Back – way back – in the halcyon days of 2007, the original Puzzle Quest was released on XBox Live Arcade. While, at the outset, it seemed like another Bejeweled clone, of which I had already played my fill, it actually housed a much deeper game, complete with RPG elements, and multiple strategies with which the game could be played. While I had vowed to swear off all match-three games due to a complete and utter addiction to PopCap’s flagship title, the addition of new and different ways to affect the board, in addition to having an actual opponent who I had to outplay, brought me back to the fold.

Fast forward to about 6 months ago, when Joel and I got a preview of the new Puzzle Quest 2, and were promised one singular thing: More. More matching, more spells, more minigames, more character options, more, more, more.

Boy, did they ever deliver.

You’ll notice as soon as you start that the developers have paid considerable amount of time to streamlining the game, making it far easier to get in and out of combat than in their previous effort. Gone is the large overhead map system; instead, players will find themselves zoomed into a 3/4 perspective view of their character’s immediate surroundings. This allows you to interact with individual characters, traps, locks, and monsters. The latter of these is especially beneficial, as you no longer have to get “stuck” on a road between two monsters, unable to get to the town you were trying to visit without a fight. Here, the monsters are visible and do not move, so you can fight them on your own terms.

The actual nuts and bolts of the game haven’t changed much at all: Match three gems, build up mana. Use mana to casts spells to various effect, such as spells that damage the enemy, shield you from damage, or affect the board. Match skulls and you hurt the enemy outright. One area in which the game has been streamlined is the removal of the “coin” and “experience” gems from combat. We were told by the developers that these created “dead” turns, where nothing really got accomplished. Now, with the subtraction of those gems and the addition of “action gems,” the game feels much more action-oriented, with every turn having an effect on the combat as a whole.

The sequel has also added an extensive inventory system, allowing you equip several pieces of armor, as well use one-handed and two-handed items in combat. This is where the aforementioned “action gems” come in. Much like mana, action points can be acquired through matching three action gems. When you have enough points to use an item, the effect occurs immediately, and unless your enemy has a high defense, is usually unblockable. This alleviated some of the issues with playing the warrior class that developed toward the end of the first game, where strength-oriented characters didn’t have any way to do damage other than matching skulls. This often devolved into a battle of attrition and luck, where the Warrior had to get and match enough skulls to kill the enemy before he ran out of hitpoints. With a sword in his hand and enough action points, the Warrior class can now do direct damage to his opponent instead of waiting for skulls. Needless to say, this changes the game considerably.

So now you have a new map, new combat, new character options, and new minigames (for unlocking doors and finding loot). Let’s talk about one thing that hasn’t changed: the AI. One of the things that annoyed me most about the original game was that the AI seemed to “cheat;” when it fell behind, it would suddenly be privy to a seemingly endless string of 4-in-a-rows, skulls, and exactly the right types of mana it needed to come from behind and crush you. The developers have stated that they have fixed this issue in this game, and while I concede that this is for the most part true, there are still times where I find the AI opponents suspiciously lucky. I’ll match one 3 on the board, seemingly one of the only matches left on the board, leaving the opponent with a 4-in a row. This creates another 4, and another, and another, and another. Suddenly he has full mana of all types.

It’s a minor issue, to be sure, but one of great frustration when the enemy that you’re completely beating the tar out of is suddenly blazing by you on the hit points meter. The guys at D3Publisher have seemingly acknowledged this “problem” in the form of not one, but two tongue-in-cheek achievements: one for losing to the AI when they have 1 HP left, and another (affectionately referred to as “Cheating AI”), that awards you GamerPoints for losing to the opponent in a single turn.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’d be remiss if I didn’t state that this review is based on an incomplete playthrough of the single player campaign. I have, however, put almost 8 hours into it so far, and I believe that I have experienced all that the game’s system has to offer. This is not, however, me saying that I am giving up the game; far from it. Puzzle Quest 2 is one of the most addictive, frustrating, fun, and challenging puzzle games that I’ve played in ages, and the fact of the matter is that the single-player campaign is very, very long – especially if you’re completing all the side quests as you go. If you were a fan of the first Puzzle Quest game, let’s face it – you’ve purchased the game already; but if you haven’t, do yourself a favor and pick it up. Just remember, if you start playing in the afternoon, and you suddenly look around and it’s dark outside, it may be time to knock off for the evening. After all, you’ve got a full day of playing Puzzle Quest 2 tomorrow.