New Software To Be Reviewed Review

"Mosaic: Tomb of Mystery" is a PC puzzle game from Reflexive Games. Your objective is use small shapes to fill in designated voids to build a bigger 'Glyph'. There are several shapes to choose from the Drop Zone, and the supply keeps coming. You have to be careful that the Drop Zone does not get congested with useless shapes. The Glyphs can be completed in several different ways to reveal the completed Hieroglyph, and its meaning is revealed after completion.

You can rotate the shapes with your mouse button, use two 'lightning' shapes to 'auto-fill' the space between the two, or make the shapes fold out to fill adjacent spaces. It's fun watching them get completed by themselves.

When the Drop Zone gets too crowded, you have three options:
1. Use the Crusher, located at the bottom, which crushes any shape you drop in it. But it takes some for the Crusher to 'recharge'!
2. You can either use Falcon 'Power Up' symbols. You collect them by filling up spaces with rubies hovering over them. You can use one Falcon to remove one unwanted shape at a time from the Drop Zone or the Glyph.
3. Or you can use the Obelisk, which is raised up when you have used a certain number of shapes. The Obelisk contains 'skeleton shapes' - shapes that can go anywhere. Of course, the number of shapes you can use from the Obelisk is limited, or can be increased by using the Obelisk Power-Up symbol.

Enemies like snakes will appear once in a while to eat up the shapes you've just put in place, so you have to kill them by dropping shapes on them. There are other power up symbols that guide you with shape placements.

Points are counted in proportion with the size of the shapes you put in the Glyphs. The bigger the shape, the more points you get. You get extra points by folding out shapes, by using lightning shapes, or by using shapes from the Obelisk. The Obelisk can be raised up slowly by dropping shapes continuously on the Glyph.

There are several 'rooms' in the Tomb, and you have to go in each room and complete the Glyphs in them to reveal their meanings. The information is used to solve the murder mystery of the boy king Tutankhamen (true story!). By solving the puzzles, you get useful information about who killed King Tut: Ay, the succeeding Pharaoh; Horemheb, the General and later, Pharaoh; or Ankhsenpaten, Tut's widow.

The objective is to use up as many shapes as possible and you make things easier by using newer symbols earlier. Don't let the Drop Zone get filled up!

There are two modes of gameplay: relaxed and challenge. In the challenge mode, your completion of Glyphs are timed.

The graphics are cool, yet simple. Animations are good. The narrating voice reads out useful hints, and glyph meanings.

In all, for $6.99 from Amazon, Mosaic: Tomb of Mystery is quite a good game to pass time and improve puzzle-solving skills. It can be addictive to some. Kids will definitely enjoy it!