7 Wonders II

The Good
7 Wonders II is the sequel to 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. The game is consisting in building wonders by swapping tiles in order to make a chain of 3 or more and break the background stone. Well, it's usually called a match-3 game if you didn't know like me what was this weird category.

My first match-3 game was Amazonia on iWin.com, which proposes free games to play online. It's not a demo, it's the full game that you can install without having to spend your money for it. Don't be happy so soon because if you're ads allergic, well, the counter-part for offering it free is ads from the sponsors. So, every two or three levels (or 5 minutes for example), you'll have for 20 seconds (sometimes less) an ads. Be reassured, almost all the time, game is paused.

Well, the problem with ads is that in Amazonia, in the second level, ads were crashing the game. In Diner Dash, the ads can appeared in the middle of a level without pausing the game, making me raging when you have Business Woman and Cellphone Addicts, the most precious customers in the game but also the less patients. Yes, the ads in my case could be considered as a negative point. But here it's not something that will count. After all, as I've said, I didn't buy it. If I did, I wouldn't have ads and turned so easily towards 7 Wonders II (it was bound to happen but later).

You'll understand in the negative points why I'm speaking about Amazonia.

I know that I will sound lazy but as I've already written the description of the game for MobyGames, I'll do a copy/paste... That's one of the reasons I wish I was more skilled with English, to be able to rewrite something I've already written.

The gameplay is consisting of swapping adjacent runes on a grid, making matches of three or more to remove them. By doing so, the remaining pieces are falling down, occupying the vacant space. The player has a limited time to reach his objective of breaking the background stone by doing matches.

In 7 Wonders II, the bricks resulting of this breaking are used for replenishing the bonus bar in order to use it. The bonuses can be chosen on the bonuses menu by the player. These ones are appearing on the Wonder and can be reached with construction sets.

The bricks don't replenish immediately your bar, you have to wait that your little builders take them and bring them in the house. That can be anxious when you need the bonus for beating the level when your time's almost up...

Bonuses can be found on the Wonders: reach it and wait for the secret challenge for the map for collecting it. They can be useful: some destroy squares, even one is equipped for destroying the map square, some are used for making more points, etc.. My favorite one is the one that can destroy a entire column of tiles, very useful when you have to collect the big construction set that is one of the conditions for finishing the level.

The construction sets come from the matches: the more you do matches the more you're replenishing the construction set bar. With what you've collected, you can build the Wonder and find bonuses.

When you're doing a match of four runes, you have an iceball appearing, by swapping it, you'll destroy all the runes and background stone of the same line. The fire ball appears after a five-runes match, and destroys both a column and a row. The dice piece appears after using several ice and fire balls, and removes random tiles from the grid. It can very useful to use these balls or dice. You're making combos, meaning more points but also meaning that you can deblock a situation.

You have also a secret Wonder which is unlocked by collecting the 7 "big" map pieces. In each level, a special square can be seen. By matching runes of the same color on it, you can obtain a "little" map piece. When you obtain a certain number of it during the construction of your Wonder, you'll unlock secret challenges and obtain a "big" map piece. Once you have collect the big map piece, every time you'll destroy a colored square, you'll unlock a secret challenge that is only there for points. Some are very difficult, because your number of moves is limited and well, you have also a time limit. It's up to you to find the key for using wisely your moves and beat the challenge.

Also, you have a shuffle bar that is replenishing slowly. It can be useful when no moves are left or if you feel that you're going nowhere.

After this long explanation about the gameplay, well, I need to speak about the graphics and the soundtrack. It will be quick because it's not really the most important in the game.

Graphics and animations are really good. They're simple, colored and well, in a sort of false 3D. The background (behind the board) is the Wonder you're currently building and well, with the time passing, you can see it even at night. It's nice to see that the day/night cycle is included in it.

The little characters, despite being all the same (except for the old man, the architect probably, the woman that is walking from time to time or the muscular builders, only collecting the big construction set), are very amusing. Some of them aren't collecting bricks: they eat, they do some tricks, some are even sick, meaning that the "ambulance" will be out, etc..

The soundtrack is nice. Nothing really to say... except the music when you need to hurry up. That's very darker and stressing. Anyway, 7 Wonders II is not the game with sophisticated soundtrack like in Painkiller, Half-Life 2 or Will Rock.

The replay value can be high if you're addicted to the game. Lifetime can be long if you're loosing too often. But 7 Wonders isn't Jewel Quest, it doesn't bring you something new when you have finished the game a first time. The gameplay is repetitive for every level. Always doing the same: swapping, swapping and swapping.

The Bad
Amazonia didn't have a time limit and the matches were only replenishing a tube on which an artifact was placed. Once it has reached the top, you've beaten the level. If match-3 was like that, I was willing to try another game.

So, as I couldn't play Amazonia, I turned to Jewel Quest and 7 Wonders II. And I was disoriented because of the time limit and the fact that I needed to turn the background gold by doing matches without bonuses. That's why 7 Wonders II appeared to me as a better game than Jewel Quest... by forgetting that the latter was released earlier than the former.

But what annoys me the most in 7 Wonders II is the time limit. Now, you understand why I've blattered about my first match-3 game. The time limit isn't my favorite thing. In Jewel Quest, it's my worst enemy. How many times I was really close to beat the level and see... TIME'S UP? If you see suddenly that you don't have time to beat it, you're going into the mode "panic" and you can't see clearly your game. Fortunately, there is a bonus that can freeze time... if you find it for a more difficult level. Me, with my luck, I've always found it before playing an easy one...

Add to that the fact that when you need a bonus, it's obviously at that moment that your workers hadn't finish to take back to their home the bricks... And you'll have a Vic shouting in her room: "Ooooooooh non!" or if you prefer the English version: "Ohhhhhhh nooooo!". And that's the censored version. You don't want to learn French curses, right?

The Bottom Line
You'll not find a review of mine with Building Wonders Part I. It's not a reference to my gaming. Unfortunately for me, I didn't play the first game. I'm only making a reference to the fact that 7 Wonders II is the second game in the franchise. If I play the lastest release, Treasure of the Seven, well, you'll have Part III. Pray for me that one day, Part I and Part III would be appearing...

In the end, 7 Wonders II is a very good game. Building Wonders like Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal, the Moai statues or the Great Wall is a good idea, an other way to propose a match-3 time. The bonuses are also very helpful and without it, I wouldn't have finished the game. The characters are cute, well, for me, it's cute. Perhaps that some of you will find them ridiculous... But the repetitive gameplay and the time which is running too fast can be frustrating for players. Despite its flaws, I'm recommending it for people wanting to try a good match-3 game.