drustorm's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:3.5
- Helpful Votes:233
- Reviews Submitted:29
- First Review:December 30, 2011
- Most Recent Review:March 28, 2021
- Featured reviews0
Play solitaire card games while solving challenging puzzles in a point n click adventure with Valentin the Valiant Viking!
Overall rating
3
/
5
5 of 6 found this review helpful
An Okay Game
PostedApril 25, 2018
drustorm
fromSan Francisco
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Marble Popper, Match 3, Puzzle, Time Management
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
This is an excellent concept, combining puzzle solving with solitaire. Solitaire is straight forward with special actions that power up as you play, lots of jokers and wild cards and a shop to purchase undos.
You follow Valentin in his adventure to become a real Viking and that's just fine.
There are a few things that keep from making this a terrific game. The click speed on the solitaire game is slow. Since you have to click on all the jokers and yellow cards to clear them from the field, this slows the game down. Each of these cards has a short animation that it goes through before you can click another card. This also slows the game down. So rather than having a breezy solitaire, as the ricky-tic music suggests, you're moving slower. To be clear the game isn't slow especially, but it is slower than most experienced solitaire players will enjoy playing.
The puzzles are fun and that's a plus for the game. The only con here is that you're given the goals for each puzzle at the beginning, but then have no way to see what they are once you close that screen. So, if you aren't certain what to do, you have to go to the walkthrough help to find out.
I would say if you enjoy puzzles (such as are commonly found in HOGs) and don't mind a slightly slowed down solitaire, you'll find this game quite satisfactory.
I recommend this game!
Dig the Ground is a unique puzzler that has you matching gems and using all sorts of tools to clear the ground tiles beneath you to uncover treasures!
Overall rating
3
/
5
6 of 8 found this review helpful
Okay Time Waster
PostedApril 17, 2018
drustorm
fromSan Francisco
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Marble Popper, Match 3, Time Management
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
2
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
This was an okay game, with fairly simply mechanics. Make chains. The longer chains do more damage. Destroy obstacles. Get treasure. But, once you've gotten the treasure? Ah, not a thing. That was quite a let down, to do all that blasting, achieve the treasure and have it mean nothing. Even a little bit of a story, some smart-talking dwarfs, put-upon elves or frightened fairies would have made the game a little more enjoyable and worth playing.
As it is, I wish there was a neutral choice of recommending. I
didn't find the game engaging enough to buy, but others might.
didn't find the game engaging enough to buy, but others might.
I don't recommend this game.
Discover more match 3 fun in this exciting sequel to Artifact Quest!
Overall rating
3
/
5
1 of 2 found this review helpful
An Okay Game
PostedFebruary 20, 2018
drustorm
fromSan Francisco
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Match 3, Puzzle, Strategy, Time Management
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
Not much to say here. A typical 3-match builder with some variations. I found the drop speed slow. The game is also slow to recognize when there are no moves (as the timer ticks) and then is slow to reshuffle. You cannot make matches when tiles are dropping (slowly). I suspect the slow drop speed would not be so noticeable if the time allotted to each board were not so short. In other words, pushes you to move fast, while at the same time slowing you down.
The graphics are uninspired, using a style we've seen many times before. Music is along the same lines and is actually a poor fit for the game, not being thematic or particularly bouncy.
It gets points for mixing up types of gameplay, but that doesn't really overcome how dull it is otherwise.
I don't recommend this game.
Be the hero Olympus needs and save the city from new threats in this match-three puzzler!
Overall rating
5
/
5
1 of 1 found this review helpful
Superior Match-3 Game
PostedFebruary 17, 2018
drustorm
fromSan Francisco
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Marble Popper, Match 3, Puzzle, Strategy, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
Heroes of Hellas, from the very first one, has been my favorite Match-3 game. Once you've played one of these games, other Match-3s are measured by it.
It's been a long time since the last one, so Hello, Old Friend!
