Around the World in 80 Days

Around the World in 80 Days is an interesting variation on Bejeweled, offering a story-driven element to the classic casual puzzler’s formula. GameZone was recently given a crack at the beta version of Playrix’s upcoming gem-matching puzzler and the results were what you’d expect. While the story elements behind the game weren’t really accessible (the beta had yet to be fully translated into English), the gameplay was tried-and-true Bejeweled with some extra elements thrown into the mix. The game is set to release on the PC soon, so fans of Bejeweled should take note.

The beta build that GameZone was given the chance to preview wasn’t yet translated into English, so we were unable to determine the overall storyline of the game. However, the gameplay seemed heavily influenced by similar titles like Bejeweled, meaning that fans of casual puzzlers shouldn’t feel out of place.

After a dialogue between a couple of characters, you’ll begin playing through the match, which requires you to turn gems around in order to match up three like colors to make the gems disappear. Additionally, you’ll have pieces of objects like journals or stopwatches that you’ll have to get by letting them fall to the bottom of the screen. Once you collect each piece, then you’ll be able to progress to the next round.

Another element in the game is the ability to use special weapons that do things like knock out all pieces of a certain color or the pieces in a certain row and so on. You’ll unlock them by racking up matching combos, getting progressively better ones as you continue to score points.

Graphically, the game sported a clean look, and one typical for the casual puzzler genre. The game had some limited sound effects and a few tracks for the score, but was generally pretty simple on the audio-visual elements. Fortunately, this means that the game will run on just about anyone’s computer configuration.

Around the World in 80 Days is set to bring story elements to the Bejeweled formula, much like Puzzle Quest did before it. Fans of either of those games should keep an eye out for when Around the World in 80 Days becomes available soon.