I’m sure the title gives a lot away on this review. The reason it is easy to write this right now while I’m at home…is because the game is currently down for maintenance. Yes, it’s that addictive to me. It’s a very popular game, and I can describe it like this: combine Pokemon, Puzzle Quest, and the recent trend of “freemium” games. That is Puzzle and Dragons, from Gung Ho Online Entertainment. Let me get into why this game has taken away so many hours of my life in this review.
Puzzle and Dragons is a free game available for both Android and iOS. The game starts out just like Pokemon: you have to pick a starter, in the familiar three types of water, grass, or fire. The core game is very simple: you select a total of five monsters to take into dungeons, and you match three or more orbs of the monsters’ type to attack with that monster. You have a limited number of stamina points, which are used up every time you go into a dungeon. As you complete dungeons, you receive XP, which is used to increase your rank. As your rank increases, the amount of max stamina you have increases, you get more friend slots and high amount of team points, and your stamina fully recharges. I love this last part. You can continue playing, and this keeps you hooked at the start because you level up often. The point is, the game gives you several incentives to keep playing, and this makes it addictive.
So why is the game addictive? Your monsters can evolve, which gives them more skills, higher attributes, etc. You find monsters at random in dungeons, and you fuse them with other monsters to level them up. This is the only way monsters gain XP. As you continue playing, you are motivated to better your team, which means you need more monsters, and coins to pay for the fusions, and you earn these coins by completing dungeons…you get the idea. The combined HP of your monsters is the HP you take into dungeons, which is what enemy monsters attack. Your HP goes to zero, you lose. I won’t go into all the gameplay details, that would take too long. I will have several guides for you guys later on though.
Puzzle and Dragons has several social aspects to it, and yes, the usual staples are there: daily login bonus, friends, awards for random events, down time, etc. This game does have in-app purchases, but it does it in a way that I support. It NEVER pushes them on you, you have to dig to find them. From what I’ve heard from friends who play this game, as you reach a high level, it becomes increasingly hard to get better monsters. This is just like any game of this type though. Hit level 60 in Diablo 3, and you reach increasingly diminishing returns. Due to the many variables that can be affected by your consistent play however, you are compelled to keep playing. The best part of course, is that the game is free. It runs smoothly on my Galaxy Note 2, the only problem is that the sounds don’t work for some reason, so I have no idea what the background music or sounds are in this game…ah well. As I mentioned earlier, I will have a more detailed gameplay breakdown when I start my guides. For now, know this: Puzzle and Dragons is a fun, addictive game that lovers of Pokemon, Puzzle Quest, or RPGs in general should check out. It’s free, so why not? Now I have to wait for the game to come back online…damn.