Throne of Olympus
By Trinidadw at January 19, 2012 | 11:47 AM | Print
Throne of Olympus combines several elements of known lovable genres and creates a unique and overly satisfying experience. Foil your opponent’s plans, strategize, earn new elemental attacks and increase your endurance to outsmart ancient gods.
You must help Athena defeat the other gods and take over the Throne of Olympus. If you are a fan of ancient Greek mythology get ready to fall in love with this game. Zeus, the king of the Gods, has decided to name the new holder of the throne and has chosen one of the younger gods. Get ready for epic battles as you meet legendary gods such as Hercules and Hades on your adventure.
Initially I expected Throne of Olympus to be an action game or a dungeon crawler . However the most serendipitous event happened. After catching up on the story line by the opening prologue I was greeted by a Bejeweled like puzzle gem game . To be more accurate, a battle and action puzzle game tha is loosely based on bejeweled! I know what you are thinking! And thats how do you turn a game about Zeus and ancient gods into a puzzle game? Well I must take a moment to inform you Throne of Olympus delivers on this unique experience.
The game places you on a bejeweled like screen. You must connect the gems to do damage to your opponent or collect them so that you can do special elemental attacks. This adds a new dimension to the game as many times when you use these attacks might be the deciding factor between winning or losing.
Also keep in mind that you and your opponent actually share the same puzzle battle board! At first you may think that something like this would result in confusing game play or something that distastefully changes the idea of bejeweled. However you would be happily mistaken as the game splits it into turns and gives each play life points bars. This gives the game a great strategy element as many times you will be more careful before you make certain moves as it may set your opponent up for huge plays on the next turn.
If you match 4 or 5 you get an extra turn. Many of your turns will be either doing damage to your opponent which you can do by connecting the purple gems or by using elemental attacks. When you are not doing this or are unable to because of a puzzle your best bet is to sabotage your opponent or set your self up for a good play your next turn. Or you could collect gems for your element attack. Speaking of elemental attacks after each victory, you are given a choice of more hit points or a new power-up (new element attacks). Each opponent you face is progressively bigger and has stronger elemental attacks.
The elemental attacks can range from a simple fireball which you start off with. They go all the way to an ice blade, bronze curse and electron blast. Ice blades require blue gems , these do 5 damage which is the same effect as a fireball. Bronze curse requires green this does 2 damage but gives you 2 free turns and many other power ups can be discovered through the game. These attacks are for all practical purposes a fun mini game that affects the main game all on its own. You will definitely want to pay attention to your special abilities and have more fun possible than you can imagine.
Graphics 4 out of 5: The graphics are classic yet refurbished. It gives you the classic bejeweled feeling with some ancient Greek zest. The graphics are solid and they really make this classic game type look sharp without distracting the player from the game. One thing I especially like is the attention to character detail. From the very start once I got a look at Hades I could feel the creepy hellish fires crawling on my back. The elemental attacks which are a high point of this game are well animated. With a game like this its important to stay focused on the game play more than any thing else. The solid graphics add to the experience but do not distract from the actual game play.
Sound, 4 out of 5: Right off the bat the audio in this game definitely gives you that old ancient Greece feeling. It effectively transports you to a time when you earned the worth by the might of your blade or the cunning of your magic and control of the arcane. The music is elegantly battle ready. Experts and novice players alike should find that it consistently sets the perfect tone for the game. It is a task that must have been difficult to do but the developers pulled it off. They have created a soundtrack that syncs perfectly with this hybrid
Game play, 5 out of 5: This game is definitely an example of an improved formula on an already legendary game type. This unique game play definitely turns it into a game type of its own. There is an excellent mix of strategy, puzzle and turn based action game play. Fans of bejeweled will wonder why they didn’t think of this before and new players will find this game an excellent entrance into this type of game play.
Replay value, 5 out of 5: Several hours of entertainment await you as this game holds a high replay value . Because of the fun and unique ways to tackle each puzzle and opponent there is absolutely no reason you won’t feel the need to continuously comeback and sharpen your skill and become a better strategist.
Overall score, 4.5 out of 5: Throne of Olympus takes an already popular and near perfect puzzle experience and adds more layers to it like opponents, bonus attacks and updated graphics. This Bejeweled style game play is known globally, but this game takes a great unique approach to it which many players will find even more fun than the standard play style . Most gamers and many non gamers would have seen if not played a puzzle gem game at one point or another so this title is easy to pick up and play. In short this game is an epic boredom killer