Being an old pro, the rats go down quickly.