Puzzle Quest 2 Reviews
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Eurogamer gives it a 7/10:
As with the first Puzzle Quest, then, the concept is what's truly brilliant - the one-more-go aspect of spatial challenges threaded into the reward schedule of an RPG. While the middling implementation's been somewhat improved this time around, the result is still a game that's supremely effective rather than genuinely brilliant. Its fantasy is largely bland, its puzzle mechanics tend towards the flavourless, and yet it remains frighteningly talented when it comes to targeting your compulsions. I still don't love Puzzle Quest - not yet, at least - but I'm not quite ready to stop playing it either. I've seen the future, and it's still magnolia.
GamePro gives it a 4/5:
Overall, Puzzle Quest 2 is a sharper title than the last two games in the franchise. With tons of quests, various ways to customize your characters, and an improved combat system, fans of the original Puzzle Quest are going to have their hands full with this sequel. Even when you start running into indomitable Jell-O demons that can curb-stomp your templar with 10-chain gem combos, the gameplay is addictive enough that you'll want to rise to the challenge and grind right through even the harshest battles.
Destructoid gives it an 8/10:
Puzzle Quest 2 isn't going to set the gaming world on fire with its inventiveness, and that's particularly obvious bearing in mind that Infinite Interactive released such a similar game three years ago. For most, that won't matter, and it shouldn't. Puzzle Quest 2 is as fun as the original, and offers enough new content for old hands that they should want to revisit the series. Fair warning, though -- while killing that rat swarm is of the utmost importance, remember: you have people who love you and don't forget to bathe.
Metro.co.uk gives it a 7/10:
The final improvement regards the artificial intelligence, which no longer seems to cheat quite so ruthlessly and charts a much smoother difficultly curve than before. If none of these changes sound very profound you're not wrong, but despite being uglier and arguably shallower than its rivals this somehow remains almost as compelling. Even if the addiction does seem entirely involuntary.
And TheStar gives it a 3/4:
I'm afraid PQ2 loses a star simply because it is evil. To a certain type of gamer, it's almost an electronic chemical weapon, some kind of black-ops designer drug. In blending the two most addictive game types the acquisitiveness and level-compulsion of role-playing games and the instant dopamine feedback loop of casual game play developers Infinite Interactive have created something that can literally destroy time. Pick it up, and before you know it, you've just-one-more-battled a whole day away, and you don't want to stop, and you resent anyone or anything that tries to make you stop. A game this loaded with neuropsychological hooks ought to be sold only by prescription, or banned outright by a resolution of the UN Security Council.
