The benefit of the revised board is that it's very unlikely to run out of moves during a battle. Crafting and mining are both designed to run out of moves, but ship-to-ship combat generally continues without pause. Like with the previous game, players match colored gems to build up energy to power special abilities. Matching mines delivers direct damage to the opposing players. Blue gems recharge shields, white builds up XP and purple adds to the Psi point pool for special Psi abilities. Success depends largely on luck as much as it does skill, since you cannot tell what gems will be coming. You could be ahead one minute, then lose all your shields and half your hull strength in the next.

Instead of customizing characters, Galactrix lets players purchase and outfit different starships. Each ship has its benefits and a limited number of slots to put special abilities into. Players upgrade their ships to bigger, tougher classes by doing missions and mining ore. Money is a little harder to come by than in the previous game, since it can't picked up amid combat. Players will have to do the legwork by mining asteroids and selling materials at the right space stations.

For the most part, Galactrix still embodies that "one more turn" addictive quality that made the previous game great. The gem matching mini game has an "easy to learn, difficult to master" feel that keeps players motivated. However, we took issue with two mini games, the first being LeapGate hacking. Hacking a LeapGate opens up a pathway from one star system to another by making players race against time to make sequential set of color matches. By itself, it's not a big deal, but over half the game is comprised of hacking one LeapGate after another, so it quickly grows tiresome. The game practically comes to a halt when players are stuck on unlocking a gate, so those who are a little slow at spotting matches may soon find themselves unable to progress. LeapGates also have an annoying tendency to re-lock after a time, so it can feel like all the effort was for nothing.

Similarly, the Rumor puzzle quickly got on our nerves. In it, players have to make a certain number of matches, but make sure that the biohazard tiles don't come together when things shift around. All players get out of it is a bit of inconsequential background information about the game universe along with some XP. It's a frustrating mini game with a reward that really isn't worth the effort. We quickly learned to dread long combo chains in both the LeapGate and Rumor puzzles because they often worked against us by burning up precious time or shifting things around as we watched helplessly.

One thing players should know before exploring the galaxy is that it's a lot easier to make enemies than it is to mend fences. A number of the quests puts players in direct opposition with an alien species, and attacking one of their ships will cause all of them to chase you down whenever you pass through their systems. Players can either steer their ships in attempt to outrun attackers or pick up Psi abilities to avoid conflict, but those skills can only be obtained through a series of quests. In the meantime, you'll have to fend off every ship that wants a piece of you and lose faction points with every act of self defense. Ship dodging eventually stops being a problem, which also makes Psi abilities almost pointless, but it's very difficult to recover from having bad relations with an alien species. Players looking to regain favor will have to sell ore at space stations located in hostile territory or battle that faction's enemies, which loops back to the original problem.

When all is said and done, Galactrix successfully launches Puzzle Quest into the future. Unlocking a long series of LeapGates can be draining, but that drawback is balanced by how the game looks relatively easy to play, but offers a significant challenge. Plus, there's nothing in the game that can't be overcome with some persistence. Even though we were annoyed by a handful of game elements, we still looked forward to returning to Galactrix, and it took a lot pry us away.
Download the Puzzle Quest Demo (132 MB)