Stay away from Gyromancer…

The match-up sounds like every gamer’s dream: stick Square-Enix with PopCap and create an RPG/match-3 hybrid similar to Puzzle Quest. Epic win, right? You’d think. Unfortunately, after a lot of hype and excitement, the product of this unholy union, Gyromancer, is little more than a cheap attempt to cash in on the casual gaming craze. The whole experience is hollow and unfulfilling, leaving me not only disappointed but feeling a bit cheated by two companies that consistently deliver above-average gaming experiences.

Gyromancer takes the “new” matching mechanic introduced by Bejeweled Twist and applies a light RPG skin on top. As you wander around an overworld path, you come across a few events to digest along with the occasional enemy encounter. When battle begins, a grid of gems falls into place with you and your opponent on either side. Your character totes around a few beasts he uses to engage in combat, each of which has its own set of spells that are activated during the course of matching. The enemy has its own spells, too, and as you twist 2×2 sets of gems around to make matches, you try to stall the enemy while charging up your own beast’s attacks.

Here’s the catch: there’s nothing entertaining about doing any of this. Puzzle Quest was all about gathering mana by matching colored gems, then unleashing one of many spells you selected for your customized character. Gyromancer is about trying to match red gems to stop red-gemmed foes from attacking while attempting to create matches of your own creature’s color. Attacks, bonuses, setbacks and such all feel so random and out of your control, and making combos and big matches give you practically no reward. Gyromancer is attempting to create a role playing atmosphere around your game of Bejeweled Twist. It doesn’t give a hoot about integrating any of this into the gameplay, just add some experience points, throw in some spells, make up some connection to the gems you’re matching, and people will buy it.

Both PopCap and Square-Enix missed the point, here. If you’re designing a game for casual players, keep things simple, don’t add anything unless it’s an integral part of the experience. If you’re designing a game for mainstream gamers, take the time to write a real story, make the gameplay thick and fun to chew on, and don’t cut corners in the presentation department. Gyromancer doesn’t walk the line between casual and mainstream, it ignores them both and succeeds in neither. It feels like it was designed by a committee. A committee that took a spreadsheet of the most popular features from Bejeweled Twist, Puzzle Quest, and your generic Square-Enix role playing game, skimmed the top ten off and handed the whole mess to a team of programmers and artists. The result is a hollow shell of a game that’s too sterile to be interesting.

I realize I’m probably coming across as a shade too negative against Gyromancer, but when my expectations were lifted so high, it hurts to be dropped to the ground. Maybe the whole Bejeweled Twist thing is new and exciting for many gamers, but I played and reviewed it a year ago, and tacking on a fantasy novel plot along with a few uninteresting spells doesn’t make it any more ground-breaking than before. I will say one good thing about Gyromancer: I dig the artwork. There. Now it’s not a completely scathing review!

Thanks for trying, Square-Enix and PopCap. I hope you two get together and give it another shot sometime. Really, I do. But next time, drop the bullet point design docs and make something we’ll want to play.