Puzzle games these days come in every flavour and style. From the classic Tetris, to Minesweeper, Bejeweled and Peggle, it’s a genre where you never know where the next innovation or breakthrough will come from, but when one of these games breaks out, it can become immensely popular.

The current leader of the pack is Puzzle Quest, a veritable hydra of gameplay, blending Bejeweled style puzzles, a swords and sorcery plot, and strong RPG elements that redefined what a puzzle game can aspire to become. Unfortunately for all puzzle games to come since, they exist in the shadow of that colossus. To step out of the shadow requires a truly herculean effort, and while Alawar Entertainment’s Heroes of Hellas 2: Olympia does some things very, very well, it doesn’t bring enough to the table to truly break out. Which is really too bad, because the potential is certainly there. (PS, notice the historic references? Stay in school kids!)

Wrapped in the trappings of ancient Greek history, Heroes of Hellas 2: Olympia mixes match 3 style puzzling with modest city-building gameplay. In each of the 90+ puzzle levels, you connect lines of three or more coloured tiles as they move down a hexagonal grid, earning higher point tallies for longer lines and combos. A variety of power-up items, such as area-clearing bombs and lightning bolts can be activated by incorporating them into chains, while obstacles likes ropes and stones obscure your way and need to be cleared. The gameplay is easy for anyone to get into, while the challenge of creating increasingly longer and more complex chains is compelling.

There are a number of different objectives you’ll be tasked with, but they tend to fall into basic categories: clearing certain blocks off the board, and making other items fall to the bottom (and then off) of the grid. Its simple, but it works. Time ticks away on you as you work through each level; complete the level faster for more bonus points, but fail to complete it in time and you’ll have to restart. It adds a nice sense of urgency to the game, without (at least early on) making you feel like you have to race through the levels.

As the levels progress and new items are added, your strategies will have to adapt and grow as you’ll be asked to achieve more in less time, with more obstacles in your way. The difficulty curve feels just right, as you will see harder puzzles, new challenges and new powerups, without ever feeling like the game is jumping too far ahead of your abilities.

Outside the puzzle levels, the game allows you to use your earned points to improve your village, increasing the population and purchasing new buildings and improvements. In time, your village can flourish and grow into a thriving metropolis, with the residents and buildings informing you of new puzzles and challenges. Several of the puzzles also allow you to collect pieces of medallions. Complete the medallion, and you earn the favour of a god (and a nifty “click and find” minigame), earning special moves that can be deployed in the game, to varying effect. These special moves are hit and miss, and you can generally get through levels without even remembering they are available to you, though there are some moments when you’ll be happy they are available.

As far as basic puzzle mechanics go, Heroes of Hellas is one of the more enjoyable takes on the gem matching genre that I’ve played. The action is straightforward, but fast-paced and and becomes quite challenging, as the game adds increasingly challenging layouts that require opening up areas and destroying larger numbers of obstacles. It works well, of course, as a mouse or touchpad controlled PC title, and it definitely feels like it could translate well to an iPhone/smartphone or Nintendo DS title, as long as the screen real estate can be maximized.

One thing that’s missing from the start is a basic high score mode, though the game promises free play modes when you complete the campaign mode. While there is a nice variety of layouts and challenges in the puzzles, you only get to play those through the story mode. It would add great value to the game if you could easily and immediately go back and replay those levels to try and improve your score/time, or to simply have unlimited play.

However, while the puzzle play is well done, the city building aspect feels very under-developed. While you certainly don’t expect a Civilization or Sim City level of detail, what is present is incredibly linear and doesn’t really give the impression that you are actually doing anything. After each level, if you have earned enough gold, you can purchase new buildings, but there’s no real choice to what you can buy and in what order. With ancient Greek history’s tales of Athens, Sparta, Troy and other city states, the source material is certainly there to take the city building dynamic and make it more story and challenge oriented. It really feels like there could have been something greater there, perhaps even incorporating some kind of story, or perhaps that’s just holding Heroes of Hellas 2: Olympia to a higher standard than it aspires to. Again, the curse of coming after Puzzle Quest, but since there are a multitude of puzzle games out there, having an extra hook to entice players is essential, and in that regard, unfortunately, Heroes of Hellas 2: Olympia falls short.

With the strong puzzle gaming providing a great foundation, a greater emphasis on depth in the city-building component could make the next iteration of Hereos of Hellas a truly special game. Until then, Heroes of Hellas 2: Olympia is a fun challenge that is definitely worth checking out, especially if you will appreciate the added layer of ancient Greek culture.

A review copy was provided to GamerPops.