Artifact Hunter Reviews

This is one of the harder Match 3 games I've played, in that it seems to take a long time to clear a board--cascading tiles that clear areas are rare! It takes time to fill the various power ups too, but at least they are an option. There is a story, though kinda silly--and the voices are...not-so-good imo. I normally love the music from these developers but in this game I play through the first 2 songs (one song will replay itself until you finish that level, then the next song starts, and replays, with the next level, and so on). By the time the 3rd song comes up --which I dislike--I quit the game and return later--so I'm just listening to the first two while I play. It does get tedious but I am recommending it because I keep playing (I think I'm getting close to finishing). It's an okay Match 3 game.

This is a match 3 game (move a tile to align 3 or more tiles or the same color/type). You follow the steps of your father throughout various important archeologic sites in the world. This is all very linear since you follow the story step by step. There's no replaying of any level as far as I could determine. There are 95 levels to go through to finish the game. Each level is graded and you can earn up to three stars. I'm not sure what triggers 3 stars or not - probably the timing. Also, I'm not sure about the purpose of grading levels since there's no ranking or "points" of any sort. Playing a level earns you a predetermined amount of gold that becomes part of an artifact. Said artifact is used to progress in the adventure. There are bonuses, as expected for the genre. They are unlocked over time (at certain levels) and they are filed by making matches of a specific tile. Note that you can play the levels with or without a timer. The timed version becomes very hard for the last 10 levels or so. No achievement in this game (Steam or in-game) The playability could benefit from a little speed. I found the response to clicks a bit slow - the cascading matches as well. Last, you have to start playing a level to be able to access the menu ! It's simply impossible elsewhere. I found that one a bit strange, but .. I've played without any issue on Win7 64bit.

Nice puzzle game with tools to help you when you run low on moves or get locked out of an area of the puzzle. There is even a bit of a loose story to take you between levels. Already got 11 hours out of it and that is a pretty good deal for the price tag I think.