71 people found this review helpful
3 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 32.5 hrs on record (16.7 hrs at review time)
Posted: Jan 4, 2017 @ 5:46am
Updated: Jan 4, 2017 @ 6:10am

Not recommended for 100% achievement hunters

Achivement hunters read the next paragraph. For rest of review, it's further down.

This first part of the review discusses just one aspect, and is responsible for my negative review.

Buying and playing for the achievements to make a perfect game.

In the previous games in the series the achievements have always been simple enough to get, there was just one tough one "beat the devs". You have to beat the devs score on 10 levels out of the 50 (or 55 if you include bonus levels). This has always been challenging and has provided some discussion in the forums with people helping each other out and sharing the level they managed to "beat the dev on"

However...for part VI they have put an achievement in where you have to BEAT THE DEV ON EVERY LEVEL.
For a game marketed as causal, that's anything but, and will require hours and hours of grinding to learn the levels enough to beat the dev time on every level.

There is also an achievement for earning all other achievements - without beating all the dev times, you can't win that one either.

So beware game completionists, this one is going to be a nightmare!

This achievement has been discussed with the dev team on the discussion thread which you can find here - http://steamcommunity.com/app/567800/discussions/0/154644349172497172/

The devs decision was this:
(post 47 of that thread linked above)
Karyna (JetDogs) posted:

Hello everyone!
Ok, I have been thinking about that situation and I've remembered that week ago one user wrote me a message that he is totally satisfied with Hercules-6 because of achievements! He told, that in previous parts it was easy to get 100% and it was not interest for him. Sixth part is the most favorite for him now because there are some work and aim. And he asked more hard achievements in next part.
Sooo, we can't be good for each of you and satisfied each of you. You should understand that we need to change level of hardness because it is more interesting than play the same level 6 times.
If 100% is important for you, so get it. It doesn't work in that way in world "I want to feel myself like a winner, so please remove this part because I can not go through with it". If you study in university and you can't pass the test would you ask teacher to make this test easier because you don't want to spend a lot of time with preparing but you want to get 100 points with this test? I do understand that Hercules-6 and studying in university are different things, but there works the same principle - if you want to be a winner in things you want to be you should to do something more for that.



---Not playing for achievements review---

If you aren't playing for achievements and just want a fun, cheerful game that you can play without really engaging your brain too much then this is definitely it!

The animation is great, the artwork is superb and very detailed and even looks fantastic on a 40" 4K screen, it's certainly something you could play through a TV!

There are some new bonuses for this latest version including the Trident which gives you unlimited workers for a short period of time, it's amazing to activate it and madly click on all the things you need doing and have them done in seconds, really fun!

Replayability
You can score bronze, silver and gold on each level depending on how long it takes you to complete and the score you get. You also have to find a hidden stone on each level, collect them all and you unlock a jigsaw puzzle, collect that and you unlock a secret level.

There is some good replayability here for casual players.

So for casual gamers I highly recommend game.

For achievement hunters looking for another game to get a perfect game on - keep clear, this one isn't for you. The good news is Hercules parts I, II, III, IV and V are all easy 100% completes so definitely play those!
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18 Comments
Moon The Mischievous Jul 22, 2018 @ 1:01pm 
Thanks for the comment, I'm glad you agree! My review rather split opinion! lol
Jxt09 Jul 22, 2018 @ 12:00pm 
I totally agree with you on that achievement. It went too far. If someone wants to beat the dev on every level they can do that on their own. This is bad especially because the previous games set up a pattern for the hardest achievement and they changed it and not only changed it a little but a lot!!
Moon The Mischievous Dec 22, 2017 @ 6:32am 
Best of luck! :D
ramonpontes Dec 22, 2017 @ 6:31am 
The game is on sale and I could really not resist the price...
I think it is worth for the fun, but I don't know if I'm going to pursue the achievements. I will give it a try at least.
Moon The Mischievous Dec 21, 2017 @ 8:34am 
Thanks for your considered reply, you're absolutely right, it is a feature of the game and is included with the description when buying.

I don't understand the people arguing against the achievements being an issue either, if you're not bothered about it then the rest of the review tells you how the game is.

The review received quite a set of replies, some disagreeing which I've left on, and some being quite abusive for some bizarre reason which I've deleted.

Yeah, they've made it difficult for themselves with the achievements now. After the initial backlash, if they just removed the achievement quickly it would have been OK, but due to the arguing and stalling it's probably too late to remove it now, for the reasons you've given.

Interestingly I haven't noticed Hercules VII on Steam as yet (though it was on Greenlight), I wonder if sales fell short after that extra achievement? People certainly asked in the Greenlight page if that achievement would be included or not.
ramonpontes Dec 21, 2017 @ 5:21am 
First i would like to thank you for the review. I'm not sure if I'm not buying this game, but I will sure take the achievement grinding in consideration.

I don't like when people don't take achievements seriously and criticizes people who fight for them. Achievements are completely optional, of course, but it is still part of what is being offered when selling the game. If some people don't care about them, ok, go on and buy the game. But for those who cares, this kind of review is very important.

I've been reading the comments on the discussion about this theme, and I believe the developers really regreted their decicion, since they removed this achievement from the next installment, but I think they didn't removed the achievement from the current game because they would face another huge problem. People who already spent hours and hours beating the devs scores would have their effort turned into nothing. If that have happened to me in a game I would be really pissed off.
Moon The Mischievous Jun 27, 2017 @ 8:18am 
Thanks for the comment CGFW, glad it was useful!

I can't speculate about lack of hardship in real life, but I do know that the dev's said that one person had said to them about making it harder so that's why they did it. Then they ignored the huge amount of people arguing against it.

I don't think they will change it back now though, think they've just ignored it and moved on.
CGFW Jun 27, 2017 @ 7:57am 
This is a very helpful review! Thanks man.

I am not blaming developers fully but those people who lacks hardship in their real life, they probably seek that in games and those people make the developers confused as developer said “Sooo, we can't be good for each of you and satisfied each of you.”! A game is for entertainment and satisfaction and the achievements are the satisfactory part. It is a stupid idea to take the game achievements as very big challenging coz those are nothing but clicks or movements.

I also think for casual gamers all games are so so to pass some time… I really don’t care to bother much about them because probably in their real life they are hardly perfectionist! So, any playble game can be recommended for them.
Moon The Mischievous Mar 14, 2017 @ 3:51am 
Thanks for the comment Prickly Poke, appreciate it! :)

If you'd like to say something to the dev, please post in the thread I linked to in my post, though they do seem to be ignoring it now...
Prickly Poke Mar 13, 2017 @ 11:35pm 
Thanks! The only reason I was about to buy this game on sale (50 cents) was because of the mindless playing I can do while watching tv and/or finishing paper work and still end up with a perfect game.

I play many games with various difficulties. The only real pull to this series was the casual aspect. When I want a challenge I have many better games to choose from. The idea of making Beat The Dev for every level would kill what little joy the game had to offer because it would force me to pay more attention. (The game is not that entertaining to poor that much focus into.)

And to the Dev - No one should play these easy games and feel like a winner unless they have nothing else going for them. They are nothing more than a time killer.
:shopreaper: