If we have been to suggest one in every of 8floor Video games’ sequence (and there are numerous), we’d in all probability plump for Argonauts Company. There isn’t an enormous distinction between this sequence and the numerous Gnomes Backyard, Misplaced Artifacts and Roads of Time video games, however there’s simply one thing cleaner and easier about Argonauts Company. We’re followers of the Greek Mythology setting, the concentrate on gathering somewhat than puzzling, and the fog of struggle mechanic it typically drafts in.
Saying that, and having performed 4 of the Argonauts Company video games now, this isn’t the one we’d counsel you play first. It’s the least partaking sport within the sequence, and falls foul of one in every of 8floor Video games’ perennial issues: it’s on the buggy aspect.
The opposite three video games within the sequence dabbled in myths that we have been conscious of beforehand. The Golden Fleece, Pandora’s Field and Hand of Midas are all tales that we grew up with, however we now have to plead ignorance on the Chair of Hephaestus. It is a chair that, as soon as sat in, traps the proprietor ceaselessly. I’ve been on sofas which might be a bit like that. Jason and Medea are on a mission to free Pelias who has fallen foul of the chair, and that appears to contain navigating Greece looking for substances (yeah, we don’t know why both).
Basing your story on a malevolent chair is an enormous punt, and it doesn’t repay. It’s laborious to get excited in regards to the chair as a menace, and the hunt can’t give you something to try this feels associated to mentioned chair. It’s all makework, and really, very skippable. However that’s been the case for about 90% of 8floor Video games’ output, so maybe we shouldn’t be shocked.
It’s all an excuse to get you doing a little useful resource administration. There are fifty ranges right here, they usually all ask you to do the identical factor: faucet on assets to assemble them, use these assets to assemble buildings, and anticipate the buildings to generate but extra assets. Assets are sometimes blocking paths, so amassing them will broaden your sphere of affect. And that’s it, actually – you’re given a listing of goals to finish, and thru producing assets you’ll be able to full them.
As with the opposite video games within the sequence, there’s treasured little in your means. A timer ticks down, however that’s solely there to find out what number of stars you get on the finish of the extent (after which use on a sort of one-armed bandit of power-ups). There are enemies, however they’ll’t damage you, not to mention kill you. They’re, in actual fact, glorified rocks and logs in your path, and you need to spend assets to beat them in precisely the identical means. Your biggest enemy is the stuff on the paths. You possibly can’t attain each location, so you want to allocate employees to the blockages which might be impeding you. That takes treasured time and a few hard-won assets.
This method makes the 8floor video games extraordinarily cozy, which is why they’re so profitable (or no less than profitable sufficient to launch roughly a sport monthly). They’re acquainted, threat-free, and as intimidating as a cuddle. It’s completely attainable to enter an out-of-body state the place you full a dozen ranges and marvel the place on a regular basis has gone. It can by no means be a recipe for prime scores, however it’s clearly generated an viewers.
As with the opposite Argonauts Company video games, that is even cozier than the others. In different 8floor video games it’s completely attainable to fail, as you spend assets that you simply want in a while within the stage. These video games are extra cerebral, as you anticipate what the extent requires from you, however we’re not followers of them. You possibly can’t anticipate a participant to calm down and pay periodic consideration: the 2 appear at odds. In Argonauts Company 3: Chair of Hephaestus, your greatest fear might be fatigue.
Certainly, fatigue is the abiding downside of all these titles. There’s solely a lot you are able to do with a single sport display, a maze of paths, and a few obstacles blocking these paths. We dare you to play greater than a dozen ranges in a row: we genuinely assume it’s inconceivable. At the same time as a comfortable sport, it feels interminable, and we regularly questioned if we unintentionally performed the identical stage twice in a row. That’s not a very good signal.
The place Argonauts Company 3: Chair of Hephaestus will get some bonus factors is its cave ranges. These make use of beacons that solely mild the way in which as soon as they’ve been ignited. For causes that we are able to’t fairly clarify, it improves the sport manyfold. You begin out with treasured few assets, making greatest use of the tiny nook of sport display that you simply’ve been given. After which a beacon is lit, and there’s a sudden reveal of latest stuff to do. That slow-reveal is cracking, and we are able to’t assist however want that 8floor Video games would go all in, making a sport that completely used the mechanic.
Elsewhere, some acquainted flaws come up. Too little will get launched from one stage to a different. Markets and portals add just a little technique, however it’s not sufficient. The three enemies are recycled, and solely 4 or 5 megastructures get launched over the course of the fifty ranges.
Probably the most predictable flaw is bugs. For a sequence that launches month-to-month, these video games are as stuffed with holes as Swiss cheese. We managed to get the sport to crash twice, whereas one achievement is totally unobtainable. For an 8floor sport, that’s truly higher than anticipated: save-game points and poor click on areas are rife of their titles. So, whereas these points crept up typically, they didn’t bodily cease us from enjoying.
Which leads us to a muted shrug of the shoulders. Argonauts Company 3: Chair of Hephaestus is the worst entry in the perfect sequence of 8floor resource-management video games. It averages out at round ‘meh’. It’s laborious to get enthusiastic about any of it: nobody goes to have nightmares about an evil chair, and the contents of every stage might be present in all the opposite titles. It’s a calming expertise, certain, however we received the sensation that the designers took a couple of too many days off, too.
