Azteca - In Brief

Azteca is a match Three game with a different mechanic to the usual match threes we see here. Not to be confused with the bubble popping version of Azteca; same name, different game. See the main review for more details.

Do you want to become a hero among Aztec people? They are in danger now and wait for a brave and clever person to save them. King Ixtos wanted to free his people and asked the gods to help him. There appeared a wise advice which was carved on the stone but unfortunately the words were concealed one day. Your main objective in the Azteca game is to bring the stolen words back and rescue people. During 150 thrilling levels you will see lots of colored stones on the playing field. You have to rotate them to make lines of three similar colored stones. Use the left mouse button to turn the stones in one direction and the right button to turn into another in the Azteca game.

As soon as you build a line they will vanish but some new stones will appear on the field. Some letters are written on particular stones - you have to remove them from the field in order to complete the level. You will see one of the stolen wise words after finishing every level. Finally you can read the stolen message. Many useful bonuses wait for you in the Azteca game but they will appear unexpectedly. Some of them destroy all stones in the area; others destroy stones in a vertical or diagonal line. All vanished stones bring you some points - the bigger score you get the better! You have a limited period of time so be attentive and gather all the letters before you run out of time. Pleasant sound effects, unexpected surprises, striking graphics - hours of entertainment are waiting for you!

Reference accessed HERE. March 24th 2017

P.S. Important Information - time limited
⦁ If you didn't win a copy of Whispering Willows the other week, Indie Gala are featuring it in their Gemseeker bundle. As time passes the price goes up. At the moment (13.30 UK time) you can get the game for $1.06 HERE. The deal ends in 2 days 21 hours from now. (approx Tuesday 10am UK time). Do remember, the longer you leave it the more it will cost.
⦁ Also see Delenns post about other free Steam keys over in the giveaway game discussion forums HERE.
⦁ If you've purchased games from Dot.emu the site will be closing on 1st June 2017, so make sure you've downloaded a copy of each game you purchased from them. All games are DRM free, so you should be able to back up working copies of all games purchased. See the end of the main review for more details. (thanks for the heads up Delenn).

Please only post comments about today's game giveaway; other comments either inappropriate, or not about today's game will be deleted at the moderator or administrators discretion; however a little light banter among community members and with the moderator to keep this a friendly place to visit is acceptable and welcomed. All comments not specifically about today's game giveaway will be judged by the moderator and if deemed not appropriate, will be deleted with no explanation. Please see the end of this review for further details about posting comments and links to the teams contact, moderation policy and the FAQ's thread, thank you.

Azteca

In Brief

A different take on the Match 3 genre. Not to be confused with the bubble popping version of Azteca; same name, different game.

Suggestions:

Whether you like or dislike Azteca, once you've played the game please give some feedback about your opinion of the giveaway, for example, what you liked or disliked, and how it could be improved from your point of view. If you don't like this genre of games at all, please explain why. What improvements, if any, would change your opinion? There are thousands of subscribers to the game giveaway of the day every weekend which makes this an ideal forum for giving developers ideas as to what their consumers (i.e you) would like to see in a game. For example, you could suggest extra content such as better or more original mini games, or a level editor that you would like to see that would make it more appealing to you. Maybe you think the graphics are a little dated and are in need of re skinning, or maybe you've just had enough of the genre and want to see something different or something with more originality? Giving such feedback instead of saying nothing or just saying this game is rubbish or good may bring more developers to the site, which could mean more and better games. Would you give away thousands of copies of a game (or extra content for a game) away to a community that complains all the time instead of giving useful feedback? It only takes a few moments of your time. This site could be transformed if only the community would be more forthcoming in their opinions of the games they are getting for free instead of complaining about the way this site has changed or that they don't like Steam games. If something isn't for you then move on to the next giveaway, or check out the extra's section at the end of this review; you never know, you may find something that interests you..

