Silver Tale is a Match 3 game that takes the genre to another level. If you're looking for the best Match 3 game that offers nothing but pure Match 3 gaming, I recommend Bejeweled 3. If you'd like to play a Match 3 game that offers a bit more than just Match 3 gaming, Silver Tale is my personal new favorite I'd like to recommend to you.



There is a story: the king is sick and you set out to find a cure for him. That's it. You didn't expect a Match 3 game to be story-heavy, did you?



Match 3 games are games where you need to combine three or more of the same variety of tiles, usually by swapping two of those tiles. Silver Tale does that and it does it well, so it's a good Match 3 game.

But Silver Tale is a lot more than just a Match 3 game. You travel across an adventure map that marks 200 levels. Each of these levels is a match 3 challenge.

Basically, there are four types of tiles: stone, wood, food and alchemy bottles. Matching these, you acquire resources. Some of the tiles are colored red. To clear the level, you need to clear these red-colored tiles before your allotted number of moves runs down to zero.

If you don't manage to clear all of the red-colored tiles before running out of moves, you lose one of your five lives and have to restart the level. Your lives will slowly regenerate (one every 20 minutes).

Completing a level by clearing the red-colored tiles is fairly easy, but if you want the badge for clearing the level, you need to do away with every special thing on the board: tiles that hide resources, which can be proteced by ice or bars on the tile, resource veins that are enclosed by the surrounding tiles, silver and gold chests that require a silver or gold key to open, … After every 25 or so levels, you need a certain number of badges in order to continue. So if you've been rushing through the levels, you may have to replay a few to increase your badge count in order to progress.

Some match 3 levels's goal is a bit different: there are puzzle levels where you just need to clear the board, but if you want the badge you can only use a certain number of moves. Other levels require you to dig down to the bottom of a cave before you run out of moves. This variety in level design and level goals keeps the game (even more) interesting.

At the start of the game, you're given a horse that needs food and grooming so as to offer you more maximum moves. You can name your horse. I named mine Roach. Kudos points if you can guess where I got that name from ;-)

You can craft items at a blacksmith, mostly items to groom your horse but also items that provide you with special abilities on the 'battle field' (the Match 3 levels). These abilities are e.g. a bomb that blows up a number of tiles around the tile you place it on, an increase of maximum moves, a way to delete all tiles of one type from the board, a way to do away with part of the reinforced tiles on the board, …

From these chests and special tiles, you may acquire a crafting element or an artifact. Completing a set of artifacts yields a reward. The reward can be gold, which is used to buy things from the town's shop, or items like a feather that will replenish your 5 lives or rejuvenate your horse when it's near death.

You will see quests pop up on the world map. All of these quests require you to collect a number of crafting elements or resources. Their reward can be just some gold but also upgrades to the wood, stone, food or alchemy tiles, providing you with more resources while clearing match 3 levels.

If all of this sounds a bit confusing, that's because it is. At first, Silver Tale feels overwhelming in its compexity. But by the time you've completed the first 20 levels or so, you'll have the basics under your belt. By the time the game gets a bit challenging, i.e. as of the 50th level or so, you'll have grasped the game mechanics to the fullest.

Every day you start the game, you can spin a wheel to get a daily reward. These rewards get better every day. This motivates you to log in every day and play a few levels, prolonging the duration of this game which you may otherwise abandon after a few dozens of levels.

In the options menu, you can toggle 'relaxed mode'. When enabled, this mode gives you more moves each level, making the experience very doable, especially for new players.



The graphics are basic, of course, but they serve their purpose. I especially liked the way the stone, wood, food and alchemy tiles's icons change when you upgrade them through quests or crafting. The effects of the special skills are also okay for a simple game like this.

Voice acting is lackluster. Not bad, not good, just mediocre. Since you'll soon discover that the goal of each and every quest is to collect a certain amount of resources and/or crafting materials, I soon skipped all conversations and just had the game show me the goal to achieve.

The music consists of three melodies that alternate. I found the three melodies atmospeheric and they definitely were long and different enough to not get annoying, but I did seem to recognize one of the three melodies although I couldn't quite place it.



Silver Tale has no Steam Trading Cards and no Steam Achievements.

Basically, if you like match 3 games, don't let the negative reviews bother you, it's great.

For me the only time a ported game is bad is if there's microtransactions or the UI is rubbish for a PC game. Neither of these occur here. Yes, there are daily rewards, but I don't think they are required to beat the game - definately not on the easier setting.

There's 200 levels to clear, which is twice as many as most of the match 3 games I've played and since all but the first couple levels have multiple boards to clear, there's a ton of match 3 goodness to be had! I liked the rpg elements and the dialogs with NPCs have some funny moments. I would recommend picking it up on sale, though even at full price, you get your moneys worth.

Good:
* Well presented match-3 game.
* Each level can be quite long (hundreds of moves) and the game can be quite engrossing.
* Turn the volume down and play your own music :)

Bad:
* Can seem irritating when you run out of moves after burning many moves trying to reach a difficult tile but it not being possible due to the luck of the pieces that appear. Because the levels are quite long; it feels like a lot of lost progress. In fairness, the game needs you to use your power ups and you should have enough power ups to nuke really troublesome tiles.
* The game is really nice at revealing new gameplay elements and unlocking permanent upgrades - until you hit about level 100. I am currently at level 140 and it seems there is nothing new to see. Every map is just the same gameplay over and over.

That is a very good game. I got it for $1 in a bundle, but I think this game is value a lot.

This game like Bejeweled, you have to match 3 or more material in a row or "L"-shape or "T"-shape. This game covered with a story and has unusual challenges like dig to the cave or thinking logical.

I have 14 hours for now and I'm level 46. You can activate relaxed mode and you have more moves. That's a very good idea!

*******
Update, April 3, 2018

So I finished this game right now. This game is so long (there are 200 levels), but game continuity not breaks with relaxing mode (it's hard to run out of moves).

I'm disappointed, because there is no credits list or any "gift" (I mean some extra powerups or gold for completing game) to help me to get badges on levels without badge.

My problem in the game mechanism is if NOT you create 4 or 5 match, it didn't gives you powerup, not as in Bejeweled series.

I don't change my mind, I recommend this game if you like 3-match games.

At this time I can say it's pretty good. I will try to finish everything.

bought as part of a bundle on fanatical, been playing this one lots simple match 3 with a back story i like it makes a change from witcher 3

Addictive gameplay reached level 150+ you can grind pretty easiiy by replaying hard levels, to earn crafting resorurces etc and it has an optional gambling mechanic (slot machine) but you are not using real world money, Rewards are used in game and can be powerups, gold bars, more slot coins or resources, probably no different than the slots in Borderlands 2 It is also pretty easiy to convert resources into gold bars and then buy more slot machine coins.

I think my hotrse only had to be revived twice in the early stages and now I have enough pheonix feathers to make a Christmas Turkey, fyi thats the sought of humour in theis game which can be skipped, Some of the accents are pretty bad but all round a good casual puzzle game. Also I have no problems with running full wide screen on a 51" TV as there is a fullscreen option to do so and maintain the aspect ratio, Runs ok on Wins 10

Good game.
Long levels.
But the music is annoying.

An awesome match 3 game full of wonderful sights and sounds and things to do! Challenging and fun to play. Keep your horse well maintained after each play, and it will cost you less to keep him/her healthy and going. Help fellow villagers out as you go on your way. This is a Win-Win game for anyone that truly loves match 3 games. It's also a great starting point if you're just being introduced to match 3 games.
Grab something to eat, And a drink to go with. Feed the dog. Say, "Hi!" to the family...(or just wave at them)! Get ready to spend hours of fun with this Amazing match 3 game. After this game is downloaded, you'll find it hard to stop playing! Definitely worth a try!...Enjoy!

Relaxing, fun dialogue - especially re: the 'bandit', beautiful graphics. Recommend.