Boredworkers.com

This review is a week late. Jewel Quest was last week’s GotW but I never got around to writing the article. Well, as they say, better late than never. Onwards.

The game puts you in the shoes of an archeologist on a quest to discover the location and uncover the secrets of the fabled Tonatiuh, The Temple of the Fifth Sun. To do so, you’ll need to solve some ancient puzzles.

The puzzles consist of game boards with runes and jewels (hence Jewel Quest) on them. The objective is to turn the board to gold. You do this by swapping two adjacent jewels to create a line of three or more jewels of the same type. When a match is made, the spaces occupied by the matching jewels will turn to gold. Rinse and repeat until every square on the board shines a golden gleam to get to the next level. There are 36 levels (boards/puzzles) in total. Each and every one of them different from the next. To add a little spice, the ancients have thrown in some devilishly difficult combinations.

To add a sense of urgency, you have a fixed time limit for completing a puzzle. Once time is up, you lose a life. You start the game with five lives. A new life is granted for every 50,000 points scored. Points are scored by completing a match, creating chains and combos, as well as a time bonus at the end of every complete level.

There’s quite a bit of story telling involved. Read through the script prior to and after each level to fully immerse yourself in the game. I love the way they incorporate different elements of the story into the layout of the puzzle boards. Each puzzle is a representation of the landscape, weather, situation, and surrounding your character is in. There are even unique scripts when you fail to complete a board within the time limit.

Jewel Quest is a relatively old game. However, the fun that it provides is still fresh even after all the years. The game is easy to learn but the puzzle combinations are just difficult enough to keep you interested. While some of the higher levels may seem difficult, they each have a key to it. It is satisfying to discover the secret and methods for solving a certain combination and then applying that knowledge in combination to the next puzzle.

Once you’ve fully completed the quest, you get the chance to replay the boards at a higher difficulty level. This is where replayability comes in. The creators of the game add new elements to give the puzzles a different twist. For example, on your second round through the puzzles, they throw in a cursed rune that changes gold tiles back to sand when they are matched. This adds a new tangent to the game, forcing players to adapt. With four ranks to work through, do you have what it takes to be the ultimate Jewel Quest explorer?

Refer to Boredworkers.com’s GotW for details on extending the trial period.

Disclaimer:
The author does not condone piracy. If you find that you enjoy the game after playing it for a bit, do purchase the license. Good work should be given its due.