Secrets of the Past: Dion

A really interesting game, and one of the few games out there that you actually learn something. It has rather small duration, but i prefer to pay something that respects my free time (which is not infinite).

This is a simple casual educational game, fun to uncover the Ancient Monuments and learn all about the history of them. It is not really difficult to find them or to complete the game, but it is fun to uncover them and then read about the origin and the history behind it. It also gives you some options to spice the game up , which gives you some sense of replayability and you could play it few more times. Great for people who wants to play something simple and want to learn while doing it.

Secrets of the Past Dion. Race against the clock, & the rain, in this archaeology simulator. Manage your resources (Archaeologists) between excavation, lab, & exhibition preparation. SotPD represents a rather condensed process of archaeology, from excavation, to post-excavation and lab work, conservation and restoration, and finally exhibition. You start off with a small team that you need to split between excavation and the lab, and need to prioritise your work load to maintain efficiency. To attract more archaeologists you need to build your fame by uncovering artefacts and features, completing lab work and restoring your artefacts. Manage your time carefully or you might run out. You get bonuses for completing the work early! Overall: SotPD is a nice mixture of simulation, history & puzzle solving, attempting to recreate the archaeology process. I dislike the idea of getting bonus points for finishing early (although this can representative of commercial archaeology, time constraints vs cost) of, but it is a short game (about 1 hour) that is educational and fun! 4 out of 5 trowels.

A small time management game about real archaeology in which you lead an excavation of the Villa of Dionysus in the ancient city of Dion. Archaeology is something which interests me a lot and I wouldn't have found Secrets of the Past: Dion without the help of the Discovery Queue here on Steam. The challenge lies in assigning the right number of people to either do the digging, the preservation, the restoration or the cataloguing of the artifacts. There's a time limit, you're actually supposed to discover all of the artifacts and process them before winter comes. There's a focus on marble statues and mosaics in this, and I suppose that's fair enough since it's about classical antiquity and an extravagant Roman villa. You do discover stuff like pottery, coins, bones and carbonized grains, but they're not studied in detail, instead they are archived for future research. Some of the neat stuff in the game are the 3D models of the discovered items, in-situ photos and separate descriptions of artifacts at the moment of discovery and after being catalogued. There's also some background story for the ancient city of Dion. The main problem this game has is I think the time limit, I wish this was turn-based instead of real-time. There's a feeling of hurry throughout and you can't enjoy the act of discovering new items slowly. Otherwise it's a nice game which I recommend and would play more if there were any similar games. It's short (1,5 hours or over 3 hours for all of the achievements), but I think it's worth the money since I found it unique. If there will be any future games like this, my wishlist for them would be: -Discovery of the site (aerial/satellite photos etc.) -More scenarios / different digs -Larger digs and multi-year campaigns -A way to discover yourself which room/place is what (e.g. "this is a bath", "this is a garden" etc.)

As an archaeologist myself i find it pretty interesting how our work is portrait here. If you want a glimpse of a more real fieldwork than Lara Crofts tomraiding give this game a try.

Обучающая игра про археологию. Нужно управлять командой - выбирать кому где копать, кто будет реставрировать найденное и т.п. А потом и устраивая выставку всего этого добра в музее! Собственно, цель игры - успеть раскопать всё до конца лета и устроить выставку. Экспонаты и место раскопок в игре реальные, так что между делом можно посмотреть фотографии и почитать подробные описания всего этого.