It's been a few years since the original game - one of the best Mahjong games of the time. What a surprise and delight to see this sequel, which is one of the best Mahjong games of recent times!
I say 'with benefits' because it's not your typical Mahjong game. As you progress, different puzzle elements come into play requiring strategic thinking to beat the level. There are also helpful bonuses.
There are 7 temples, each with a different variation. You start with traditional Mahjong and after a few easy levels you get a key to unlock the next temple, and so on. I found that I could unlock all temples within the demo time. Once unlocked, you can play any variation you feel like. I'm very happy to see the return of the Slide variation and the new one, Cube, is fun.
You can change settings in a level - different tile sets, backgrounds, coloured layers. Graphics are lovely.
With hundreds of levels and some brain-bending Slide fun, entertainment is guaranteed for a long time!
It's rare for me to buy a CE, but this game ticks all the boxes - classic hidden object, cats and mini games.
The hidden object scenes can be quite challenging, with two areas to explore in each location. Items are listed in bold for the area you are in, and greyed out if they belong to the other area. That's helpful! There's also a nice zoom feature which centres on the mouse pointer. Don't forget to find the cats!
The mini games so far are spot the difference and jigsaw puzzles. The jigsaw pieces are shaped, which adds an extra challenge and gets a big thumbs up from me!
I'm very partial to the classic style HOGs and will demo any that come along. I look for that gripped and hooked feeling, the surprise that time has flown when the demo ends. Death in the Alley ticked all those boxes.
The HOG scenes are dark, which makes the game atmospheric. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I've seen darker and didn't have a problem finding the objects, eventually! For me, the most difficult to find were the two special items but that just adds to the challenge.
I enjoyed the mini-games, familiar types, but themed, adding that bit of difference.
I was delighted and surprised to see such an in-depth city builder/economy game like this on BF. A rare treat!
Townsmen has lovely graphics and a user-friendly, intuitive interface. The tutorial is spread over 6 campaign levels; this cannot be completed in an hour's demo and may leave you floundering around, but if you like city building and micromanagement, then stick with it! There’s a built-in guide (the encyclopedia) to help you figure things out. A story runs through the campaign, with quite a decent plot.
Townsmen is a big game with a lot of content and requires time and patience. Fulfil your people’s needs to keep them happy; as the seasons change, so do their needs. Micromanage workers and resources in balance with population growth. Trade, research technologies, overcome disasters, protect from bandits. There are main quests and optional quests, upgrading, and achievements to earn.
As well as the 6 campaign levels, there are 26 scenarios and 24 sandbox maps of different sizes and difficulty settings. There's enough here to keep you busy for a long time!
I do enjoy a classic Hidden Object game and this one is addictive with it's variety.
There are many locations to visit and you can choose them in any order. Each location has varied Hidden Object modes plus other games like Match 3, Mahjong, Sliders, Spot The Difference.
There are 100 Interstate Shields to find altogether, 5 in each location. Getting them all unlocks bonus games and finishing a location gives you unlimited mode for that location. So this is a game you can just carry on playing!
Graphics are crisp and clear and objects are a nice mix of easy to find and cleverly hidden.
I'm so happy to see another Legendary Slide game. These logic puzzles are wonderfully challenging and clever. Gather your patience, put on your thinking caps and enjoy another mind-boggling experience!
I was hooked on this game after 10 minutes. It offers a great level of challenge and requires strategy and planning.
Move monsters around the board to match 4 of a kind. When matched, there is then a single, upgraded monster. Get 4 of those for the next upgrade. The number of eyes a monster has tells you what upgrade they are. If no matches are made, new monsters are placed on the board and the board can soon get clogged up if you're not careful! You can make higher matches, 5, 6, etc; it won't affect the upgrades, but will give you more points.
There are various goals to achieve on each board. This might be a certain number of points, upgrading a monster, making x amount of consecutive matches, etc. You continue playing until the goal has been reached or you can no longer make a move.
This game is a delight. Clear, good sized tiles, a decent level of challenge if playing in timed mode, interesting new features and free style gardens to design.
I like going back to old-fashioned type HOGs and based on the demo, this game was an instant hit and purchase for me.
I thought the graphics were lovely, in metallic hues, adding to the "steampunk" atmosphere of the game. There was a voice-over at the beginning, but clear and easy to read text speech afterwards. I actually prefer that style to voice-overs!
The objects ranged from easy to find to challenging, but without any timer to worry about, you can just relax and search. You find x amount of objects; there are lists and silhouettes so far, collectibles in the way of flying pigs and inventory items. There's also humour, thanks to Oskar the cat!
This game looks cute; the owls are cute, they animate which is cute. A great game to play with youngsters, one would think, but it does get challenging very early on.
It's a limited moves game, which I personally like. There are also some interesting mechanics that I don't think I've seen before, that add to the challenge. There are boards where tiles rotate, boards that split up, merge then split again, columns that rise up and down. While all that is going on, there are different objectives to meet, like dropping items to the bottom, creating and using x amount of bonus items, collecting required amounts of envelopes, freeing owls trapped in cages, which blocks movement, all within x amount of moves.
However, the game starts off with a decent supply of spare extra moves, free turns and a staff - a hammer like bonus. Bonus items also appear on the board. You earn money which can then be used to buy items.
There's the occasional Hidden Object to find. This comes in the form of a quest where you search for an item on the map as you move along the levels.
All in all, a busy game. I only gave it 4 stars because at the end of the demo I felt exhausted, rather than excited, lol! Maybe it was the day I had.
So, if you like limited moves and a challenge give this a go.