HoH relies on strategy more than speed, although speed is a consideration if you choose Timed mode. Learning to chain tiles to put powerups and coins in advantageous positions accelerates the speed of clearing the board and makes working towards removing difficulty obstacles less a matter of random speed drops and more a strategy.
The story moves right along with every board, the story map is colorful, but not cartoony, and the boards themselves are easy to see and manipulate.
Just in every regard a superior, top quality game.
I highly recommend this to any gamer.
I recommend this game!
Visit popular fairy tales and fix the broken stories! Familiar characters need you!
Overall rating
1
/
5
4 of 5 found this review helpful
Only for the Desperate
PostedJanuary 8, 2018
drustorm
fromSan Francisco
Fun Factor
1
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
1
/
5
Level of Challenge
1
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
Very low quality Pay to Win game.
This uses energy to stymie your gameplay and prevent you from continuing to play without paying real money for more energy.
But there really isn't any reason to. There's nothing about that game that's enjoyable.
I don't recommend this game.
Match the ancient stones, artifacts and coins and help to save ancient Athens from the Persian invasion!
Overall rating
3
/
5
21 of 26 found this review helpful
Bare Bones
PostedDecember 1, 2017
drustorm
fromSan Francisco
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Marble Popper, Match 3, Strategy, Time Management
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
Based on the demo.
If you're looking for a bare bones Match 3, this is it. Tiles are colorful and well differentiated. Boards are relatively small, making gameplay fast. The saving of Greece from the Persians is just the frame for the graphic and design choices. There isn't any story. You progress in the typical map fashion across landscapes that change occasionally and that's about it for the story.
Here are some things the game doesn't have:
Player. You can't change players. There's just you.
Difficulty. There are no difficulty levels.
Recap. Doesn't let you know anything except how many "stars" you got for completion.
Score. Each level is timed, but you don't know when you've gone from a 3 star finish to a 2 or 1 star finish. The game gives no information about this.
Purchases. You make massive amounts of gold each level and have nothing whatsoever to spend it on.
Explanations. There are different kinds of powerups, but you have to figure out how they work and when they're awarded, as they game doesn't tell you this.
Difficulty. There are no difficulty levels.
Recap. Doesn't let you know anything except how many "stars" you got for completion.
Score. Each level is timed, but you don't know when you've gone from a 3 star finish to a 2 or 1 star finish. The game gives no information about this.
Purchases. You make massive amounts of gold each level and have nothing whatsoever to spend it on.
Explanations. There are different kinds of powerups, but you have to figure out how they work and when they're awarded, as they game doesn't tell you this.
If you're okay with not having a story or basic level completion information or anything to spend gold on, then Athens Treasure is a fun, fast Match 3 well worth at least the a demo look to see if it suits.
I'm not making a recommendation for this game as I feel there's simply too much missing most Matchers like in their games, but it is still well done for what it is.
Help Rory get through Culinary School in this hidden object adventure!
Overall rating
3
/
5
10 of 10 found this review helpful
Mix It Up
PostedNovember 17, 2017
drustorm
fromSan Francisco
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Marble Popper, Match 3, Puzzle, Strategy, Time Management
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
2
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
I'm giving this a solid 3 stars. I played about 35 minutes of the demo and then lost interest.
The story is presented in a cheery voice over the chirpy music. The music sounds exactly like the chirpy music you've heard a hundred times before. It's meant to be jaunty and fun, but it's really neither after the first few minutes.
There are a lot of dialog boxes to click through. If you take the time to read them all, it's a fairly good tutorial of how to play the game. Thumbs up on that score.
If this is a Match 3 game, those types of scenes appear well into the game. For the first levels you're doing a combination of Hidden Object and Time Management. You must complete orders within the allotted time by picking ingredients out of a HO scene. The HO scene changes somewhat or quite a bit from level to level. The time given to complete your dishes is rather short, so you must be quick both in finding the ingredient in the disorganized kitchen and then clicking on it to add it to the dish.
