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It’s just amazing how Egypt’s many mysteries can still keep secrets up to this day when many documentaries and reports had already been made about them. Pharaoh’s Secret is nothing different, even being a game that explores a fictional story about the secret life of noble Egyptian rulers; however, how it fares as a casual game is entirely a different matter.

The game is a match-3 installment that revolves around the adventures of an archaeology student named Daniel and his professor during their investigations of the great history of Egypt. I must admit, the story is a bit confusing since at first, you’re off decoding a strange papyrus discovered from another professor’s archives, then later on, you’re trying to find the lost relic of the pharaoh Didumes. What’s good about the game though is that you can review the story afterwards, I reckon just so to clear things up a bit on your actual mission, but if you’re like me, well, I’ll just go on and play the game in any case.

Anyway, as a match-3 game, Pharaoh’s Secret follows the same gameplay as its predecessor, Da Vinci’s Secret. The gameplay is unique wherein you need to group 3 or more balls in order to eliminate them from the board. A ball can be moved in any location within the board as long as there’s a path for it to travel on the intended area. If a ball is moved and no matches were made, additional balls will appear on the board. Do this for several times, and the board will fill up, forcing you to retry a level.

There are several objectives for each of the levels, and you’ll encounter a range of really difficult ones as you go along the puzzles. The most used objective is to put the key towards the same colored keyhole by clearing all balls blocking its path. Other objectives include assembling puzzle pieces by joining them together, and clearing out a mesh grating by matching the seal to its lock. Sometimes there are multiple objectives on a single level too, but don’t worry too much, because even though the levels are timed (for a top score placement), you can always take as much time as you want in analyzing the puzzles.

Pharaoh’s Secret also includes six different power-ups for you to use as they appear during the actual game. Power-ups are freely available but if you want to make your game easier, you can optionally upgrade them one by one by making consecutive matches on the board. Power-ups range from destructive ones like bombs, lightning and crosses, to useful ones like rainbow balls and extended light (used on darkened puzzle areas). Each power-up has a specific use and activation though, so you just have to read each ones description thoroughly before use.

I must say that the game really is uniquely themed and I bet you’ll definitely love its enhanced graphics and sounds coming from its predecessor. The story is adequate too and you’ll find the challenge to baffle you for hours and hours of game time. However, I still find the whole puzzle to be dragging and without much needed action. I see an idea in progress for this game, and it would be nice to have a sequel that can put me on the edge of my seat as I make combination after combination of matches, but unfortunately for this installment, that won’t happen as much as I hoped for.

Pharaoh’s Secret Download for Windows

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