Puzzle Quest: Revenge of the Plague Lord has a beautiful and seamless integration into the
Puzzle Quest universe. Players who are new to the game are not going to even notice where and how it has come into the game. If it has been some time since you last played, even you may find yourself a little unsure of where this new land fits in. I made the effort to log into the original prior to downloading so that I could tell. The first and most obvious confirmation that you have the expansion is when, and if, you start a new player. Their are four new professions. They are Bard, Warlock, Ranger, and Rogue.
The Bards concentrate on yellow mana. With it you can use the new spell Inspire that adds +1 to all skills for the rest of the battle and adds another +1 for each 10 yellow mana, taking two turns to recharge. But there is no limit to how many times you can buff. Also, there is Performance, which destroys all gold coins in play and adds one yellow mana for each. Lastly, there is Song of Fear which inflicts fear on your enemy for 5 turns, plus one turn for every 5 yellow mana. The Ranger uses green mana.
Masters of the bow use archery spells like Wild Hunt that destroys all purple stars and adds +1 to battle skill for the duration of the fight for each three stars destroyed. My favorite spell name is Snipe which does 4 points of damage to the enemy, plus one for every 8 green mana.
The Rogue uses blue mana to perform their attacks. Their spells seem to center around gold with spells like Pick Pocket, which steals 20 of the enemy's gold and gives it to you, along with 1 xp per gold. And what would a thief or rogue be without a disguise that turns any one gem type (including skulls and gold) into blue gems?
Finally, our Warlock whose spells drain enemy mana such as Ice Bolt that deals four pts. of damage for every 8 blue mana. And, corruption that turns the tables by transferring all of your debuffs onto your enemy.
New spells, new characters, higher levels, and new lands. What could be cooler? How about a Pegasus you can capture. It is a welcome addition to the game, and well worth its more hefty expansion price on LIVE of $8.75.