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE. If you prefer to buy the game you can get it HERE. for £7.99 or $2.99 if you are a new customer (Big Fish Games)

Installation:

Azteca downloads to a 17.9 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set up file and a read me). Those with multiple hard drives are able to save games on any drive they wish. The newly installed game is 21.4 MB in size. The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed by the user if you prefer:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Azteca

Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop. three of which can be safely deleted (Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and shortcuts to a free online game which vary each week). Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch task bar, make sure you uncheck the box when the additional tasks window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window)

Introduction:

For this challenging riddle, you'll need a quick eye and tactical skills to move forward. You'll need to think outside the box to make it very far, but plenty of advantageous bonuses will help you. You have to be quick to collect all the missing words and solve the ancient mystery. Time is against you in Azteca.

Reference accessed HERE. 2017

Main Features:

⦁ 150 levels
⦁ power-ups
⦁ Special effects

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Azteca to work please visit the problems section, which you can find HERE

The Game:

As many digital diversions as we see exploring peripheral aspects of ancient Aztecs’ lives (e.g. ceremonial masks and glittering gold), it’s a wonder more don’t delve deeper into this culture’s fascinating lore and mythology.

Suddenly here to fill the void comes a fresh, head-scratching outing called Azteca, an intriguing spin on the typical "match-three" puzzler that challenges you to save the storied civilization by uncovering words of wisdom its gods secretly seared into stone.

Despite a sense of pacing that’s arguably too relaxed for most, it’s yet another excellent entry into the casual gaming canon (now over 10 years old) , and one you should try out before you decide it's just another match 3. This is certainly a different take on the usual fare.

First things first; though there’s only one play mode, rest assured it’s a winner. Swapping between stages – self-contained scenarios composed of randomly-shaped grids of hexagons, each containing a differently colored stone – you’ll tackle the adventure a single level at a time. The core objective throughout: Remove all rocks with letters stamped upon them, thereby spelling words such as "stile" and "basalt" and drawing closer to uncovering hidden messages between each mission.

The big twist here is the way in which you make linear matches of three or more stones. (A process which, naturally, causes all objects involved to disappear from the board, creating gaps soon filled by rocks which tumble down from above…) To be specific: Select a stone with your mouse, and both it and two adjacently-situated companions actually rotate clockwise around the particular hexagon you’ve chosen.

Remove four or more in a single fell swoop, and you’ll also be awarded a power-up bonus. Such extras take the form of explosive stones; flaming bolts which zap outwards, destroying all in their path; or carved granite faces that spit fireballs in the direction they’re currently facing when clicked on. Of course, there’s also a slowly-shrinking time meter you must constantly worry about, although you’re seldom pressed for precious seconds, thanks to the title’s leisurely action and generous (some might even say almost laid-back) tempo.

Given this limitation, it’s to developers credit that the title remains as persistently engaging as it does. For starters, environments come alive with motion – there’s always something on-screen sparkling, shining or disappearing with a twinkling poof. Level design work is excellent too: Some stages make use of color-activated switches, others glass that breaks when stones fall atop it and still more lava fields that generate exploding boulders – needed to destroy brick-like obstacles – when matches are made upon them.

Nonetheless, I seldom felt challenged while breezing through its 150 levels. Much as vocabulary and secret missives are part of the adventure to boot, opportunities to insert word game-style sub-quests aren’t truly capitalized on. In other words, the title’s creators have done a fine job of putting together a basic, audio-visually engaging outing that introduces a cool play mechanic and some captivating uses for it. They just haven’t taken the next step of building upon this foundation, lacing in other game styles and lavishing time on value-enhancing peripheral features.

No problem there – far be it from us to complain about a concept this viable even without such lavish window-dressing. Still, you do pay a price for the pleasure of experiencing it, in the form of high system requirements that occasionally cause your computer to crunch along and slow in the middle of otherwise fluid engagements.

