Rome wasn’t built in a day, it was built over 100 levels of match-three, casual yet crack-like gaming frenzy! At least, that’s the case in D3 Publisher’s Cradle of Rome, where you’ll take the city from a field to the ancient capital decked out with famous landmarks such as the Parthenon and Coliseum.

There are two objectives in every level: to clear the blue “gate” tiles in order to advance, and to collect resources. In the first level, all you can get is gold (by matching three gold tiles à la Bejeweled) but once you can afford a sawmill, for example, you’ll be able to store wood as well. Then once you have enough gold and wood, you can buy a quarry to acquire stone.

There are six epochs in the game to work your way through, but I was assured the pacing is good enough that you shouldn’t feel like you need to grind a ton if you play with an average balance of harvesting and gate clearing.

The boards start out pretty simple, but obviously get a lot more complex as you go–later levels can take 30-40 minutes to finish, partially due to chained tiles that take multiple matches to clear. Don’t let the timer run out!

Luckily, as you progress you’ll unlock different tools to use for special effects, like a bomb that will explode a 3×3 grid, lightening that strikes ten random tiles, or a shield that takes out a whole row. Each stage randomly selects one power-up to feature on the board so that matching 3 of those tiles will refill that tool’s meter. Since your meter statuses carry over from stage to stage, it’s important not to blow them all in one place.

Clearly, Cradle of Rome is taking cues from Puzzle Quest, but it seems a lot less involved, as it’s not a full-on RPG. Still quite addicting, nonetheless; for $19.99, it may be worth zoning out with once it ships November 18.

Tags: Cradle of Rome

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