Sure, there are load times, and they can be annoying, but the screen sensitivity is far and away the game’s greatest shortcoming. When tapping on planets, Leap Gates, etc. and attempting to select a command from the pop-up menu, you’ll often find yourself either flying back off into space or into another star system (if you’re out in the galaxy map). But this is only a tiny issue compared to the havoc poor command input wreaks when actually matching gems.

All too often, gems you don’t mean to swap out will get inadvertently swapped, or you’ll have to pound the screen to get a gem to highlight. We lost quite a few battles due to this issue. The situation is much worse, however, when you’re trying to hack a Leap Gate and time is ticking away. You cannot progress further into the game without access past Leap Gates, so having to contend with terrible input recognition during these gameplay segments becomes a regular source of contention. [...] But the basic foundation of the game – touching – is almost broken.

Sequels usually improve on the originals, but this particular title seems to have taken a step in the wrong direction. [...] Just not as fun as the original.

Chance plays too great a role in combat, and victory is too often determined by the random placement of tiles on the screen. [...] The touchscreen controls need to be tightened up, firstly. Responsiveness is an issue when tapping objects with the stylus, the game frequently not registering taps. Activating a menu option, for instance, often means tapping it two or three times before the game registers the selection.

The touchscreen interface leaves something to be desired, too. I often had to press a desired area unusually hard to get blocks to swap spots, and there were some places where blocks would swap the wrong spots when I didn’t tap that spot in the first place, which in Vs. battles leads to a penalty. When navigating menus on the galactic map, tapping an option would sometimes close the menu and send my ship flying away at great speed instead, which is both puzzling and annoying.

Control issues continue to be a nuisance throughout the experience, load times can be bothersome, and the graphics don’t seem as polished as they could be.

Puzzle fans undoubtedly had high hopes for the next entry into the series, but Puzzle Quest: Galactrix ends up failing to impress.

Chance plays too great a role in combat, and victory is too often determined by the random placement of tiles on the screen.

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix

Der wohl stärkste Puzzle-Strategie-Rollenspielmix aus dem Jahr 2007 bekommt einen Nachfolger mit neuem Szenario, neuen Helden und ausgebautem Kampfsystem. Reicht das für eine Traumwertung? Leider nein. Wenn ihr den Grund erfahren wollt, dann lest ganz schnell weiter.

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