It’s hardly a show-stopping gaffe; just a little something we noticed while tinkering around on our test PC. So don’t let it stop you from digging in and exploring Azteca’s splendorous confines – after all, an initial turn this good deserves a bigger, better sequel. Intenium: Are you listening?

Edited and updated reference accessed HERE. Original review written by Scott Steinberg January 2007 Edited by Whiterabbit-uk 24th March 2017

Other Reviews and Videos of Azteca:

You can see community reviews of Azteca HERE and more information in the Big Fish forums HERE, and you can see a video of game play HERE.

Conclusion:

Not to be confused with the bubble popping version of the same name, which we've been given several times since this project started back in Dec 2006. This Azteca is another different take on the match three genre, that reinvigorates the genre somewhat. Unfortunately there is no untimed mode, but you do get a generous amount of time to complete a level, so if your game play is of the slow and measured type, you should still be able to easily complete this game, though later levels in this 150 level behemoth do get tougher as you progress. Well worth the download in my opinion, 7.5 out of 10 for the different match three mechanic, excellent graphics and challenging game play, (at least in the later levels).

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Azteca and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games, in this case Steam keys.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If you have a problem running today's game you can find help in the FAQ's thread HERE.

I've updated the games section that used to be posted with the review. The thread is now called 'Weekly round up of game deals', formerly the games section of the weekly reviews. You can find the new thread (which I've posted in the sticky section of the game discussion forums to make it easier to find if you are perusing the game discussion forums) HERE.

If today's game giveaway 'Azteca' doesn't appeal, you may find other games either free or for less than the price of a cup of coffee via the 'Weekly Roundup of Game Deals' thread which I've posted a link to above, or HERE.

The free game over on Origin is now Siberia II. It is a third-person puzzle-solving game. Stylistically identical to the first Syberia, Syberia II improves upon the first game by introducing more realistic character animation. The game includes a recap of the first chapter, so does not require the player to have experienced the first game.. You can get it HERE. Please note that you do require the Origin game platform to be able to download and install the game.

You will also find lots of deals over on Green Man Gaming and Big Fish Games usually have 70% off the first game you buy from them, plus they also have other deals occasionally. Alawar, Gamehouse and Playrix entertainment have free games available (usually online versions) and other game houses such as the AAA distributors Ubisoft and Origin always have some games on sale. I've updated the Weekly roundup of game deals HERE to include a large list of other sites where you can find games on sale ( e.g. Origin, uPlay, GreenManGaming etc, as well as links to free online games plus gaming news sites such as Rock Paper Shotgun and Game Seek, and included a list of free to play Massive Multiplayer games such as World of Tanks, World of Warships (both very popular), Liberators and Allegiance to name a few. For more details please go to the Weekly roundup of game deals over in the game discussion sticky section HERE.

P.S. Important time limited information:
⦁ If you didn't win a copy of Whispering Willows the other week, Indie Gala are featuring it in their Gemseeker bundle. As time passes the price goes up. At the moment (13.30 UK time) you can get the game for $1.06 HERE. The deal ends in 2 days 21 hours from now. (approx Tuesday 10am UK time). Do remember, the longer you leave it the more it will cost.
⦁ Also see Delenns post about other free Steam keys over in the giveaway game discussion forums HERE.
⦁ If you've purchased games from Dot.emu the site will be permanently closing on 1st June 2017, so make sure you've downloaded a copy of each game you purchased from them as from that date onward the domain will no longer be accessible. To download your games go to the website HERE and login. Then to the top right of the screen you should see your profile. Select My Games and download each one. To ensure you have copies make backups of each game. During installation you should find the games executable files in the AppData folder/Local/Temp folder. Though it may be under a coded name. Once you're sure you've found the correct file, copy it then rename the copied file to the name of game you are installing, then back it up. If you find it difficult to accomplish this, an already installed version should be okay. whenever you need to re-install it all you need to do is copy and paste the whole folder to wherever you keep your games, then create a desktop shortcut. If you prefer shortcuts in the Start menu, there's a simple way to accomplish this, just Google the process. :). All games from DOT.Emu are DRM free, so you should be able to back up working copies of all games purchased; (thanks for the heads up Delenn).

