Review: The Timebuilders: Pyramid Rising

As much as I love a massive game that takes me days, weeks, sometimes months to finish, I also have a weakness for casual games. These are the games that are aimed at people who don't have the time for that much concentrated gaming, or who aren't interested in playing something quite so big. Casual games seem to fill that void perfectly: the levels are short, taking only a few minutes to complete. The stories and narrative driving the game are often simple. The gameplay itself is easy to grasp, and overall the game is perfect to pick up, play a level, and put away again.

I love most of these. There's one particular genre - hidden object - that I absolutely can't stand, but otherwise I'm usually easily hooked. My personal favourites are, ironically, time management games. I like the "big name" ones - Diner Dash, Cake Mania, Build-a-Lot, etc. - but the smaller name games are fun, too.

The other day, I downloaded a time management game called The Timebuilders: Pyramid Rising. As you've probably guessed, it has an Egyptian theme to it. The basic story of the game is of an angry god who threatens to force Egypt into complete darkness. A woman named Hattie and an architect, Senenmut, plan to unify Egypt by building a great monument to appease the god Amun-Re. That's it. See? Nice and simple.

The gameplay itself initially feels like a knock-off of Build-a-Lot, a game focused on building, buying, and selling houses. However, it soon proves that, while similar in one aspect, it has its own twists and unique elements. I was pleasantly surprised as well by the challenge. The first half of the levels are easy enough, and do not take long to figure out. Once you hit level twenty, though, the difficulty ramps up, and you have to really think out your strategy on some levels to complete it in time. I found several occasions where I had to look up a strategy guide to discover the best way to finish a level quickly.

That, sadly, was one of the downfalls. I found myself looking at a guide more and more toward the last handful of levels, but not just because of the difficulty. A common fault with casual games is that, because the mechanics never really change, only the level requirements, it will eventually get boring. By the time I reached level thirty, I was starting to be very bored by the constant, unchanging actions. I wanted more and more to just finish the levels quickly, without trying several times over to get them right, purely so I could get to the end of the game. (No, it never occurred to me to just turn the game off. I was only six levels from the end, how could I possibly give up when I was that close?)

The other two issues I had with this game were minor. One was the art style in the cutscenes. I'm not a fan of the style used, which was somewhat like anime but not quite. I found myself just reading the subtitles and not paying any attention to the (static) images on the screen. (The voices were annoying, too, actually. Perhaps the game would be better as a whole without those scenes.)

The second issue was with the story. For those who know their Egyptian history well, the story of a woman seizing the throne of Egypt, dressing herself as a man, and becoming Pharaoh despite her nephew being the true heir, will sound terribly familiar. It's painfully obvious it's based on what we know of Hatshepsut, who usurped the throne from her nephew Thutmose III. In real life, this didn't go over so well with her nephew, as he had her name removed from everything he could find the minute he became Pharaoh after her death. In the game, this is turned into a pretty little suggestion by "Hattie" in order to let her nephew begin his reign with a greaty legacy already behind it. For those who don't already know this, fine, no problem, that works. Anyone with the knowledge of the story's origins may find this a little too sugar coated, as I have.***

But then, perhaps I'm being too critical of a game that is intended for light gaming, not heavy criticism. While this isn't my favourite casual game, and it's definitely getting uninstalled in about two minutes, it was enjoyable enough for the last couple days, and certainly better than some of the other rubbish games out there.


*** I'd like to point out that this is my opinion of what happened. There are plenty of people with other theories and ideas. If you're interested in seeing more about it, I would start here, and work your way down. I choose to believe the more dramatic theory on this story. Go figure.