7 Wonders II

Developer: MumboJumbo
Steam Release: Jun 2008
Hours Played: 5.9
Similar To: Atlantis Series' / Cradle of Egypt / Fishdom / Jewel Quest
Rating: 3/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY
For anyone who has enjoyed the Jewel Quest games, the gameplay of 7 Wonders II is exactly the same. You are shown a grid occupied by a fairly random mix of different coloured tiles - in this case runes. You hover your mouse over a rune, click and hold the left mouse button and switch it with an adjoining one. Release the button and if three tiles of the same colour are matched in a line you get a nice little animation as they disappear. The columns then cascade down as they are refilled with more runes. The idea is to make sure that every square has had a rune matched up on it. (Squares change their background colour when matched.) Do this before the countdown timer on the right runs out and you get awarded building blocks that you use to build your wonder.

 
BALANCE & PACE
Fail the task and you lose a life and have to start the level again. Lose all three lives however and it's game over! Nasty. To prevent proceedings becoming pedestrian, you get to use a special ability or power-up (which you select and bring to the table at the start of a level). This is on a cool-down but is immensely useful - some might say overpowered - when it becomes operational and it always helps you get out of a tricky corner, sometimes literally. As well as a nice shuffle feature you get other added extras as well. For one, when you match a particular colour within a special tile you unlock secret areas. This then adds more to your score - not that this will be that much of a reward to some. Finally there is a special unmovable tile that gets thrown into the mix and which needs to reach the bottom before the level can be completed.

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
As the title suggests, 7 Wonders II is centred round the idea of building seven wonders of the world and your main start screen nicely shows the wonder that you're currently working on. From here, you may replay early levels that you've completed by hitting the Free Play option, tweak a few basic settings from the Options path or view the high-score chart which is actually a Top 10 list of fictitious names and made up scores along with your own. As a casual game though the game works better by charging through levels, building your wonder and moving on without paying too much regard to the score. On hitting the golden Play medallion in the bottom right corner you are taken to a map screen showing the area in the world of where your current wonder is located plus some historical information about it.

PROGRESS SYSTEM
There are medals lining the top of this map indicating the seven wonders completed. For instance after completing the first two you get a green medal indicating that you've completed Stonehenge and a bronze medal indicating you've completed The Coliseum. After completing a level you are taken to a construction screen where workers beaver away on building the structure. Over this are superimposed squares. You are awarded a number of building block icons which you drag and drop onto the squares to show that section of the building finished. Eventually, after uncovering secret bonuses and special abilities in this screen, which you may use while playing, you'll have your fully constructed wonder. You are often informed as a percentage of how much of the wonder has been constructed.
 

CONCLUSION
Despite the extras, 7 Wonders II is still a run-of-the-mill match 3. The soundtrack for each monument is sufficiently varied and very nicely bounces along pleasantly in the background. Going to the trouble of actually making the background music different for each wonder is, in itself, a welcome feature and helps get the player absorbed. Match ups are also accompanied by satisfying sounds and animations, and I particularly like the crumbling sounds as you complete many matches in the early stages. However, as the game does not really attempt to be anything out-of-this-world, 7 Wonders II is a similar experience to the many other match 3 titles out there. It's a solid and absorbing way to pass the time when you want a bit of an escape but you’ll be treading the same well-worn path that has been trodden on many times before.