When comparing Puzzle Quest vs Wasteland 2, the Slant community recommends Wasteland 2 for most people. In the question“What are the best PC RPGs?” Wasteland 2 is ranked 31st while Puzzle Quest is ranked 74th. The most important reason people chose Wasteland 2 is:
Though not the prettiest game to look at, the art style and direction make for a game that resembles the original quite successfully. More modern looks could have easily detracted from the game and its terroir.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Combat, perfected in a match-3 game
The core of Puzzle Quest comes down to its combat. You make a move, then your opponent gets a move. If someone runs out of life, they lose. If you matched four gems or more in a row by the time your turn ends, you get a second turn.
Gems have different colors. Matching gems of a color gives you that color mana, and instead of making a match, you can choose to cast a spell, which costs certain kinds of mana. Not too complicated.
Until you realize that your opponent is wearing an item that makes him regenerate life when his yellow mana is full. So you decide to steal all of the yellow mana on the board to fuel one of your yellow-colored spells and to prevent him from regenerating life. He casts a spell that siphons your yellow mana and gives it to him. You both go back and forth, retaliating against the other's strategy, until only one person is left.
The game is limited by your ability to play it. Not only does your chosen class dramatically effect your playstyle in the game, but so does your gear, often times changing how you play your character entirely.
Pro Good PvP implementation
The game supports PvP, where fighting an opponent who is just as smart as you can be challenging due to the great balance of play in multiplayer for evenly matched players. What is even better is that there are optional handicaps for matches between players that have different skill levels.
Pro Successful heir to the original game
Though not the prettiest game to look at, the art style and direction make for a game that resembles the original quite successfully. More modern looks could have easily detracted from the game and its terroir.
Pro Combat is fun
This is a very subjective thing but the combat is well done and it doesn't get old or tedious after so many hours of play. It's reminiscent of XCOM gameplay.
Pro Worldbuilding
Even if the post-apocalyptic world is nothing new, there are ways to go about it and Wastelands present a consistent and believable version of it (for the most part).
Pro Large party size
The game starts out with four user created or pre-made characters that then allows 3 more to be added later in the game for a total of seven. The large party size allows for plenty of player choice and customization of their team, in order to fit anyones play style or particular play scenarios.
Cons
Con AI "luck" is unquestionably unbalanced
There are many instances that see the player questioning the insurmountable luck the AI often receives as it will skip obvious moves that any person would play that end up resulting in a match 4 extra turn when more tiles fall down, as if it knew that would happen. Sadly this can happen often and is how the game increases difficulty.
Con Giant ridiculous difficulty spike half way through
Con Gameplay feels a bit rigid
While there are a few points where a player can choose to use unintended actions, more often than not a set skill has to be used on set items in order to interact with them. Sadly this leaves little room for experimental gameplay or use of imagination to try for unintended circumstances.