Mac Games

The good old match3 evolved into a more complex genre. We had Cradle of Rome, where match3 was combined with resource building, and now we have this Puzzle Quest, which combines the match3 with RPG elements.

The game starts with a world map and several traveling points. There’s your home kingdom with the castle, which can offer lot of quests to do. Doing quest will raise your experience points, and as you level up, you’ll unlock powerful moves that you can perform inside the match3 game.

The match3 starts whenever a battle occurs. You’ll battle against a big variety of enemies, each one with his own playing style and special moves. The game is also filled by cutscenes, so for those of your that like to read the texts, there’s also this added bonus.

The gameplay becomes a bit repetitive over time (but not a surprise since we’re talking about a match3) but in general if you still like games like Bejeweled you’ll find this game quite interesting.

Magic Stones is a game based on Celtic mythology, and is a mix between a role-playing game and a card game. At the time of writing this review, it has three playing modes, Gather Artifact, Challenge Druids and Quests. I said “at time of writing this review” because the authors have released a lot of free updates so far for this game, which is amazing, considering the re-playability value of some Quests. Basically with a one time fee you almost get 3 games…

The druid creation, typical Character Creation that is present in many CRPGs, is the first step into the game: the creation is rather simple, since you have only to choose the gender (male/female that has no influence on the gameplay), the initial magic school choice (the starting avatars will reflect your choice) and at last your druid “cultural background”. That last choice is important for your druid starting skill that are:

willpower: a high willpower will increase mana regeneration during battles
intelligence: a high intelligence will increase the speed at which you learn new runes
concentration: a high concentration will reduce spell casting failures
wisdom: a high wisdom will increase your druid’s mana amount

Then after the creation phase you go wandering in the various zones of the fantasy world and explore places that have guardians, selected from the “grimoire” of the usual 4 elements or a sort of “neutral” type, called the “darkness avatars” that are mostly undeads or “evil beings” like goblins, ogres, skeletons, etc.

Once you have raised your druid to a decent level/skill you can try your luck in the Tournament fighting battles against other druids or in the Quest mode.

The Quest mode is the hardest part, basically it breaks the usual rules and puts you with predefined amounts of mana and some new starting avatars. You’ll have to manage your “resources” carefully in this mode, because certain battles really need a specific tactic to be finished. The quest is also cool because there’s a mini-story behind each one, with some of them having 2 endings, or others give you new avatars from the schools of Life and Spirit, that you can’t get in any other way.

So, after all, how is the game? If you’re new to the RPG genre I highly recommend this game, because it can introduce you in a easily, yet rewarding way. That said, the value you get for the money is almost unbeatable by any other game around!