Sponsored Links
Cradle of Egypt is a Match 3 game steeped in Egyptian history. True to its name, you will gather different resources to build your city and honour the glory of your patron deity Ra, God of the Sun.
Enjoy the history lessons along the way!
The game starts with a beautiful cutscene depicting the beginning of creation as believed by the ancient Egyptians. In it, there was only void, until Ra was born from a flower and rose the land, bringing with him the Sun Disc. As he wept from the beauty of his creation, humans were born from his tears, and Ra sent them to populate the land.
The whole scene is animated in gorgeous 2D and it is very colorful. It really conveys the glory of Ra as the ancients saw him. The rest of the game tries to stay true to this solemn tone, even in areas where other games might take a more childish route. You will see your workers and builders make farms and houses, and while you see them from afar they are not made cartoony. They are, for the most part, human in proportion.
As you play the Match 3 game, the backgrounds are heavily detailed and even animated in some areas. It is all keeping with the theme of ancient Egypt, with even camels grazing and the like.
While the tiles of the Match 3 game are all very thematic, a lot of them also serve a more practical purpose, therefore the images being simple, plain and clear helps in the strategy of that game mode.
The game starts you off with a Match 3 style puzzle game to gather resources, a classic gameplay mechanic seen in many Windows 10 games. With its familiar Match 3 gameplay where you need to match three or more tiles to clear them, score combos by matching more tiles, and eliminate golden tiles for bonuses, it utilizes the style perfected by many casual puzzle games
Where this game differs is in the strategy surrounding the resource management. You see, you might not want to finish the level right away. While there is a bonus for doing levels quickly, certain tiles give special things regardless of where or when they are matched. These are the tomatoes and brick tiles, which give food and materials, respectively.
Aside from gold, there are two other critical resources you need to construct various structures. It might be tempting to rush through levels, but consider taking your time in each stage to gather all the tomatoes, for instance. There's an advantage to constructing buildings one by one as they unlock unique bonuses. For instance, the mine pick power up becomes available once you build the mine structure. Completing a mini-challenge while playing regular Match 3 levels can permanently reduce the meter for this power up.
There's a plethora of these power ups, each represented by their distinct tiles. You can only utilize them if you match enough of their respective icons. As more power ups are unlocked, the strategic choices in gameplay become increasingly complex, much like in free mahjong games.
The goal of the game is to praise Ra by building a city in his honor. To do this, you need the required resources detailed on each building; at first it will only be gold, but a few more will be added. You collect these on the Match 3 mode of the game.
Once you have enough resources, you still need to play minigames in order to begin construction. These are actually really good auditions to the game, since they are all thematically tied to the building being made, and are quite varied between them. The art in them is also quite charming, while keeping with the solemn tone of the game. They are skippable, however, since the main gameplay is Match 3 and it is advertised as such.
Once the building is ready to be made, you can see your little workers going at it in a small dust cloud, where we can see the different stages of construction quickly pass by as within seconds, we have our requested edifice made.
Cradle of Egypt is in its exterior another Match 3 game, but has its own level of depth and the setting is original enough that makes this game a must try!
If you enjoy these free games, you will love this list of our 10 Best Match 3 Games!
