I started playing PQ3 because I was a huge fan of Puzzle Quest, the very first one. It continues to be superior for many reasons. First, no guilds. It’s just you and the game. Second, it has a long, engaging story line, with lots of interesting side puzzles (train you mount, capture enemies, learn new spells, make cool weapons and armor). You didn’t have to buy, or upgrade, or win these things. It was in your control. Yes, you bought the game.
So, let’s just say this is a different game. Here’s what’s “not great” about it.
-
2-second timer. Some of us have iffy networks. I start to move but things don’t draw right, or are slow, and then my 2 seconds are up and I’ve only made one match. I’ve been screwed by this many times. This game play was a horrible decision. A better game would have a setting. “Easy mode: Make all the moves you want, press go” and “Hard mode: You only have 2 seconds to move.”
-
Gold is useless. I’m frequently trying to find something to buy with it, and somedays there is absolutely nothing (keys, you can always get a few of those). Most everything you want or need you have to buy (crowns can’t ever be won in the game). That’s a shame. I get you need to make money, but when all the daily offerings require crowns, that just looks greedy.
-
It’s guild based. In an of itself this wouldn’t be a problem, but there are so few reasons or benefits to have or be in a guild. Moreover, with the exception of the bazaar (which is a “unload unused resource” dump) are there no challenges for the guild. There could have been “guild goals” (kill 1000 dragons in a week, or win 500 dungeons in this city, or something!). The biggest problem with guilds is they made the same mistake as they did in Gems Of War, which is that anyone can start a guild. That is a horrible thing. Green and new people start guilds “just because” and saturate potential players. There should be a “Once you make level 50 you can start a guild” rule. You can only have a guild once you have a clue how the game should be played.
The last point is the biggest problem for me and my guild. After being in the game since almost day one our guild is closing shop. We stuck it out until the game “went global” but that’s when things got worse. Prior, if someone left us someone new would show up. Keeping 30 in the guild was effortless. Not anymore. Once we got to 15 for weeks we decided to call it quits. Some are leaving the game totally, others are finding guilds.
Overall this has been a disappointment.