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IGN Review of 7 Wonders of the Ancient World
Ever have a sense of broken d¿j¿ vu when you're playing a game? You know, when the subtle differences that make a game stand out from another vanish, making a title come across as a pale shadow of another, more successful product? Sure, this happens in other genres, but it's extremely rampant in puzzle games, where a simple-to-grasp and entertaining concept is quickly copied and watered down by a host of imitators. Take Bejeweled for instance: once its popularity soared, a horde of sub-par games with similar gameplay (with a few exceptions) have flooded the market. The most recent standout in this scenario is 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, a title that tries to add a bit of history to the item matching dynamic, but features extremely shallow gameplay.
Like most colored jewel/rune/insert object here puzzlers, your objective is simple: match three or more of the same item together on a 2D grid and make them disappear, forcing more to fall from the top of the screen. However, there are a few little twists to the 7 Wonders formula. You're not simply trying to rack up points by playing the game. You're actually trying to construct the massive wonders that were scattered around the Mediterranean, like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon or the Lighthouse of Alexandria. You do this with workers, who gather up bricks from tiles that you clear when you match runes on the 2D grid. Since the grids are built in different shapes, ranging from pillars and squares to arrows and other funky arrangements, there's a bit of strategy when it comes to clearing out corners or other hard to reach areas. Plus, in every stage, there's a special block known as a cornerstone or a capstone which can't be swapped and has to be lowered to the bottom of the grid for your workers to grab and fit into place.
Fortunately, the game provides three different power-ups that can be used to help you clear rows of runes, which you'll typically use to drop these unbreakable blocks to the ground. If you clear four runes at the same time, you create a lightning ball, which clears out all the runes in a horizontal line. Clear five runes, and you create a fire ball, which clears runes horizontally and vertically. Any combination of four of these power ups will drop a golden flower onto the board, which will randomly remove between 15 and 20 tiles from the board. This can completely shake up the board, causing multiple runes to match up in the following chain reaction. Regardless of whether you use these power-ups or you try to forge ahead and clear blocks on your own, you have to be aware of the time limit, which can run out and force you to replay the level all over again.
Sounds like a unique twist on the genre, doesn't it? Unfortunately, 7 Wonders is completely handicapped by its own gameplay. For one thing, many of these puzzle games are based around picking the right sequence of matches without eliminating any possible moves, thereby ending the game. 7 Wonders doesn't subscribe to this formula, giving you another chance to clear the board by rotating tiles. The problem with this format is that most of the time when the board is rotated, the game will automatically set up and clear at least two or three matches for you immediately, which isn't challenging at all. Even worse, the number of power ups that you can receive in a stage can truly unbalance the entire point of the game. If I can stockpile lightning and fire balls, as well as a couple of golden flowers, then I don't need to worry about clearing tiles, because these will do it for me. Golden Flowers are perhaps the worst culprits in this scenario, because a number of tiles that you haven't cleared with normal matches will always be "randomly" cleared.
However, the worst part of the game has to be how shallow the game is. The majority of the game is in the "story mode," where you construct the various wonders, along with a mythical bonus objective. Thanks to the aforementioned power-ups and leeway afforded to gameplay, it's pretty easy to fly through this in a few hours, even if you're not the most expert Bejeweled player around. This is especially true since the progress on each monument is broken up into 15% increments. Unfortunately, that's practically all there is to the game. The History mode provides info on monuments you've build, the Free play mode simply lets you replay any monument that you've completed and the Rune Quest sets a specific quota of stones that you need to clear on a monument stage. Since you're literally re-treading ground you've just breezed through, there's not really any incentive to play these limited game modes. Nor can you make the game any more difficult by turning off the power-ups or reset feature of the tiles. In fact, the only increase in difficulty is replaying story mode, which will add an extra cornerstone per level. Overall, it's pretty disappointing.
