I confess to reading tons of reviews for this game before even getting a copy of it. I was more than a little hesitant when the name of this game cropped up in gaming circles. A trip to IGN, GameSpot and GameTrip pretty much cleared my doubt.
There is a main puzzle game of matching gems and other stuff, much like Bejeweled, only that the gems actually count in a session, rather than just adding to your score. There is a variation for each thing that you can do in the game, and while each variant is functionally similar, they feel like they are different individual games. In fact, Puzzle Quest - its campaign or "Quest" mode specifically - feels like a bunch of minigames tied together, with a story and RPG-like elements to tie them all together.
Yet despite the fact that many games that attempted this formula fell flat on their faces (most "casual" games do - there are a few others that I do not care to remember), Infinite Interactive executed it very well. I found myself eagerly finishing quests just to read the banter between characters, particularly those with Drong. And despite all quests requiring you to whack something, the way the game introduce the hurdles is just inanely amusing. Some examples would be all the quests involving Drong (anyone who played this game should recall the conversation that started with Drong saying "I have a special request...") and the feud between two Giants (Jarl and Jotun).
Unfortunately, this game has a few designs which I find despicable.
Anyone who played this game would recall experiencing the dismay that comes with the AI pulling off a dozen or so chains that pretty much ended a session, sometimes even before the player can make his/her move. The AI-controlled enemy can sometimes make numb-skulled mistakes that costs it 3 quarters of its life - then pull off a seemingly lucky three-gem-match that resulted in a cascade in its favor. And yet it can be fooled into making bad decisions, just because it is incapable of pulling off an illegal move that would have prevented the other player (the gamer) from executing a devastating cascade - which the player can.
All these quirks pretty much makes it FAR beyond doubt that the computer cheats, probably by having the capability to see what gems are going to fall for one whole page of gems - something the player can't do. This is the basis for Infinite Interactive's statement of Puzzle Quest having "challenging computer-controlled opponents".
Fortunately, this setback is only significant at the start of the quest. As the hero/heroine becomes stronger further into the quest, defeating enemies becomes easier, thanks to versatile item-equipping/forging features and a wide selection of skills to kit your avatar out with.
Other than the cheating AI, the only other gripe I have with the game is its anime-ish look. Most of the characters in the game are not human, and thankfully looks quite impressive. Sadly, the human, elven and dwarven ones are so much like Legend of Zelda, Escaflowne or Lodoss rip-offs and with just one sprite for every character of these kinds for use in conversations, it just makes up for terrible presentation. Good thing the dialogue is pretty good though, as mentioned earlier, but one could simply read them off a fan-site.
Overall, Puzzle is a good game worth playing.