by Chris Nycum

Created on: September 12, 2008   Last Updated: September 17, 2008

4 Elements by Terminal Studio is a 2D puzzle oriented game in vein of Tetris meets Connect Four along with some other puzzles thrown in. While not a particularly unique game it does have its good aspects and.

The Storyline

The game centers on a fantasy world where four magical books representing each of the four basic elements (earth, air, fire and water) have become lost and scattered. Your goal is to locate and find all of pieces of the books which are represented by four magic cards per book. You accomplish this by re-energizing the four altars for each aspects of the four elements. Four is definitely the number in this game!

The Game Play

You begin with the Book of Earth. The game then divides into 3 different types of puzzles. The first one is a hidden object game where you have to build 3 objects whose pieces are hidden amongst a graphical picture of room with an altar. You merely click on the piece and it animates and becomes part of the object. Once you complete the first object (a key) you use it to open a chest that contains a piece of the next object and so on until you complete the level. You then are taken to the next series of puzzles which involve the recovery of the magic cards for the books.

Each card takes you to four (there it is again!) levels of a puzzle game where you have to energize the altar by lining up 3 or more energy crystals of the same color. This frees those crystals so energy can then flow through and they disappear while the crystals above drop down into those spaces. If you can line up more than 4 crystals it causes an explosion which frees even more at once and even more new crystals then slide into place. There are also tools such as a shovel and a bomb that you can eventually energize and use that help you clear different obstacles on the board. This goes on until you work your way across the field of play to the altar and energize it. Points are then tallied based on the time it takes you to finish the screen and the number of chains you make. Bonus points are awarded for longer chains.

Once you complete the four levels you are then taken to another different puzzle. This one is a picture of the magic card but it is doubled. They are 4 slight differences in the two cards however which you have to find and click on. Once this is completed you are awarded the card and it is placed in your book which then also unscrambles some of the text in the book. This goes on for each of the four cards of the book until you fill the book with cards and then you move on to the next book. During all this there is an animated fairy very much like Tinkerbell that explains the puzzles and how to play. This is initially helpful but eventually becomes an annoying time waster. Luckily you can turn her off.

The Bottom Line

While the puzzle game of energy crystals was entertaining the other puzzles seemed out of place to me and struck me as more of an afterthought. Also, the storyline seemed overly verbose and really could have been trimmed down some. The graphics are good and the animation is smooth and nice looking. The music was a pleasant classical fantasy. However, overall this game could have been set up better and for $19.95 for the full version it is not a great buy. Drop the price $5, dump the fluff and focus on the 64 levels of energy crystals which is the meat of the game anyway and it would have been a winner. I rate this game a 2 out 5.

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