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(More customer reviews)As anyone who plays games on the PC will know, there are litterally hundreds of these swap to match type games out there. I know, I have probably a dozen and a half or so myself. I'll be the first to admit that there are plenty of dogs out there to go around as well. So your looking at this game and thinking, oh boy, another boring swap to match game. Not So! I'll explain why.
Paradise Quest starts out with a story board. You are an archeologist, and your in Galapagos which has had its environment obliterated. Your working with a female doctor at a far away university, and you've been assigned the task of rebuilding the habitats and restoring the wildlife on the island. There are 5 habitats, and approximately 75 species of normal wildlife. The object of the game is to restore all habitats, and wildlife. There is a surprise at the end however.
Game play is simple, but hard. I know, that makes no sense. There are two modes of play, timed, or relaxed. The developers were very very smart for including the relaxed option. For older or more laid back players (like me), this is a perfect mode. You can sit back, relax, play the game, enjoy the scenes, think about moves, and work for all of the bonus's you can get. If your up to more of a challenge, you can choose the timed mode. I didn't try it, but I do not believe you can switch from one to another in the middle of the levels. Game play moves seem fairly simple. You swap nearby tiles to make matches of 3 or more of the same object. You start out with 4 different resource objects, then after about 15 levels you get more, and closer to the 50th level you get still more. Most are thankfully easy on the eyes. Nothing is more bothersome than to be presented with a full screen of tiles that glare at you and hurt your eyes. Those are few and far between in this game. Of course the old rules apply, the more matches you get in a swap the more points you score, chain reactions are even better. The object here is to earn enough points so you can pay for trees, water, shrubs etc. These are called resources in the game. At first the levels are rather simple, and game play is too. But things get ramped up fast. First a word more on scoring. Besides the usual swap method already mentioned, you will uncover some items. Some are tools such as a machette, a pick axe, a raft, and a key. These are all needed to move to certain parts of the level. You can also uncover power up items. These are rather simple at first, then get more powerful as you advance a little in the levels. You will uncover Earthquake. This is used to remove all of one kind of item tile from the entire board. Lightning. This will remove a 6 block square of tiles. Tornado. This will clear large sections of the board of tiles which are replaced. Hurricane. This will wipe out half the board randomly, all tiles blown away are replaced. Windsock. This will help you move faster around the board. I'll explain later. Sapling. This is a recharge for The Vine. In later levels you will need to move from one side of the level to another, or to sections of the level that are detatched from other areas. I call these islands. The Vine will charge as you make matches of 4 or more tiles, but if you need to jump now and have a sapling, clicking it charges The Vine instantly. Besides the main level on your screen, you will have a little square in the lower left corner, this has a box on it that shows where you are on the level. To use The Vine, you use this little map. You move the cursor over the map, it zooms a little and you click where you want to go. The Vine is discharged and your "flown" to your new location. Now to explain the Wind Sock. As you click and make matches, the view shifts to where you made the match. So, as you match, your also navigating. This is how you move around to all parts of the level where your not required to use The Vine. By clicking the Wind Sock, your shift is much faster, but it only lasts 30 seconds so use wisely. Lastly, there is a Mountain. This will zoom out the main level view so you can check to see if you've missed any places or sanded tiles.
Sanded tiles, regular tiles, and locked tiles. Most tiles are just normal tiles, and are plain to see. Other tiles will have a sand background. You should try to match ALL of these as this is where you find your tools, and power ups. If you match over ALL of the sanded tiles in the level you get a 5% bonus resources when you complete the level. Locked tiles are tiles bound by roots/vines. These require a double match. One to free the tile, and one to allow a swap match. Un-sanded ones are no big deal and there is no loss if you do not get them all. However, there are some places you'll need to get rid of them so you can unlock other tiles and the gold stones.
The gold stones are what your after in each level. There can be two, three, four, of five of them required to complete a level. These will be surrounded by dirt tiles. Making a match with a dirt tile breaks the dirt, and when all of the surrounding dirt tiles are matched the gold stone is freed and goes into a holding spot on the bottom right of the screen. Occasionally, especially in later levels, these dirt tiles will be root bound and require two matches to free them from dirt. Once you've gathered all of the gold stones for a level, it ends.
A word about other bonus items. We've already mentioned about matching all of the sanded tiles for a 5% bonus. There are two other 5% bonus's. If you travel to ALL sections of the level, you will get a 5% bonus. If The Vine is active, and you use it three or more times during level play, you will get a 5% bonus.
The Vine will not be active for levels you play in the dark. Oh yeah! They've built a TON of fun stuff into this game. Occasionally you will play a level after nightfall. You will start with a small area where you can see. Spread all over the map are torch towers, once you detect one, click on it to light it, and it lights up more of the board to help you navigate. The torches go out after about 2 minutes, but can be re-lit. Because you cannot see where to jump to in the dark allegedly, The Vine is not an option during the nighttime levels.
Once you've successfully completed a level you will get some goodies. At first you will get photo's of a habitat, until all habitats are restored, then you get mysterious golden squares. Occasionally you will find an artifact. After getting your score, click on your note book. Your current habitat will be shown and it will be bland. Add the photos puzzle style to complete the habitat. It will take a number of level completions to complete a habitat. Later habitats require more photos and therefore more levels which get bigger and more complex as you play. Once a habitat is complete you can enter it. As you buy resources such as water, trees, fruit etc, the inhabitants slowly return. On your main screen you will get notice of New Habitat, and New Inhabitants. Click on the New Inhabitants, and you are taken to your completed habitat and you can photograph the new inhabitants. You'll need to photograph all 75 of them in all 5 habitats. If you happened to find an artifact during a level, a story board like cartoon will load and you will be in communication with the archeologist at the university. You will send her a photo of the artifact piece, and she examines it and makes commentary. The artifact is then placed into your note book. You cannot do anything with the artifact pieces until you get them all.
Eventually you will photograph all inhabitants in a restored habitat, and after taking the final photographs, you will be congratulated on your progress and given instructions on using a desktop wall paper of your restored habitat. Also, as you photograph the inhabitants you'll need to go into your notebook to Inhabitants, and as you page through the photo album, the photos you've taken are automatically entered there. You should do this often so you do not get a backlog of photos. Once you successfully restore all 5 habitats, and all inhabitants return and are photographed, you've completed the main part of the game. This may occur at any level, it depends on how well you've scored and how many bonus points you were able to earn.
After restoring all habitats and cataloging their inhabitants, you will find a final artifact. You will then have another conversation with the archeologist back at the university, and you discover that the relic pieces actually make a key. On the key it depicts a strange ancient animal, extinct for centuries. You also reveal that you've found a mysterious and long forgotten temple. You decide to try to see if the key will allow you to gain entry. A short cut scene shows you assembling the key, arriving at the temple, clearing the vines and brush to revel a key slot and opening the temple. You walk inside to find art work on the walls showing an ancient civilization, and in the middle is this mysterious creature. The archeologist back at the university digs up some information about the creature, and states that it thrived on certain resources only found on that island. You declare that you will restore those resources in hopes that the ancient inhabitant returns.
At this point game control is returned to you, and you start playing levels again. Your goal as it was in all the other levels is to earn enough points to buy each of the four resources needed to restore the habitat. At this stage of the game, resources cost a bundle, and it will take quite a few levels to earn enough to buy each one of them. The levels are massive and you'll be charged with using all of your gaming skills to complete each one and earn as much as possible. When you finally earn enough to buy all of the resources and the habitat is restored, the mystical creature does return...Read more›
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