At least the visuals, which don't have to be exceptional for a puzzle game, are interesting to look at. Each monument's stage has a different feel based on the landmark's stage, and you'll see little workers toiling away at the structure as you free blocks and complete stages. In effect, you actually see what you're helping to build with your matches. The funny touches of workers picketing for blocks if you haven't cleared extra tiles or foremen with bull horns is excellent, and the addition of stage specific music with different musical influences is a nice touch.
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Like most colored jewel/rune/insert object here puzzlers, your objective is simple: match three or more of the same item together on a 2D grid and make them disappear, forcing more to fall from the top of the screen. However, there are a few little twists to the 7 Wonders formula. You're not simply trying to rack up points by playing the game. You're actually trying to construct the massive wonders that were scattered around the Mediterranean, like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon or the Lighthouse of Alexandria. You do this with workers, who gather up bricks from tiles that you clear when you match runes on the 2D grid. Since the grids are built in different shapes, ranging from pillars and squares to arrows and other funky arrangements, there's a bit of strategy when it comes to clearing out corners or other hard to reach areas. Plus, in every stage, there's a special block known as a cornerstone or a capstone which can't be swapped and has to be lowered to the bottom of the grid for your workers to grab and fit into place.
Fortunately, the game provides three different power-ups that can be used to help you clear rows of runes, which you'll typically use to drop these unbreakable blocks to the ground. If you clear four runes at the same time, you create a lightning ball, which clears out all the runes in a horizontal line. Clear five runes, and you create a fire ball, which clears runes horizontally and vertically. Any combination of four of these power ups will drop a golden flower onto the board, which will randomly remove between 15 and 20 tiles from the board. This can completely shake up the board, causing multiple runes to match up in the following chain reaction. Regardless of whether you use these power-ups or you try to forge ahead and clear blocks on your own, you have to be aware of the time limit, which can run out and force you to replay the level all over again.
Sounds like a unique twist on the genre, doesn't it? Unfortunately, 7 Wonders is completely handicapped by its own gameplay. For one thing, many of these puzzle games are based around picking the right sequence of matches without eliminating any possible moves, thereby ending the game. 7 Wonders doesn't subscribe to this formula, giving you another chance to clear the board by rotating tiles. The problem with this format is that most of the time when the board is rotated, the game will automatically set up and clear at least two or three matches for you immediately, which isn't challenging at all. Even worse, the number of power ups that you can receive in a stage can truly unbalance the entire point of the game. If I can stockpile lightning and fire balls, as well as a couple of golden flowers, then I don't need to worry about clearing tiles, because these will do it for me. Golden Flowers are perhaps the worst culprits in this scenario, because a number of tiles that you haven't cleared with normal matches will always be "randomly" cleared.
However, the worst part of the game has to be how shallow the game is. The majority of the game is in the "story mode," where you construct the various wonders, along with a mythical bonus objective. Thanks to the aforementioned power-ups and leeway afforded to gameplay, it's pretty easy to fly through this in a few hours, even if you're not the most expert Bejeweled player around. This is especially true since the progress on each monument is broken up into 15% increments. Unfortunately, that's practically all there is to the game. The History mode provides info on monuments you've build, the Free play mode simply lets you replay any monument that you've completed and the Rune Quest sets a specific quota of stones that you need to clear on a monument stage. Since you're literally re-treading ground you've just breezed through, there's not really any incentive to play these limited game modes. Nor can you make the game any more difficult by turning off the power-ups or reset feature of the tiles. In fact, the only increase in difficulty is replaying story mode, which will add an extra cornerstone per level. Overall, it's pretty disappointing.
At least the visuals, which don't have to be exceptional for a puzzle game, are interesting to look at. Each monument's stage has a different feel based on the landmark's stage, and you'll see little workers toiling away at the structure as you free blocks and complete stages. In effect, you actually see what you're helping to build with your matches. The funny touches of workers picketing for blocks if you haven't cleared extra tiles or foremen with bull horns is excellent, and the addition of stage specific music with different musical influences is a nice touch.
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved