7 Wonders II

Pros:
Magnificent graphics attract me deeply, rcokin' and mysterious sound effect lures players to replay it for times.

Cons:
It often crashes and there seems a little wrong with installation.

Game Review:
There is only one wonder (Egypt Pyramid) survived through historical river according to the old concept of Seven Wonders. Of course, there are lots of historical buildings and they can be seen as the sequential wonders to replace the old ones.

What are they? The new 7 wonders include Stonehenge, The Colosseum, Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, Shwedagon Pagoda, Angkor Wat, the Statues on Easter Island. Yet there is another wonder which is secretly hidden in the game; you won't find it until you've collected these seven wonders together.

With guidance from the foreman, the builders toil at the bottom of the screen lifting the fallen bricks from tiles broken during matching and transporting them to the construction. It is hard to watch the workers while busily matching three or more runes, but you can catch them dancing and celebrating the end of a level. As a player gets closer to completing the level, there are fewer bricks for the workers to pick up and they might go on strike or leave. Thankfully, the strikes don't happen as easily or in a maddening and distracting way as it did in the original.

An ice ball that you can use any time to destroy a whole row of runes appears when matching four runes. Create a match of five runes for a fireball that burns tiles in both a column and row. After using several freeze or fireballs, get a dice bonus that wipes out random tiles and wins bonus points. That's a lot of help, but there's more. The game has 12 power-ups to earn along with a shuffle bar for mixing up the pieces when running out of moves. As players earn power-ups, they can pick one to use in the level and can use it again after recharging.

Every level of 7 Wonders II contains a bonus leading to the revelation of a map piece or a secret bonus mini-game, which appears after finishing the map found in each wonder. Together, the seven pieces of the map lead to an eighth locale. In the mini-game, players have a select number of moves they can make to help an item make it to the bottom of the board. Some only allow one move and others permit three moves. The mini-game challenges players to rely on logic to make the right moves to free the star, cornerstone or other object.

While the mini-game progressively increases in difficulty, the main game doesn't get difficult until the start of the second round and onward. 7 Wonders II offers the right amount of challenge to those who haven't played many match three games, while experienced match three players can get through the first round quickly and enjoy discovering all the wonders, and then go to work during the second round.

The game comes with two modes: Regular for building the wonders one by one, and free play where you can revisit and play any unlocked wonder except the secret one. After completing construction of all eight buildings, the game enhances its replay value by assigning you a rank and taking you back to Stonehenge without starting over on points or difficulty.

Anyone disappointed with 7 Wonders of the Ancient World should try the immensely improved 7 Wonders II. For those who haven't played the original, skip it and head straight to the sequel.