Review from Diamond Games
Ancient Rome wasn’t built in a day (couldn’t expect me to avoid the cliche', could you?), but it doesn’t stop me from trying in Cradle of Rome, a matching game where players build a Roman empire complete with over 20 masterpieces from village and taverns to Coliseum and Pantheon. Players also work their way up from Peasant to Emperor of Rome.
The purpose is to match three or more of the same object to clear the game board, but it isn’t simple as I advance to higher levels. After conquering earlier epochs, the battles get harder as it takes two matches to destroy a box. Instead of building up frustration, bonuses appear along the way to help me destroy troublemaker spots. Such bonuses include a hammer that can break a box, a lightning bolt that randomly knocks out multiple boxes, not necessarily the ones I want, and a bomb that destroys a specific area. The game contains eight bonuses.
More challenging is getting rid of the chained boxes because the objects can’t move. That means creating a match around the box to clear it. But that isn’t where the challenge stops. I run into objects that have two chains on them and have little room to get other objects lined up to make a match.
The game board also changes as you advance higher up in the chain of command to make it difficult to clear objects in corners or to access the boxes that have only one way in. Beautiful scenes representing a part of my growing Roman city appear behind the game for environment variety.
When I eventually lose all my men, the game ends. Fortunately, I don’t have to start at the beginning and work my way up to the fourth of five epochs. The game lets you pick up from the last epoch. As I advance in game play, I pick up strategies for getting better at defeating the board. Unfortunately, no strategy comes to mind for defeating the piles of objects that are double-chained with little room to make matches. I need more bonuses. Too bad, I can’t bribe anyone for them.
In one weekend, I made it past 50 levels. The game comes with over 100 levels to keep feeding my addiction that kept me up past my bedtime and interfered with my nighttime reading. The font styles, the music, the objects, the background and stunning graphics contribute to the game’s ancient Rome feel.
Whether you have time or not, the game fits various schedules. While it doesn’t require regular play, its addicting nature can suck in a busy person’s time as it did mine. I forced myself to read one chapter in a book before rewarding myself with one level of Cradle of Rome.
This is an almost perfect game that’s only missing one thing: Timeless mode. This Zen mode lets kids play it without the stress of beating the clock and adults like me who panic watching the time run out. The music isn’t my favorite, but it fits the game and it’s easy to turn off.
Cradle rocks!