I didn't find this particularly fun, even on Casual the cheery voice kept admonishing me that I was running out of time. So even without a time consideration, you are constantly reminded to go faster. Not exactly the relaxing time the Tips tell you to enjoy.
If I enjoyed a mix of HO scene and frantic Time Management, I might enjoy this, but I just found too many things I didn't like (music, voice, warnings) to bother getting into it. You might enjoy this, but I didn't find it worth it.
Return to the world of Jewel Match in this beautiful Solitaire adventure with 320 levels, multiple play variants, 8 castles to build, and much more!
Overall rating
5
/
5
1 of 1 found this review helpful
Terrific
PostedOctober 26, 2017
drustorm
fromSan Francisco
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Match 3, Puzzle, Strategy, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
There's no other way to describe this game.
It has the usual Jewel Match features, clean, pretty graphics, item shop to power up your play, castle building (more than one), different levels of play difficulty, progressing through the map with stars and build items. Then there's the different card backs and faces and the unlocking of many other types of solitaire. Your castle as you build it becomes the backdrop for each hand.
But it's really the play where this game excels. Not so different at first from other solitaire up/down games with which we're all familiar. The card locks, which are introduced early on, in this case ribbons, chains, vines and seals, fairly quickly makes some of the hands with their layouts difficult. The key here is that you can replay a hand as many times as you want and you will not lose the progress you acquired in the previous play, which makes challenging yourself to get all the emeralds and stars much more enjoyable. Because the game has a map layout, you can return to any hand and replay to get a better rating.
The collector's edition perks are just so much more goodness.
I recommend this game!
Braveland is back with new characters and classic turn-based gameplay. Help our hero through perilous times.
Overall rating
4
/
5
9 of 9 found this review helpful
Fun and Enjoyable
PostedSeptember 27, 2017
drustorm
fromSan Francisco
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Arcade & Action, Marble Popper, Match 3, Puzzle, Strategy, Time Management
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
Braveland Wizard is a significant improvement over the first Braveland, which was rather a short game (4 hours or there abouts) and didn't have a lot going for it except the easy, casual nature of the game.
Wizard plays similar to the first title with some notable differences. The first is the ability to repeat the several dungeons on the game board whenever you wish to earn more gold and experience. In the original Braveland, the amount of gold in the game was fixed. Here, you can earn as much gold as you have the patience for to fill out your troop numbers or buy gear. You receive experience for doing dungeons, which helps to level your hero. Each time you level you're awarded skill points to invest in talents.
The talent tree is also not in the original. Your level-up skill points buy spells and upgrades for your troops, which gives the game a slight replayability over the original, which had none at all.
Combat is a straightforward rock/paper/scissors of troops, boosted by buffs and attack spells. Movement across a typical hexagonal board with a few obstacles makes even the repetitive dungeons different each time.
Game map is easy to navigate and self-explanatory.
All in all, with three difficulty levels, an enjoyable, casual RPG.
I recommend this game to anyone looking for a break from HOGs and TMs.
I recommend this game!
Go on an unforgettable adventure to restore Atlantis and defeat the villain!
Overall rating
5
/
5
6 of 16 found this review helpful
Joe Succeeds
PostedSeptember 27, 2017
drustorm
fromSan Francisco
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Arcade & Action, Marble Popper, Match 3, Puzzle, Strategy, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
This is my third clutter and the best of the last three. I didn't enjoy C VI, probably because I just didn't get into Leigh's story, so a return to Joe's own story was welcome.
Challenging and enjoyable all at once, that's Clutter. It doesn't bother me, as it has other reviewers, that some images are reused. There's enough new stuff to keep it challenging. This Clutter also includes some types of games that were not in V or VI. But it doesn't really matter, Clutter is Clutter and it's all good.
An excellent addition to the Clutter universe. Thanks, Joe.
I recommend this game!