Puzzle Quest is amazing; by far my favorite game. If you've ever played Bejeweled, you know that it's a pretty gosh-darned simple game. It has its fans, but is mostly luck-based with some minor strategical elements such as "should I move the red piece... or the blue piece?"
PQ is no different at its core, but everything they've built on top of it is, well, magical. The game is set nearly 2,000 years in the future, but the world has reverted to medieval times for some reason. Your character goes off to explore the land and defend himself and his city from the coming onslaught of evil... by playing puzzle games. This is an accepted battle strategy... for some reason. Nonetheless, instead of only matching random jewels, you match colored tokens (mana), gold coins, experience stars, multipliers and skulls. Not only do you have to decide which is the best move to keep the game flowing, but you have to outwit your opponent. Since you take turns on the playfield, you don't want to set up great moves for him to take, yet at the same time you want to do the same for yourself. Ultimately just making the next move isn't enough, you really have to analyze the entire playfield and choose a strategy to take down your opponent, because you better believe they're doing the exact same thing.
Skulls damage your opponent and are usually the first target for most players, but mana lets you cast spells which can be many times more devastating than skull matches. Spells can hurt your opponent, heal you, match pieces, poison your opponent, etc., etc. etc. Experience allows you to level up, of course, meaning you can do more damage, collect more mana, and gain all kinds of helpful upgrades. Coins let you purchase magical items which you can equip. The depth and balance of the game is astounding.
You can also acquire traveling partners, and capture enemies and enemy cities. From there you can train and ride certain "mounts", giving you additional bonus abilities, and you can research spells and forge new weaponry otherwise unobtainable. These scenarios play out on the same game board, but in a single-player mode which greatly modifies the rules and changes the entire strategy set you have to use in order to win.
If puzzle games are your thing, PQ is frighteningly addicting. Unfortunately the just-released expansion pack is half-baked, but it's pretty much a must-have if you want to compete against others online, since they'll be able to level up more than you. The best reason to buy it is if you replay PQ a lot, since it adds four new character classes and spells only they can obtain. I recommend waiting to buy it until after you've finished the main quest, though, and then only buying it if you really crave more action or get heavily into online play.
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