Have you ever wanted to be like Luke Skywalker and take out space baddies? Have you dreamed of flying around space in the Star Trek’s Enterprise? Well, those dreams may never really come true, but you may get close with a new puzzle game available through download on the PlayStation Network, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix. This game takes you deep into space with all kinds of new planets and galactic systems you have never heard of, and will definitely want to explore. Galactrix is a puzzle game at its core, but it is so much more than that.

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix offers a unique experience that is hard to find on the downloadable games currently offered by many of the consoles. It puts you in control of a character of your choosing to explore the galaxy, find and complete missions, and help the galaxy with its many problems. Yes, you are in deep space and you are centerfold in space drama and tons of planets and systems. You drive your spacecraft around to different planets and systems looking to fix things, hunt down illegal miners, and to help the entire universe.  Along the way, you will encounter some interesting creatures, friends, and different ways to play the basic premise of the game, which is the puzzle.

The core of the game revolves around a puzzle board with different colored tiles that you must match by color and in lines to score. Once you get a line of the same color (three or more), the line disappears just like what you would see if you were playing Tetris except it disappears in the direction of the line of tiles. Depending on what stage you are at in the game and what you wish to accomplish, there are a number of ways to play the puzzle core of the game. You will first enter the puzzle aspect of the game when you are forced to find and defeat some illegal miners. The different colored tiles mean different things and different power ups giving you an advantage over your opponent. After defeating the illegal miners, you will learn how to mine. The puzzle interface will pull up again, but the mode changes when mining and you will play it in an entirely different way. As you play the game, you will continue to find different ways that the puzzle comes into play and the different modes you will get to play it in.

Galactrix has a very interesting user interface and “open world” of the game is a fresh new experience in a downloadable game that the player will absolutely fall in love with. The interface presented lets you fly your ship to planets and other systems all around the universe, letting you go where you’d like to go but also showing you where the main mission of the area is by highlighting the place where you should be. It does look a little cheesy at first driving around a spaceship to these planets that are very close to you. Don’t let that fool you though. Once you open a few systems up, you wouldn’t want it any other way.

That is enough about the overall layout of the game. The graphics are not PS3 material, but you must keep in mind that it is a downloadable game so this is to be expected. Otherwise, the gameplay is absolutely amazing with enough puzzle playing to knock your socks off, and enough modes to definitely get your moneys worth with this title.  

Don’t even get me started on the multiplayer. Any option you could want is there. You can play online in a ranked match or just a friendly match. You can play through LAN, and you can play your friends on head to head. It is all there, and it is all worth it to destroy your friend’s puzzle skills that he has been complimenting all week.

Overall, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix is definitely a unique experience in a downloadable title, and it is worth to money just to play around with. I must warn you though, once you play around with it, you will absolutely fall in love.  The value is phenomenal. Ten dollars is well worth the money for this game. You will get addicted easily and there are so many places to go and missions to do in Puzzle Quest: Galactrix that it will continue to hold your gaming heart for a long time.

Gameplay: 8.5
A very expansive world with lots of things to do, a great puzzle at its core, and many “modes” to play make Galactrix’s gameplay an experience you won’t soon forget.

Graphics: 7.5
Although graphics are hardly ever a strong point for a downloadable game, Galactrix has good graphics for what it is. It isn’t a full out PS3 game. So, it doesn’t have PS3-powered graphics but it does have nice colors, some 3D, and pretty nice artwork.

Sound: 7.0
Nothing absolutely spectacular here, but It has some sound effects and other music making the audio good enough to enjoy this downloadable.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Sometimes it will get tough to get the colors lined up or time limits are really hard, but it makes for a good and challenging game.

Concept: 9.0
Although, Puzzle Quest Galactrix has been released before the PSN version, the original concept is amazing. When downloading this game, I had no idea it was going to be this in depth, but it is and the developers really did a great job of making this game special.

Multiplayer: 8.0
Multiplayer offers all the options you could want. You can go head to head, play over LAN, played online ranked matches, and just play for fun. Not all multiplayers offer this much, and this was yet another section that the developers almost perfected.

Overall: 8.4
Puzzle Quest Galactrix is one of the top downloadable games for PSN. There is so much content in the game. It is well worth the money. There are few things Galactrix could improve on, but don’t be fooled, it is a very solid game. So, go get your downloading on and enjoy this adventurous title.