Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign is a Match-3 RPG game based within the Marvel Universe. The game features fast, tactical reaction-based, strategic match-three gameplay with deep RPG mechanics/elements. Players will be able to create teams from a roster of Marvel super heroes and villains like Iron Man, Thor, and Venom with Puzzle Quest's story-telling gameplay. The game’s Team-based squads of heroes mechanic is a first for the Puzzle Quest series, allowing players to choose up to 3 characters and battle against up to 3 enemies at a time. Players will match 3 or more tiles to damage their opponents. Matching tiles also generates power for their special abilities. When activated, these abilities typically feature the chosen hero or villain in an animation that exemplifies the character’s ability and damage or other gameplay changes are represented accordingly. The game also features recruiting of many different Marvel heroes/villains and a deep leveling system (character upgrades). Players select specific heroes whose special abilities complement each other to strategically plan each encounter throughout the story driven single player mode. Player can collect/unlock many bonus items like comic book cover art (which can upgrade or unlock additional characters). They also have the option to change the various talents of their team, or improve a character’s current abilities.
The game also features a player-vs.-player (head to head mode) where players can use their leveled up hero teams to battle each other and see whose team is the best!
The Story: The player is asked to create a team of heroes to help stop Norman Osborn and the Dark Avengers from taking control of the dangerous and powerful new substance "ISO-8". The player takes command of a group of heroes working for S.H.I.E.L.D., an agency combating Osborn’s excesses and attempting to keep the world safe from the threat of weaponized Iso-8.
The objective of the game is to match 3 or more of the same color of tiles to deal damage and defeat your opponents. You can only swap tiles that are adjacent to each other. You can only swap their positions from horizontal or vertical. You cannot swap them diagonally.
A selection bracket icon will hover over the tiles for control.
To initiate a swap of pieces a player must press A. The tile which is currently highlighted will then become “Active.”
The direction the player presses will then be the direction the active tile moves, swapping places with the tile in adjacent spot in the direction the controller was pressed.
Pressing on the A button again before the active tile comes to rest in its new spot will cancel the move.
As you match these gems/tiles, they will disappear and will power up your characters’ abilities (depending on the color requirements of the ability) as well as damaging your opponent. Once a character’s ability is active, it will glow. Press the Left Bumper to select the ability window. You can press left or right to cycle through the different characters’ abilities. You can then select available abilities by pressing up or down. Press the A button to activate the ability (Please note some abilities will require more than just pressing the A button, instructions will appear when that happens).
To win a game, you must deplete your opponent’s team health which is located at the bottom right corner of the screen. When all of their health reaches zero, you will win the match. If you lose all of your team’s health (located on the bottom left corner), then you will lose the match.
After each battle the player can unlock 1 cover. All covers are earned after battles.