Petr Šourek I have always been attracted to logic games because of the exercise of the brain. Even though I engage my brain for 8 hours at work, I always like to play a logic puzzle, especially if it is of good quality. There is no shortage of puzzle games on the AppStore, but I missed Mahjong. I researched for a long time until I finally decided on Mahjong Artifacts.
This game captivated me so much that although I bought the second part first, within a few hours of playing I also bought the first part. So let's take a look at this pun.
The principle of each mahjong game is relatively simple, find pairs from different cubes and clear the entire field. A lot of games only offer different shapes that we can "clean", but Mahjong Artifacts offers 2 more modes. Let's take a look at them.
Endless will keep us entertained for hours. We have an endless pyramid of cubes and we try to break down as many "floors" as we can. The only thing that makes this task unpleasant for us is the fact that the dice are constantly increasing (we only have to match 5 shapes on the board and it keeps growing) and we only have 5 possibilities to shuffle the dice (when we run out of pairs), then the game ends.
Quest is mahjong with a story. A short comic strip will be displayed between the individual figures, which will tell us part of the story and what country the main character went to, then we solve the next figure.
Classic is a mode where we solve one figure. We have a choice of 99 shapes in each piece, which will last for a while. It should be noted that each work is different. We can choose from 5 different options for the appearance of the cubes and from around 30 different backgrounds for individual shapes.
In terms of gameplay, even on the small iPhone screen, the game is extremely clear and playable. The "Auto zoom" option mainly contributes to this, which always takes up only the necessary screen where you can match the cubes. If we decide we want to match the dice ourselves, we can. Just use gestures to zoom in on the game surface, "Auto zoom" turns off and you see the zoomed-in game surface. Here the question arises whether it is still playable. I can answer this question in the affirmative. It's playable. If you select a cube and move your finger to another place on the playing field. The selected cube lights up in the upper left corner so you don't have to remember which one you chose.
If you are a mahjong beginner, then the game has prepared several options for you to make the game easier for you. The main thing is the option to show only the dice you can play with. This means that the entire field will be grayed out and you will only see the cubes that go together. Another option is a hint that will show you which 2 cubes are to be removed together. And last but not least, if you know you've made a mistake, there's an "undo" feature.
The game does not work on the basis of OpenFeint or any other leaderboard, but for each completed task you will receive a part of the artifact. The goal of the game, if you want to complete it 100%, is to collect all the artifacts by completing the given tasks.
Graphically, the game is very successful, but there are some things I would criticize it for. For a few cube themes, it happens that in "Auto zoom" mode, that is, when the camera is fully zoomed out, some cubes "recolor" so that they look different than when you zoom in on the surface, and this is a problem, because the game appreciates everything, for example, that you do not click when matching dice and that unfortunately happens here and it's not your fault.
The game plays nice relaxing music, but I admit that I prefer my own music, so I have it turned off.
However, the game has one more option that I almost forgot. It has the option of profiles. If you have 1 iPhone and you are in a family of 2 or more, you can create your own profile and only your achievements will be saved there. I've only seen this in a few games on the iPhone, and I'm quite sad that not all of them have this.
But why am I reviewing both games in one? More or less, the second volume is only a data disc. It adds a new GUI, but not options. Adds 99 new shapes for classic mode and some new dice backgrounds and themes. There is a new story in it. Anyway, that's it, no new mod.
Verdict: The game is enjoyable to play and is a relaxing puzzle game. If you are passionate about this type of games then this is a must have. Anyway, it still depends on how you are doing with this type of games. If you only play mahjong occasionally, I would recommend only one part, otherwise both. The game is currently until 23.8. discounted to 2,39 Euros. I am completely satisfied with it and for the money it gave me much more fun than some more expensive titles. I do not regret it and recommend it to lovers of this genre.
thank you for the nice review, I like mahjong, so you inspired me to buy after a long time :)
It's okay, I'll be glad if he likes it ;)