Online game "Puzzle Quest 3"

The Puzzle Quest series was the first to combine the casual mechanics of three-in-a-row games (match-3) with RPG - there was a full-fledged plot, main and additional tasks, well-described characters and dialogues, the system of heroes and equipment development, and all battles were in the format of a casual puzzle, which the authors, however, supplemented with various nuances and interesting mechanics. And recently, 13 years after the release of the second part, Puzzle Quest 3 appeared, but already in a conditionally free format. We tell you more about it.

By its format Puzzle Quest 3 is an online RPG with all the associated details: battles, quests, pumping, dungeon raids, battles between players, participation in guilds. Only the battles take place in a match-3 mechanic. This means that we need to collect three, four, five, as many as possible stones of the same color horizontally or vertically on the board - it charges different spells that require that color. In addition, you can collect skulls - this allows you to directly damage your opponent, who also collects stones, attacks and spells on his turn.

Some skills allow you to turn stones of one color into another or create special gems that need to be activated to turn them into skulls. The peculiarity of Puzzle Quest 3 mechanics is that here you can collect several lines of stones of different colors at once in your turn. Each of the heroes has their own tactics and their own spells that require one color. For example, the necromancer's main class spells allow you to poison enemies (at the same time poison turns some stones into skulls), weaken enemies' defenses, and heal yourself - all of which require mostly green, blue, and purple stones. And berserk, as it should, periodically goes into a rage, which allows you to deal increased damage - his skills mainly use red stones.

Other classes include paladin, mercenary, assassin, sorcerer and shaman. Each of them can create unique stones, which are not combined with others and give their own bonuses. The necromancer has gems of death, the mercenary has treasure stones, and the berserker has gems of rage that explode when destroyed and give the character rage for 1-2 turns. The demon gems that the sorcerer creates, when activated, increase the damage from burning enemies and weaken them for 4 turns.

On one account, players can develop characters of several classes. For all successes they gain experience and gain levels - this not only increases the basic characteristics, but also opens up new opportunities and game modes. In addition, new equipment and resources needed to upgrade equipment and spells are given as a reward.

In addition, each hero can have several unique servants - dragons, boars and other funny animals and creatures. They not only increase the character's characteristics, but also open chests for a certain time, and with some chances allow you to get new keys for them. Minions can also be upgraded.

In the end, the levels of equipment, spells and pets add up to the character's overall power rating, which determines his strength. Enemies with a close or higher rating pose a serious and sometimes insurmountable danger.

Finally, as we pass, we are joined by various companions, each of whom has their own story. They are also pumped for certain resources and open new opportunities - for example, increase the size of the inventory, allow you to create equipment and rare relics necessary for the evolution (i.e. increased pumping) of heroes and equipment, bring useful resources like food.

Puzzle Quest 3 has a full-fledged story campaign divided into many chapters. Here we go from a clueless warrior to a member of the famous dragon guard and a universal hero fighting dragons. There is also intrigue - for example, at some point we meet a mysterious girl who asks us not to fight fire-breathing lizards and tries in every possible way to convince us that they are really good.

In addition to the story campaign, there are also many other modes here, which are unlocked as we gain certain levels. These are daily battles and challenges, where you can fight normal enemies or bosses, while choosing the level of difficulty. Our companions periodically toss in additional tasks that take place in several stages and make us fight reinforced enemies.

There is also a special monster hunting mode and raids - special events and adventures, where we choose where to go on the map, who to fight, whether to visit merchants and special zones with additional rewards (they are heavily guarded). There are a lot of such raids, and often in them the battles are in a row, and during breaks we can heal ourselves with consumables or choose what bonus to get for the next battle - for example, increase the level of weapons, restore all health or give the hero reinforced armor from physical attacks and resistance to the effects of magic.

After reaching a certain level, battles with other players will also open up to us. There are quick battles and several tournaments - both regular with access for all, and limited and elite - to participate in them you need to fulfill certain requirements for spells and equipment, and elite open only after reaching level 50.

This interaction with other players is not limited - in Puzzle Quest 3 players can join guilds and get various bonuses and rewards for it. For example, the bazaar becomes available, where you can buy a lot of different resources for character upgrades, spells, servants and equipment relatively cheaply. Guild members receive different ranks for their successes and periodically participate in the "defense" mode, where you have to fight a particularly powerful boss - and each member of the guild contributes to the overall victory with his attacks. The rating of each player is also calculated separately. Guilds also grow in the overall level, by which it can be compared with other associations of players.

Separately, it should be noted that many adventures, trials and events are time-limited.

In fact, before the global release Puzzle Quest 3 was in early access in Steam for almost a year. And during this time many people criticized it - first of all for the hard, as it seemed at that time, donation. They said that the whole game was too blatantly siphoning money out of players. And already in the middle of the second chapter of the story campaign you can't go further without investing money.

Indeed, here, as in all conditionally free games, there is a built-in store, where you can buy valuable resources for pumping and epic relics for evolution. There is also a battle pass, which allows you to get a lot of different rewards for performing certain actions in the game. And if you buy VIP status, these rewards will be more. You can also buy VIP experience points with live money to pump up that elite status.

However, in fact, in the release version donation is not so tough at all. The authors listened to the community, made the necessary adjustments to the balance and now, for example, even in the 4th and 5th chapter of the story campaign you can beat strong enemies without investing a penny of your own money into the game. You are no longer so quickly bumping into the wall of progress, when without microtransactions it is simply impossible to pass the story further.

And in general, here we are constantly flooded with various free rewards and resources. And the system of all sorts of achievements (pass the tests of certain levels, cast the greatest spell of this or that class 200 times and so on) allow you to get for free especially valuable currency - blue crystals, which are spent among other things to instantly resurrect and continue fighting even after death. There are other, simpler ways to get these crystals for free - for example, as a reward for defeating bosses in raids.

In addition, the authors have removed time limits on collecting stones of a certain color in battles - during the early access this mechanic was also criticized, but in the release version the developers have removed it.

In the end, if you remove prejudices and whining that "everything was better before", you should admit that Puzzle Quest 3 is quite fascinating, interesting, beautiful and bright game with a lot of modes and opportunities to pump everything and everything, in which you can hang on for many hours.

Zarium. August 2023