[b]ancient wonders: pharaoh's tomb[/b], originally released in 2020, is the first in a series of hex-based match-3 games using the chain/linking mechanic. the in-game help explains the usual deal: reveal tiles, drop things to the bottom, remove obstacles by matching over or next to them, use on-board power-ups, etc. different colors charge various boosters (bomb, shuffle, you name it).
there's a brief voiced intro without subtitles, then supposedly [b]100+ levels[/b] unlocked one by one. [b]no level select, can't replay them[/b], nor can I confirm their exact number, it's [b]so bad overall I didn't finish it[/b]. matching would be fine, can easily deselect while holding the mouse button, but [b]not only are controls buggy[/b] (can select random tiles far away or one in a chain gets skipped), [b]creating matches is simply not satisfying, feels like baby's first match-3 thrown together overnight[/b]. and once you select a power-up, it has to be used, can't cancel it.
[b]music barely plays[/b], starts and stops randomly, [b]sound effects are crap, some are much louder than others and most play even if sfx is completely muted[/b]. small text size and subpar graphics don't help either. I'm not one to care for graphics in general but when you make a casual game like this, especially in 2020, not even the early 90s, the least you can do is make it pretty, that seems to be the easiest part.
[b]3 difficulty options[/b] to choose from, can be changed anytime. [u]easy[/u] is untimed and you get bonus points for matches of 5+ tokens. [u]medium[/u] has a time limit and extra points are awarded for whatever's left on the clock. [u]hard[/u] is the same but with a stricter time limit. I don't like timed anything, so went with the first one.
there are also a bunch of [b]mini-games[/b] every few levels. the game calls them puzzles and they're on top of the 100-odd regular stages. I saw a different kind of match-3 (click clusters to remove all the tiles, actually puzzly), a jigsaw and match the difference. there might be others but as I said, I let this one go pretty fast. puzzles are skippable after 30 seconds and unlike regular levels, replayable once the main game is finished.
and finally, the mandatory [b]decorating element[/b] with an icon to mostly hide the ui. points are the currency, the more you get on the levels, the faster you can pretty that tomb up. not sure why items have to be bought in a set order even if you can afford something else, but that's the least of the game's issues.
settings include separate volumes, custom cursor and a non-resizable but smaller windowed mode, plus multiple player profiles. there's a person credited with proofreading but they did a pretty bad job and the 3(!) people tasked with quality assurance didn't do anything, apparently. can't bring up the pause menu on a level with esc, only by clicking the button, and it's broken. it's a hot mess, very appropriate temperature for a game set in the desert. I've seen 24-hour game jam entries with more polish.
it would be an average game improved by the presence of hexagons and/or the egyptian theme, but [b]it's ruined by yet another constantly incompetent developer[/b]. I played their 2015 [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/dohi64/recommended/1203050]nordic storm solitaire[/url], a buggy mess, heard the same about one of their hidden object games, and looks like there are no improvements in their abilities several years later. can't say I'm surprised and can only urge everybody to [b]stay away from anything made by [i]seven sails games[/i][/b].
