...........................................Moderator comment...................................

Please excuse the lack of moderation yesterday (Sat), something cropped up, Saturday late morning. Was out for most of the day.

Deep Voyage

In Brief

Deep Voyage is an eight year old Match Three puzzle adventure

Whether you like or dislike Deep Voyage please give some feedback about your opinion of the game, for example, what you liked or disliked about the game, and how it could be improved from your point of view . If you don't like this genre at all, please explain why. What improvements 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?

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE. It's basically the same game apart from the potential of having your home page changed, your browser provider changed or tool bars installed if you forget to uncheck the checkboxes that appear in the installation window and sometimes whenever you boot up an MPC game (not all MPC games do this once the initial installation process has been completed, but i have noticed several MPC games that i've installed prior to the giveaways do include the checkboxes whever you boot up the game, so to those who do download directly from MPC besure to uncheck those when you install the game and whenever you see a checkbox. If you want a version of the game that has no advertising and doesn't open your browser, you can get it from various outlets. for example Big Fish Games


HERE for £7.70, or if you are new to Big Fish 70% off.

The game downloads to a 34.6 MB zip file that unzips to four 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 41.4 MB in size, (which is larger than when we previously received this game, but that is because of the extra icons and internet links found in the MyPlayCity versiion). 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\Deep Voyage

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)

Somewhere deep under the ocean a little mermaid is dreaming of become the royal gardener to stay closer to the prince. To achieve it she needs to win several contests and create the best gardens ever. Help the poor child on her way by playing Deep Voyage! To get an outstanding garden for the hero you need to find upgrades on the ocean floor. You will find huge structures and colorful corals, antique pavilions and stairs.

To be successful in your searches it is necessary to complete easy tasks - point and click on groups of similar pieces and remove all tiles from the board. Power-ups and bonuses of Deep Voyage let you forget completely about the timer and play the game as long as you want. There are over 50 levels of underwater views with pleasant music. Explode bombs and activate row-cleaners to remove as many tiles as possible with just one click. Create chain reactions all over the board. Break locked pieces and destroy double tiles. Upgrade your gardens one by one and win contests, collect tokens to purchase even more bonuses, complete mini game puzzles that appear every so often and earn new images of the underwater world to add to the gallery and watch them any time you wish!

1) ... 200+ levels

2) ... 8 different power-ups

3) ... 24 upgrade levels

4) ... 10 bonuses

5) ... 3 anti-bonuses

6) ... 3 gardens to design

7) ... 15 jigsaw puzzles

Edited reference accessed HERE. 2016

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Deep Voyage to work please visit the problems section, which I've now incorporated into the FAQ's thread, and which you can find HERE

With the MyPlayCity Version when you boot the game up for the first time you'll see an advert for one of the online games available via MyPlayCity, don't click on that unless you wish to check out that particular game as well. Once loaded the game will play as the original developers intended (Released eight years ago). Whever you close the game down your browser will open to the MyPlayCity (MPC) home page, which earns MPC a certain amount of cash, some of which is paid to the owner of the license. To those who know how to stop your browser from opening when playing MPC games; all you are doing when you do that is reducing the income MPC earn, which will eventually impact on the number of games they can hold in their library. As the word spreads about being able to stop your browser from opening, which it inevitably will, this will eventually lead to sites like MyPlayCity and others like MPC such as Gametop, FreeGamePick, TooMyGames, Jenkat Games and others being forced to close or at best severly restrict the number of games that can give away. I have asked the community here not to post how to stop the browser from opening (and will delete any such comment), unfortunately the word is already out elsewhere and will only spread as time passes. Now onto the game.

There’s some good news and not-so-good news about Deep Voyage. On one hand, it’s a relaxing match-3 puzzle game to whittle away a lazy afternoon, but those looking for an innovative offering will be sorely disappointed.

The story of Deep Voyage involves a beautiful mermaid outside of the gates of the Underwater Kingdom, who dreams of becoming a royal sea gardener and winning the coveted design competition against some challenging peers. It’s up to you, dear puzzle gamer, to help the mermaid create a gorgeous underwater garden by playing through a number of levels.

OK, so the story seems like an afterthought as the game-play is similar to many other match-three “Collapse”-like diversions. For each of the 200 levels, each with a different 2-D board layout, your goal is to click on at least three adjacent gems of the same color so that they explode, disappear, and cause others to cascade down the board. Note: the same-colored gems do not need to be in a horizontal and vertical line, but they do need to be touching (such as an “L” shape or a rectangle comprised of 2 x 4 gems). In order to clear each level, however, all the wooden planks behind the gems must be destroyed first.