There are 2930 games on sale over on Steam at the moment, with up to 91% off. Game prices range from as little as £0.15p (most of these cheap games are actually cheaper in the UK than the US, so if you are a US citizen and have a UK friend, get them to buy the game for you). There are almost 350 games and dlc less than $1 and almost 400 for less than £1. You can find all of the deals HERE.

If you spend more than $2 in the Indie Gala store you'll also get a free copy of Between Me and the Night worth £9.99/$14.99, plus there are loads more deals with excellent discounts of up to 85% that you'll find HERE. If you didn't win a copy of whispering willows the other week, Indie Gala are featuring it in their Gemseeker bundle. as time passes the price goes up. At the moment 13.30 UK time you can get the game for $1.06 HERE. The deal ends in 2 days 21 hours from now. (approx Tuesday 10am UK time). do remember, the longer you leave it the more it will cost.

The Humble Store features loads of discounted games (usually Steam codes). If you subscribe to the Humble Monthly, which costs $12 a month (or less if you choose various monthly plans) you not only get a large collection of decent Steam games you will also get for the first month of the subscription The Witness(worth £29.99), which was released last year (Jan 21016). The great thing is, you can cancel at any time, so only need to receive the first bundle of games. I personally haven't bothered, but only because I usually have already purchased most of the games included in the monthly bundle. The usual savings on the games you get are around 90%, not counting the introductory offer. There's also lots of games on sale over on the Bundle Stars and Indie Game Stand (IGS).

Giveaway Team Contact and Moderation policy:

Since the introduction of the VPN blocker and the Captcha requirement before you can post, the number of spam and troll comments have been reduced significantly. Assuming this continues to improve, i will be removing this section from this review to cut down on the length of the review. :) The following is continued from the first paragraph at the beginning of this review This is a site that gives free games away, so it was quite shocking to see the number of negative and sometimes inappropriate comments that were being posted here, especially when they are not even related to the actual game that we receive. I always though getting something for free was a privilege/perk/treat/ and deserves at least some thanks or gratitude and still cannot understand why we got so many negative comments that possibly turn away potential developers who would otherwise have given the project their games. Then again, having researched the mentality of trolls and spammers I've come to understand some aspects of the problem and because of that have chosen to totally ignore most comments from such people. Of course we have freedom of speech, but as mentioned in my review above, there are rules to posting in this comments section; even a free society requires rules and regulations to run properly, so please bear this in mind when posting a comment.

I believe if we get lots of decent feedback about the games we get here, more developers would be happy to give away their games. Seeing lots of complaints (and spam) instead of feedback about the giveaways will not persuade other developers to give their creations away for free, especially when they may have spent thousands of hours working on the creation. So please bear this in mind when posting your comments. Any comment not about the game for example complaints, or if deemed unfriendly or inappropriate, will be deleted (usually with no explanation) or added to the spam folder, which automatically black lists the IP address you used. Although I have enjoyed responding to many of those comments in the past, I will no longer waste my time answering comments from community members who should have read the moderation policy.

Negative feedback about the games given away will always be welcomed because they can also be very constructive for developers, however, complaining about the way the site is operating or problems about downloading or installing the games or about Steam keys not received should be directed to the giveawayoftheday team via the contact form (with evidence of completed tasks, the name and email you used to enter the competition, or giveaway). I've linked to the contact form HERE; alternatively, if the problem is game related and it is late in the day (I can't moderate 24 hours a day), please also post your issue in the forums where you may get a response from the community. All games given away here have been thoroughly checked using several anti malware suites to ensure a safe download and in the 10 plus years this site has been operating, there has never been a game infected with malware. If your security software flags an issue, it's probably the Themida code that is used to protect the game from hackers or sometimes the non invasive adware that MPC games use. Themida code can also be used to hide malware, so some security software's will automatically block anything with Themida code, even if it's absolutely safe to install. also other computer configurations (i.e. the way you have your computer set up) may have blocked the install. Often, such problems are related to your computers set up. i.e. your security may block the installation (for example quite a few game giveaways I've installed have been blocked by my copy of Zemana Anti-malware suite) Also please read the moderation policy which can be found HERE and if you do have a problem please check the FAQ's thread HERE. Thank you for reading.

