The Treasures Of Montezuma

In Brief

A match three game (one of my favorites). Treasures of Montezuma was originally given away Nov 19th 2007 HERE where it recieved a positive 92% positive out of 419 votes, then it was given away again Oct 19th 2014 where it received a positive 82% out of 393 votes. We've also been given Treasures of Montezuma 2 HERE (Dec 21st 2014), Treasures of Montezuma 4 HERE (26 Nov 2017) and Treasures of Montezuma 5 HERE (24th Dec 2017)

Introduction:

In The Treasures of Montezuma, you'll do more than match ancient artifacts and activate powerful magic totems. You'll also follow the beautiful and clever Dr. Emily Jones as she solves a mystery that can transform the world. The beginning of her quest takes her to the mountains of Mexico, where she makes an astounding discovery that sets the archaeological world on fire. But that's only the beginning of the challenges she'll face. With 41 levels over 5 episodes, 4 bonus games, 8 bonus levels and 7 Power Totems to activate.

Reference accessed HERE. 19th May 2019

Installation:

The Treasures Of Montezuma downloads to a 41.4 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper the set-up file and a read me). The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed if you wish. The installed game is approximately 50 MB in size.

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\The Treasures Of Montezuma

Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop; the shortcut to the game, plus three others ''Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and a shortcut to a free online game. These latter three shortcuts can be deleted once the game has been installed. The Themida wrapper may alert your security and even block the installation; there are details about this issue in the read me that unpacks from the downloaded zip file.

The Game:

When this was first given away almost 12 years ago, one particular community member said the only decent match three was Bejeweled, after that there were all clones. Well to a certain extent I agree, but that's the same with virtually every game released today. The difference between Bejeweled and the first Treasures of Montezuma game was a few years and a much better game play experience, at least for those who like a challenge and don't mind timed levels. If you do like a challenge and don't mind timed levels, Treasures of Montezuma is definitely a must have. I'm sure many here have already played, or indeed still have a copy of this game. If you don't I would recommend downloading it as it has some excellent features that have since been duplicated in many other match three games.

The game mechanic remains the same as most match three games, i.e. match three or more gems to create a group and remove them from the board. however The Treasures Of Montezuma is much more than the basic mechanic a sit has the ability to upgrade the power totems you've earned in between levels, which can be earned by creating specific matches as well as updating them with additional multipliers to make them much more powerful (similar in concept to Sky Bubbles Deluxe which was given away early in the giveaway project back in early 2007) makes today’s giveaway a much more attractive package with better ‘game play’ and is a lot more interesting than Bejeweled, besides the graphics, which I know are not the most important point with a game such as this, are still nonetheless far more attractive and for me at least make the game more enjoyable to look at. Bejeweled may have four game modes, but, apart from the puzzle mode, which I do like (Luxor 3 has a similar mode) the other three modes, Classic, Action and Endless are virtually the same. Montezuma , unlike Bejeweled, also has an awards system, which you can find in a lot of arcade games of this ilk these days, which (IMO) adds a little extra interest and is an incentive to continue playing the game instead of just swapping crystals around for an indeterminable amount of time without much else to gain from it. Besides today’s game also has a story-line attached to it that adds even more interest to the game. All these extras are beautifully rendered with excellent art work and the music in my opinion is more listenable than Bejeweled, although the music for that game isn’t bad.

There's much more strategy involved to Montezuma as well, because to open up most of the totems you have to create specific combinations of matches, for example to gain the fire totem, you have to create two groups of red matches in a row; and instead of only two power ups possible in Bejeweled, which are very basic indeed and cannot be upgraded, (and therefore become a little boring after awhile), you get 15 different power totems with The Treasures of Montezuma, all of which can be upgraded between three to four times to make them even more powerful. At the end of every level you are awarded a star which can be added to any of the totems that are unlocked to increase their strength. For example adding a star to the TNT totem will add a greater area of destruction. This in conjunction with the frenzy mode that is unlocked by multiple combo’s can result in massive score bonus’s. Of the 15 totems available I had two available to upgrade, which were the TNT totem as well as a Gems multiplier, which enables more gems to be shown within tiles during a level (you have to collect a specific number of gems by including them in matches to end the level. If you run out of time you lose). Other totems I was able to see, but were not active yet were a time totem that increases the time the level lasts and a Score Frenzy totem, that boosts you score by collecting the sand that results from destroyed tiles. (This will become clearer when you see it in action…. most gems contain a certain amount of sodium and potassium silicate, which is sand, so the animation is quite appropriate)

Today’s game has a much more interesting and exciting game play than many Bejeweled clones, and more importantly has a lot more replayability. A puzzle mode would have been nice, but hey who’s complaining, later versions of Montezuma included some nice features, though I found the second in the series a little harder than the first. This one still remains my favorite of the whole series.

