Jewel Quest 2

List Price: $19.99 Discount Price: $15.68

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PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

Endless (and addicting) puzzle matching game  [Posted on 2007-05-15]
Like many of other PC games of this genre, the player has to match 3 or more cell objects in row or columns to complete the game board. With every match made, the objects disappear and additional objects fall from above to fill in the "holes" created by the ones just deleted. No matter how mindless and/or pointless such games of this nature may seem, and there are all too many of them, they are still quite addictive; ico Jewel Quest 2, Tournament mode especially.

In this mode, you are playing against other online players (in real time) to race against the clock to clear identical puzzle boards and earn as many points as possible. Upon clearing the board before time expires, a BONUS round allows the player to match and thereby collect silver coins to earn extra points Spending as much time as possible playing in the bonus round is key to scoring sufficient points to "WIN" the game against your online oppponent.

Opponents are drawn at random and be players literally from all over the world. After each competition, both players scores appear on the results screen, the winner (and loser) declared, and the highest scoring player for the same game board & level on that particular day is revealed. There is also a "global" average score revealed for all players. In addition, each player is "ranked" and shown how many places in the standing s/he has improved or fallen for the next game. These statistics are quite useful to evaluate your performance in each game played and see how the competition stacks up.

If you are like me, (an "older dude"), the level of online competition is fierce, and there certainly are lots of other players out there far better players than me. This can also be great cause for frustration, but a very strong motivator to do better "next time" nevertheless.

Needless to say, Tournament mode is HIGHLY addictive whereby the concept of "WINNING" may be quite elusive (especially should you have just lost to some housewife or grade schooler - a competitor's name may give you a clue - from across the Internet). Still, win or lose, especially the latter, just makes you want to play all the more to improve your score. Before long, several hours have passed and its 3AM in the morning.

This game has native African theme music and colorful backdrop screens that change periodically throughout the game(s). If the music becomes annoying, the Options Menu allows for volume controls. Also, you can optionally set the graphics mode to full screen vs. windowed (partial screen) mode and enable 3D acceleration. You must have a suitably powerful PC with a latter generation graphics card so as not to impede the high resolution graphics displays and/or dynamic response times during game play.

In the Classic game play mode (you against the computer) the levels progress through African motifs and story boards. There are several game boards (of different design) per level. In this mode, you start out with multiple lifes and play continuously until you run out of lifes. Then, you can "skip" forward to the next progressive game screen or repeat to hone your skills.

You must play a certain number of progressive games in Classic mode in order to "unlock" Buried Jewels both in the Classic or the Tournament modes. Buried jewels add a much higher level of complexity, which I have yet to find any need for. This game is already extremely challenging even at the basic level of game play.

CAVEAT EMPTOR:
Unfortunately, I bought Jewel Quest 2 off the shelf from a retailer. After I installed the CD-ROM (not req'd for game play) on my PC, it did not support Tournament mode like the current downloadable version. Like most store bought software - games included - I was unable to return it to get my money back. Without Tournament mode this game is not worth the full purchase price and for that matter why would anyone want to buy the first edition of Jewel Quest, when the sequel is so much better. Lesson learned, let the buyer beware.

In conclusion, JQ2 (obviously, with Tournament mode included) is worth the price and will certainly provide the average PC Gamer hours and hours of highly addictive entertainment.

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