FREE game offer from the moderator in exchange for quality feedback:

I've posted a list of those who have won a key either for posting a decent comment about the game being given away, or posting consistently on a weekly basis. Here is the up to date list of winners. I still haven't sent out any games becasue I was hoping to do it all in one go, but some winner has still not responded, so will try to send out the keys by the end of this weekend. Check your emails for your keys soon. :) Everyone who has chosen a game will get their first choice so far. I've recently added more games to the list and am slowly adding video of game play for each game to give you an oppetunity to see what the game play is like; so, if you've already chosen a key, you are welcome to change it if you wish before I send the keys out. Things have been extremely manic for weeks now which is another reason for the delay in sending out keys. Sorry for the delay.

⦁ tinyearl for Turtix 2: Rescue Adventures
⦁ Torque for Turtix 2: Rescue Adventures
⦁ Torque for Sea Legends
⦁ Mavadelo for Exterios plus other comments
⦁ JBurt for Exterios plus other comments
⦁ Terri owed from last summer
⦁ johnfranklin1944 owed from last summer
⦁ JoeJ for Exterios
⦁ JBurt for Exterios plus other comments 2 keys as i owe from last year.
⦁ neme for consistently posting comments weekly
⦁ tinyearl for Secret of six seas
⦁ Thomas Zwilling for Secret of six Seas
⦁ Lee C. for consistently posting feedback
⦁ delenn13 for consistently posting feedback
⦁ idluckyone for Whispering willows
⦁ Mavadelo for Old Clockmaker's Riddle
⦁ Torque for Aerie - Spirit of the Forest
⦁ JBurt 2 Steam keys for her daughter who is in hospital
⦁ Fran for posting helpful comments

You'll find the list of over 200 Steam games in the forums HERE and will be adding more as time permits over the coming weeks. I will assume if you don't reply within a few weeks you aren't bothered about a key. Please post your preferences (list at least 3 games in order of preference via the link above, thankyou. Happy gaming.)

Depending on the quality of the feedback, I may choose to award games to more community members for each game given away, 'at my discretion'. The feedback must be about the game, and it must include a couple of paragraphs of feedback following the guidelines I've posted in the suggestions section of my review. i.e. your opinion of the game, what you liked and/or disliked plus suggestions for improvement. If you choose a game that is very cheap I may give you a second game; so, when choosing from the list I provide, please list more than one choice. If a game is chosen by more than one community member and only one key is available the key will go to the one I deem the most useful. I do have multiple keys for quite a lot of the games I've listed, so, don't be put off if you see someone else has chosen the game you want. I haven't indicated any of the games I have multiple keys for (though for example I do have several keys for the excellent Western themed AAA game Call of Juarez, which i picked up for free for purchasing several games via the Indie Gala store several months ago. spending a few dollars got me a copy of the game, so I made several separate purchases over a couple of days while the offer was still live.

I do own at least three community members a game from the previous giveaways that I posted several months ago. I'd totally forgotten about those. I do have a document with their names on, so they will get a game from the original list when I find the document (I'm extremely disorganized); or they can peruse the new list and choose something different. Just post a comment over in the forums in the appropriate thread. If you do post feedback with a view to getting one of the games and think you have covered the requirements, you don't have to do anything until I announce the winners the following week.

Please remember, this comments section is mainly for feedback about today's game giveaway. If you're not sure, read the moderation policy, which you can see HERE