Dragon Empire
5
5
2
2
An underrated gem
This is a wonderful Match 3 game that for some reason has been overlooked.
It is swap-to-match, the tiles are beautiful to look at with an Eastern/Chinese flavour. They drop smoothly and you can do matches during a cascade - a must for me.
It is quite long - 100 unique levels - after this the levels start to repeat but you can play as long as you like, even after finishing.
It is timed, but with a very generous timer - I only ran into trouble a couple of times, and had no problems re-starting the board a few times.
It supports left-hand mouse setup, so no problems playing for me.
The objective is to build the Dragon Empire, same premise as in e.g. Cradle of Rome and Heroes of Hellas.
You do M3 boards to earn resources (there are wood tiles, money tiles, "Culture" tiles) - each giving you resources for the buildings. You can choose between 3 styles for the building, but the placement is pre-decided. As you build you unlock 'better' resources or get powerups to help with the matching. These powerups must be charged with special tiles, and it is random which charging tiles you get each board. Re-starting might give you a chance to carge a different powerup.
On the 'Map' part you can also play little mini-games, these are whimsical and cute, some are merely playing "skillfully" (e.g do a Match-five, collect a certain amount of Money in one level), others are more obscure and adds to the enjoyment. After finishing a mini-game a nice touch is that the achievement for this is placed on the Empire map, as trees, statues etc.
A total charmer of a game; pretty to look at, tongue-in-cheek and hilarious, that does not take itself too seriously.
November 21, 2011
Dragon Empire
BlueStarFish gave a great review on this game. I was looking for another M3 like this one. I went through all of them. When I pulled up BlueStarfish's review, I downloaded the demo. Then I bought the game. I have had a great time with this game. Yes, it is kinda timed, and I hate timed games, but if you don't finish a board in time, it just switches to another board, and then another board, and eventually it gives me a "hour glass" as an item to use to allow me extra time. You do build an empire, and I love the little characters and the beautiful building you build. This is not a Time Management Game. I do not like Time Management games, but this M3 allows you to the little characters and interact with them by clicking on them. They don't do much, but it's cute. I would like another game like this. I was a HOG fan, but I just got burnt out on them I guess, so I've been playing M3 games now for a while. I think this game has been out a while, so many of you may skip over it, but if you like strictly M3 games, and yes, it can be timed, but it doesn't worry me, because I know I just go through another board. It's fun. Thanks BlueStarFish for your review.
February 10, 2012