Heroes of Hellas Origins: Part One

I normally don't like chain-to-match M3 games because the mechanic is so much slower than the usual swap mechanic seen in most of this genre, but decided to try this out since the series has been well received for a long time and I liked the underwater theme. The scene gets a bit cluttered eventually, but it's pretty and the 108 levels are pretty challenging. I do wish they hadn't made most of the boards where you are literally repeating yourself over and over; after a while, it's not really "harder", just "more work". Finishing the main game unlocks 9 bonus M3 boards and 9 puzzle levels, some of which are seriously hard. I'd like to think I'm OK with the clear-all-tiles M3 puzzles having played quite a few in some other games, but wow, these puzzles take it to another level and I confess to having to look at the walkthrough for a couple of them to get a hint on what I was missing. Tons of Steam achievements, and you're going to have to grind to get them because even if many look like you'd simply have to play long enough, harder to obtain than they look! The one real quibble I have about the gameplay is that you can't make moves all the time, which sucks in timed mode because you have to wait for the keys or freed symbols to finish unlocking the spaces and for the helper gods to finish doing their thing before you can make another move. If the timer were more generous it would be OK, but even in "normal" mode I often felt as if I were playing frantically in order to get the gold time and/or collect the bonus seashells, and I typically don't struggle that much in timed M3s. But there's so much which is trapped behind obstacles which you *have* to remove that you spend a fair bit of time waiting for things to finish. If you don't mind working hard for your trophies, enjoy!