The options menu has the usual music and sound sliders as well as two quality toggles and a wide screen and full screen/window toggle. The help menu describes the basics of the game, but you will need to play the first level to see and appreciate the power totems I mention above. At the end of each level you are presented with a page where the totems are stored. Early in the game many of the totems cannot be seen, although there is a silhouette.

Whiterabbit-uk 19th May 2019

Conclusion:

Looking back on previous giveaways of this game, there has been some useful advise to help those who are new to the game (see links to the original giveaways above in the introduction), for example:

I) ... You have to be careful when trying to make color matches in a row for bonuses. You need to select the color tile to create the match you require, usually to achieve a totem bonus, and not the other color, if both make up a match, becasue if for example you require two orange matches in a row and on the second match you have the opportunity to make two matches, be sure to select the orange tile to make the match and not the other color match as the second match will not count towards getting a totem bonus.

2) ... The most important thing to consider is collecting the right number of gems before the timer runs out. Thankfully, as you progress, some of the totems give you extra time when you create specific matches. The whole game is steeped in strategy, some skill as well as luck. Previous advise from community members includes which upgrades are the most valuable for example "Number of gems on the screen at once", "Time to complete a level", the Harvesting Totem and the Time Totem''

This is certainly worth 8 out of 10 for its excellent game play, gorgeous graphics (though maybe a little dated by today's standards)and replayability. It has been among my favorite quality match three games (together with the Zuma series and last Bejeweled game) ever since I first played it 12 years ago and to be honest, I've never actually managed to complete the game to the last level (i.e. level 5.12), usually because I always run out of time and become frustrated with repeat tries.

Videos of The Treasures of Montezuma:

You can see several in-game videos of game play HERE (levels 1 & 2 - 40mins), HERE (level 5-1 to 5-12 - 1hr 36mins)), HERE, HERE (level 1-1- 2 mins), HERE (levels 5-7 to 5-12 - 56 mins) & HERE (Russian - levels 1-1 to 1-3 - 3 min).

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity HERE; or If you prefer to purchase the game you can get it HERE via Big Fish Games. You can find all five versions of The Treasures of Montezuma for free via MyPlayCity HERE. If like me you like Steam versions, you can get Treasures of Montezuma 3,4 and 5 on Steam , and respectively

Problems getting the game to work:

If you're having problems installing or activating or getting The Treasures of Montezuma to work please visit the FAQ's Thread HERE and read through the communities comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted, for example, a common issue seen since the Themida wrapper was introduced three years ago is that some community members installation of the game are blocked by their security because Themida code has been known to hide malware, (usually an error message is flagged for example 'The executable is corrupted' even though in reality it is not); so as a precaution some anti malware programs will block and even delete the suspect installation files even though the files (i.e. the setup, read me and setup.gcd files are actually totally free from malware. This issue can be solved either by rebooting your computer in safe mode with networking or a quicker method is to temporarily turn off your security software to allow the installation. You could also try white-listing the setup.gcd file. In the almost 12 years this game giveaway site has been operating there has 'never' been a game given away that was infected with malware.

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

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away The Treasures of Montezuma and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If The Treasures of Montezuma doesn't interest you, but you still hanker for something new to play, you'll find details of some game deals whether they be sale items, indie bundles or games being given away for free HERE (I've not updated the thread in a while, but most of the links still take you to the latest deals).

The rest of the information that used to be posted in the game review can be found in the forums HERE. Finally, check out Delenns threads for details of other free games and offers HERE and elsewhere in the game discussion forums HERE, (usually on the first page of the game discussion forums). Also, check out the free games available via Indie Gala HERE (they have added Antisquad and War of the Human Tanks recently) and the latest game from Epic Games called Stories Untold a narrative-driven experimental adventure game HERE worth £6.99/$9.99/€9.99/₽249. The next free game via Epic Games starts on 23rd May and will be RiME an atmospheric exploration game worth £29.99/$34.99/€ 34.99/₽499; also, there are nine pages (15 games per page) of free games available via Steam HERE