Tokens also appear on the board, and if you can destroy the gems underneath them until they eventually fall through the bottom, you can use them to build your garden in a number of scenes (most of which are unlocked to start).

Power-ups and obstacles also add to the fun. Examples of the former include ones that are already on the board, such as gems with lines through them that explode all the gems for you in a line or a column, or ones you can click to initiate on the board when you need it, such as exploding a nagging gem that is difficult to match with others (or swapping two gems on the board, called “Color Exchange”).

Obstacles, on the other hand, can be chains that need to be broken before gems cascade down the board below it. Or another kind of obstacle could be spaces on the board, meaning gems can’t be removed by making matches – rather, power-ups such as a horizontal line explosion may be the only way to destroy an isolated gem.

Every few levels players can partake in a jigsaw-like puzzle where you must swap two pieces on a board so that it makes up an image. These are ok, but we’ve seen these many times before, and frankly, the visuals aren’t on par as other games. Speaking of which, the whole garden building portion, where you simply click to add more to the unlockable underwater scenes, doesn’t really give you the incentive to keep playing.

Deep Voyage isn’t a bad game – it’s just one of those “eh” puzzlers that, while relaxing, proves to be a mediocre collapse-style diversion. The board layouts are interesting, and increasingly challenging, but the so-so graphics, upgrades and design competition theme make this a C-grade title at best.

Edited reference accessed HERE. 1st Oct 2016

Other Reviews and Videos:

You can see the giveawayoftheday community reviews of Deep Voyage from six years ago HERE, the Big Fish community also leave comments at the end of the games page on Big Fish HERE, and you can find out more information such as issues etc via the Big Fish forums HERE.

You can see some videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

Conclusion:

If you like match threes for their ease of play, relatively brainless game play (basically all you have to do is click on area's of the board where there are three or more tiles of the same type), includes simple mini games such as jig saw's, and power ups and the fact that there are 200 plus levels you can't go wrong with this average match three game. It's ideal for the whole family. Children may like the fish theme that pervades the backgrounds and the mermaid story. Overall it's very average and brings nothing new to the match three genre, that said, it is now over 8 years old. Match three's have undergone lots of changes since then, for example, the introduction of match threes with rpg elements as well a smore challenging mini games.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the MyPlayCity for giving away Deep Voyage minus the checkboxes 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:

The problems section that used to be posted here in the Game review is now included in the Game Discussion FAQ's thread; which you can find 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 was not to your liking, you may find other games either free or for less than the price of a cup of coffee (from your favorite coffee house) via the 'Weekly Roundup of Game Deals' thread which I've posted a link to above, or HERE.

.

The latest free game over on Origin is still Nox (not changed for over 2 months so look out for a new game soon). You can get it HERE. Please note that you do require the Origin game platform to be able to download and install the game. My Sunny Resort: Starter Pack is available over on Failmids Shareware-on-Sale site HERE,

The Crew is still available via Ubisofts uPlay client, you need to have a free uPlay account to be able to access the free game. Once it's tied to your account, it's yours permanantly. This is the last chance to get this excellent game from Ubisoft as the deal ends on Monday 3rd Oct, when it will be replaced by another as yet undisclosed game, which i'll add here next week. To get the game you have to log into your uPlay account, then click on the banner that says Ubisoft turns 30. This should open a new page where you can get The Crew added to your account. The Crew is also a premium AAA game and well worth getting, especially if you like open world racing games. To get The Crew the shareware link I've provided above isn't actually necessary. You just have to sign into your uPlay account and look for the Ubisoft turning 30 link, or if you don't have a uPlay account create an account HERE. Click on the green Join the Club button, get your free account, then get your free copy of The Crew.

If you spend over three dollars in the Indie Gala store (they have some excellent bundle deals, but these are excluded from the offer) you will also get a free copy (Steam key) of the post apocalyptic game 35mm (the link takes you to the discounted games, the Steam copy link takes you to the 35mm Steam page).

DIG are still offering free Steam keys for Hacker Evolution Time Dimensions and Crystals of time. To get keys for these two games you will have to do similar activities as you do for those Steam games that have been offered for the past several months over on the game giveaway site. You can find those free Steam key deals HERE (Hacker Evolution: Time Dimensions and HERE (Crystals of Time).