Jewel Quest Mysteries: Curse of the Emerald Tear

In Brief

Jewel Quest Mysteries: Curse of the Emerald Tear is a cross between hidden object and match three game. It's quite old by today's standards being released back in 2008, but has all the elements that make this a decent Hidden Object with match three elements game. My advice, especially if you enjoy both casual arcade genres is download now. :)

Introduction

Rupert and Emma plunge into the land of ancient intrigue, Egypt. Seek out treasures and jewels, hidden within stunning gardens and relic-laden palaces. Swap jewels to turn tiles gold in classic Jewel Quest boards, and decipher puzzles of logic and wit. Experience Jewel Quest Mystery: Curse of the Emerald Tear, a Hidden Object game shrouded in the lore of Jewel Quest and the mystique of ancient Egypt!

Reference accessed from Big Fish Games HERE 17th July 2020

The Game

Hidden object games meet Match-three puzzles in Jewel Quest Mysteries: Curse of the Emerald Tear, a new hybrid from iWin that fuses a seek-and-find adventure related to Egyptian lore with classic Jewel Quest gem-swapping.

While not the first to combine the two genres, it works in Jewel Quest Mysteries – but it’s far from a perfect experience.

Without revealing much of the story, Rupert and Emma are plunged into a mystery surrounding ancient Egypt and must visit the area, solve puzzles and unlock more of an intriguing tale told via journal entries and sketches.

The main type of game play is hidden object-based, a Where’s Waldo-like exercise in finding well-hidden objects in a busy indoor or outdoor scene. Along the left hand-side of the screen are a few items you need to find – a sword, pretzel, golf clubs and saucer, for example – within a specific amount of time. After you find and click the item it gets crossed off your list; when you find them all you move onto the map screen to select another location. If you click on an incorrect items three times you lose 30 seconds off the clock.

As with many other hidden object games, the items have nothing to do with the scene, and can be downright silly if you think about it, such as a dartboard hanging on the wall of an ancient tomb or a frozen popsicle in the middle of the desert. It doesn’t bother some gamers, but it sure annoys others. And yes, the obligatory hotdog is in this game, too.

You can also collect coins on each level, which can go towards the number of Hints you can click when stuck, as well as colored gems, used as a kind of currency when selecting an upgrade after every few levels. The upgrade screen lets you purchase something to help you along your adventure, such as more time added to the clock, additional hints or the ability to highlight a hidden object when the mouse is near it (called “jewel sense”).

Jewel Quest-like puzzles and other mini-games are also found here. You must swap adjacent gems on a board so that at least three have formed a vertical or horizontal row. Doing so destroys the line and new gems cascade down the board. To complete the level you must turn every square on this board to gold, which adds a new layer of strategy to your game. As with the Jewel Quest puzzle games this is based upon, the Match-three diversion was a fun break from the main game.

Another kind of puzzle was less intuitive and thus less enjoyable; it involves selecting the correct gems in the proper order and dragging a design it makes onto a board. You’re supposed to replicate a pattern or make the entire board gold — we’re not quite sure (the instructions are quite vague). Anecdotally, we asked two other people to play this mini-game and both couldn’t figure out the concept either. N.B. Note from the moderator. I found these mini games easy to figure. You get a specific number of gems, each one represents a portion of the board. You have to place the gems in the correct order to fill the board, but you'll find that if you place them in the wrong order you cannot fill the board with gold because in the wrong order any overlapping gold areas are cancelled out. i.e. you'll find gaps in the golden grid

Another beef with this game is some technical problems we had on one (fairly new) computer. It took a long time to load, ran slowly and crashed on occasion. The second computer we tried it on was just fine.

One other issue: when you revisit the same location, and you will early on in the game, the items are in the exact same place. Although you’re asked to find new items, you’ve likely combed the screen multiple times before, therefore you’ll find the new set of items much faster than the first visit. Some games change the location of all the items to keep you guessing.

We had a nice surprise while playing the game, though, if you see an iWin logo, click it, and you’ll be asked to go to a website to win $1,000 in a sweepstakes contest. It’s clever to weave it into the game-play itself

Jewel Quest Mysteries isn’t a bad game – in fact, the many levels and attractive music and graphics make it a relaxing casual game – but with a number of flaws it doesn’t rank as high as more polished hidden object puzzlers.

Review accessed HERE 17th July 2020. Originally posted by Marc Saltzman on Sep 15, 2008

Conclusion

I found Jewel Quest Mysteries: Curse of the Emerald Tear is a decent HOG that I've so far thoroughly enjoyed playing and that's coming from someone who has avoided these games for years after I got fed up of playing the genre when the market was flooded around the time this particular game was released 12 years ago . With the ability to purchase various upgrades (see the sixth image below for details of the various upgrades) by collecting jewels scattered among the scenes, for example increasing the number of hint slots as well as including match three and puzzle mini-games every few levels., this makes Jewel Quest Mysteries: Curse of the Emerald Tear a decent hidden object game (in my opinion). There's a decent story-line with, good music and acceptable graphics (considering this game is now 12 years old). The hidden sweepstakes addition was a nice feature at the time of the games release, but considering this games age; the sweep-stake will be long over. There are some issues, for example when collecting gold coins for your hints (you need 3) if you are at your maximum number of hints any gold coins you exchange will be converted to points instead of hints; (when you start you only have 2 hint spots that are called specials in this game, but ther ability to upgrade to add more hint slots is a great idea). Suggestion, if your hits are maxed out and your next gold coin makes a set of three, use a hint first (unless you want the points). Despite what the reviewer Marc Saltzmans suggests i.e. that this game is sub standard, I actually found it a lot better than many HOG's from the same period; it had all the elements of a decent HOG and included some nice additions such as the hint and upgrade system. Personally I got fed up of playing these games when the market was flooded a decade ago, but this would have been one of my favorites from that time. My time with it so far today has been very enjoyable.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway

Don't forget to check out the giveaway forums. Delenn has usually posted the latest freebies. The latest offering from Epic Games Torchlight II HERE. Next week we get Tacoma and Next Up Hero (ie Torchlight II). Just pop over to the game discussion threads HERE and HERE for links to most of the free games.

The Indie Gala developers freebies are available HERE (latest additions) and HERE (81 games in the Showcase, most full versions). Recent additions include Snow White Solitaire Charmed Kingdom, Adam Wolfe (Complete Edition) and Spirit of Xanadu, plus a couple I've previously missed in the showcase section called Temper Tantrum and Last Man Standing).

Until Sunday afternoon 5pm UK time you can get Warhammer 40 000: Rites of War free from GOG HERE (79% positive reviews from 6068 reviews).

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