After catching everyone by surprise last year with its blend of puzzle and RPG elements, Infinite Interactive has revealed that it is working on the follow up to Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, which will be released later this year.

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix is based on similar elements from the original, but at the same time very different, leading one to beleive that D3Publisher decided to just throw the Puzzle Quest brand in front of Galactrix for the sake of name recognition. The game's storyline is set in the far-away future, after mankind has colonized the stars. Apparently four megacorporations are now running the galactic show, and one of them has gotten a little awry and is conducting some unknown experiments that will have dire repercussions for mankind. You will get to control a novice pilot who will increase in both skill and power as you get closer to discovering the secret of the dangerous experiments.

Although the storylines may be similar in scope for both the original and Galactrix versions of Puzzle Quest, the gameplay differs some. The most obvious new gameplay mechanic is that the tiles are now hexagonally shaped and arranged in a corresponding hexagonal grid, which gives you more than four sides surrounding the board. Although still following the rule of matching three of a kind, gravity plays into effect on this hexagonal board, as the tiles will not fall straight down as they did in the original Puzzle Quest. The pull of gravity will be dependent on the location of your match, if you're fighting a match in orbit around a planet, the planet's gravitational pull will cause the pieces to always fall downward. If you've engaged your enemy in open space, where there's no gravity, new pieces will slide in from whatever direction you made your move.



As for the actual tiles themselves, they have changed a bit. Blue tokens will recharge your shields when you match them, while purple ones represent "psi power," which offer similar powers as the previous game's experience points, but your psi rating will also directly affect subsequent minigames and non-player character interactions outside of battles. New silver tiles are for intel, looking similar to the Gold in the original Puzzle Quest, the more of these you match, the more scuttlebutt and information you'll be able to collect as you travel from one star system to the next. Lastly, the attack tiles, which were skulls in the original game, are now numbered, which by matching them will add up their numbers and deliver that amount of damage to the enemy you are attacking.

Although the PSP version of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords was second to none, easily beating out the DS and challenging the PC version, no comment was made regarding whether the handheld would get a Galactrix release. Versions were confirmed for the PC, DS, and Xbox Live Arcade, but the publishers also had no information about a PSN version of Galactrix. Although this is a bit disappointing for PSP fans, Infinite's official Galactrix page still lists a PSP version in development, so we can keep our fingers crossed.

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