iPad Review: Tomb of Qin

Tomb of Qin HD is a puzzle game for the iPad that puts your wits up against stone statues. Organize them correctly and you’ll smash them to smithereens and advance to the next level. Fail and they will haunt your dreams until you figure out the perfect statue smashing combo.

Tomb of Qin HD is developed by Dragon Team Interactive, the same guys who brought us Spartan Hero HD and Captain’s Fury HD so if you’ve played either of them expect to find the same mid-level quality here. Like most of Dragon Team’s other games, it’s not very complex. That’s not to say that Tomb of Qin isn’t fun, let just say it’s not as good as it could and should be. Let me explain.

The object of Tomb of Qin is to organize statues in such a way that they collide and get destroyed. Once all the statues are destroyed you get to move on to the next level. The catch is that all statues need to crumble in one swoop. For such a simple idea, the game is actually a lot of fun.

I compare it to playing a game of Sudoku, or Chess even, where you have to be aware of multiple horizontal and vertical lines at once. Each statue can only be moved once in a single straight line, so you have to carefully plan ahead and watch out for obstacles that block your path. Other obstacles will stand in your way as you progress from stage to stage as well. Early levels introduce arrow traps that fire statue destroying arrows in four directions, while later levels feature golden statues that need to be intersected twice before breaking. These complications greatly add to the gameplay and require more skill to get past as the stages go on and they begin to layer on top of each other.

On the surface, Tomb of Qin is a stellar puzzle game. The puzzles are a lot of fun, the maps are well designed, and the obstacles are challenging. The problem is, like with all of their games released so far, is the lack of content and depth. Currently the game only includes 35 stages, which may seem like a lot, but really isn’t considering I had them all beaten in less than an hour playing leisurely. The game does feature an endless mode though, which attempts to add some replay value.

The other problem is the lack of depth. There is absolutely no story element to the game to drive you forward and keep you interested in smashing statues for any extended amount of time. Although it is never stated, some clues like running footsteps and the unlocking of ancient Asian relics after you complete each level hint towards you being some sort of treasure hunter.

Graphically the game doesn’t dazzle either. Let me put this another way, the graphics would be fine if each stage filled the iPad’s screen instead of having a thick black border around each of them. It felt as if I was playing an iPhone version of the game with 2X enabled. Eliminating the black border would make it a much more attractive game.

Tomb of Qin HD is currently available on the iPad for $2.99. iPhone and iPod Touch versions are also available for $1.99 in the App Store.