Jewel Quest III

In Brief

A match three game

Installation:

Jewel Quest downloads to a 67 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set-up file and a read me). To install Jewel Quest III click on the orange key file labelled ‘set up’ (not the setup.gcd) file. Those with multiple hard drives can save games on any drive they wish, just change the default installation path. The newly installed game is 74.5 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\Jewel Quest III

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:

Rupert and Emma’s daughter, Natalie, has been infected with mysterious spores while playing with a jewel board! Rupert and Emma have set off on an adventure to find the fabled Golden Jewel Board, an artifact only rumored to exist, and a cure for their daughter in Jewel Quest III. Use your Match 3 talents to progress through each level, unravel cryptic messages, and discover the identity of someone who claims to hold the cure!

Reference accessed HERE 15th Sept 2018

The Game:

Just when we thought the long-suffering Rupert was finally going to be able to settle down, a disaster strikes that sends him globe-trotting once more in Jewel Quest III, the second sequel to one of the most popular match-three games of all time.

Rupert and his wife Emma are on the verge of seeing their dream come true and opening a museum to showcase the various artifacts Rupert has collected over the years. But the couple’s young daughter Natalie suffers a horrible accident – while playing with Rupert’s jewel board she opens a secret compartment that releases dangerous spores into the air that turn her blind.

Suspecting his old nemesis, Sebastian Grenard, of planting the spores inside the board as revenge for stealing Emma back, Rupert must postpone his museum’s grand opening and travel the world once more in a search for a cure to Natalie’s blindness.

The core formula of Jewel Quest III is the same as its predecessors: match three or more jewels to clear them from the board and turn the tiles below gold. Turn the entire board gold before running out of time to clear the level.

The game’s first major departure is that the world is divided into regions that each offer a different variation on the gameplay. In Iceland, for example, some jewels are encased in ice that can’t be broken unless a special fire tile touches it and melts it, while in Australia the goal is to match 100 silver coins in addition to turning the board gold, and in China you’ll have to "trap monkeys" by manoeuvring monkey head jewels into special cage tiles.

South America is a turn-based region. Here, Rupert plays against either Emma or Hani. Each player takes turns making a move on the same board, and the first player to turn a certain number of tiles gold is the winner. There’s also a variation on this where each player has their own board and the goal is to turn your board gold before your opponent’s by making moves as quickly as possible.

As you clear one region, the next one will open up. Within that region, however, you’re free to play each level in any order you wish. The game’s story is still presented as Rupert’s scribbled diary entries, but because of the fact that you can leap around from level to level, there’s less of an overarching story to Jewel Quest III. Instead, you’ll read a series of disjointed vignettes that don’t always lead smoothly into one another. During one level, for example, the diary entry ended up with Natalie wandering off and disappearing, but in the next level she was just there again, with no resolution or explanation.

Another minor gripe is, surprisingly enough, with the graphics. Don’t get me wrong, the main menu screen, cleverly arranged as an interactive museum lobby, and the world map, which is represented as a rotating globe, are wonderful, and the pretty backdrops that have become a hallmark of Jewel Quest are present too. It’s just that there’s only one background per continent, meaning that, for example, the forlorn coastal ruins of Scotland’s Orkney Islands also appear in Norway, Finland and every other European stop on the world tour.

Like its immediate predecessor Jewel Quest II with its fiendish buried jewels, portions of Jewel Quest III are incredibly challenging, and the time limits imposed on every level certainly don’t cut a player any slack. Expect many levels to turn into races against the clock, which gets frustrating on some of the finickier boards when it’s easy to become stuck in awkward corners. I found myself wishing for some sort of power-up that would add more time to the clock, or even just freeze time for a spell.

Because of these foibles, Jewel Quest III is a game perhaps best enjoyed in shorter intervals rather than marathon sessions (unless you have either superhuman match-three skills, the patience of a saint, or a combination of the two).

That said, it’s nice that the gameplay changes up with every new continent, and Jewel Quest III offers great bang for the buck in terms of sheer length. You can go back and replay levels at any time, which bumps up the replay value, as does the popular Tournament mode, which makes its return and lets you play online against other real players on 40 different boards.

Reference accessed HERE original review by
Erin Bell on Jun 17, 2018; Edited and reposted by Whiterabbit-uk 15th Sept 2018.

Other Reviews and Videos of Jewel Quest III:

You can see community reviews of Jewel Quest III HERE, plus forum comment, suggestions and help HERE and a strategy guide HERE. There are several more videos of game play {……..SPOILER ALERT……} HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE.

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE; or If you prefer to purchase the game you can get it directly from Big Fish Games HERE. You can also get the following Jewel Quest games from MyPlayCity for free:

Jewel Quest I
Jewel Quest II
Jewel Quest: Heritage
Jewel Quest: The Sleepless Star
Jewel Quest: Seven Seas
Jewel Quest Mysteries: Curse of the Emerald Tear
Jewel Quest Mysteries: Trail of the Midnight Heart

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Jewel Quest III with the toolbars etc. removed and to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

Suggestions:

After you've had an opportunity to play Jewel Quest III please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback about the game; for example, what you liked or disliked, or how improvements could be made to make it more enjoyable and perhaps change your mind about this game? If you don't like Hidden Object games at all, please explain why? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience. These comments will always be accessible for as long as this site is open and provide a valuable resource for game developers, thank you. To access the comments once the giveaway is over, open the game giveaway to its home page then scroll to the bottom of the page where it says Archives and select the date the giveaway was live (giveaway days are in bold type). This will open up the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

I've updated the games section that used to be posted with the review. The thread is now called 'Weekly roundup 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.

The rest of the information that used to be posted here can be found in the forums HERE. Also, check out Delenns thread over in the game discussion forums for details of other free games and offers HERE

Having problems installing today's game?

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Jewel Quest III to work please visit the problems section, which you can find in the FAQ's thread HERE. Also read through the community’s comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted. The main issue we have is with the giveaway wrapper, which uses a Themida based code to protect the games executable. Unfortunately, Themida is also used to hide malware; so, as a precaution, some security software may block the installation and sometimes even delete the executable file. Blocking or deletion is usually determined partly by the way your computer is set up. Usually you'll get a message saying ''the file is corrupted'', but, the files are okay. There are a couple of things you can do to overcome this issue. The first is to reboot in safe mode with networking, install the game then reboot, or secondly you can (at your own risk) temporarily turn off your security, install the game, then turn your security back on. A note of reassurance to those that choose the latter and quicker method. The game giveaway team have been giving away games for over a decade (Dec 2006 & prior to that, via the main site 2 or 3 times weekly from Oct 2006 to Dec 2006) and have 'NEVER' given away a game infected with malware; they always test every giveaway with several of the top anti-malware suites to ensure all games are free from malware.

If for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, if you have a problem getting the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve or if you have a game to offer the community you can do so HERE