Chronicles of The Ancients

Chronicles of the Ancients introduces a lot of cultural references in it's anagrammed puzzle play, half of which often cite gods, practices and cities. Most of them are probably unfamiliar to all but the most enthusiastic academic—which, in this case, can be a good thing. Having a fun way to educate players about subjects that may seem boring, too complicated and off the beaten path from most people's common information sources is a great way to expand everyone's knwoledge. But this game often forces the user to leave the app and switch over to a web browser in order to either find the answers or correct spellings, as opposed to leaving a sucession of clues for each wrong answer and supplying the solution after X number of tries. There's no explanation given anywhere on HOW to enter your answer works. A second row of blank squares for dragging jumbled letters to rearrange them would have helped players to visually work on each puzzle while also using its display to serve as a retentive means of reinforcing each solution. Trying to drag and shift letters around into their sequential spelling positions had no luck. After some trial-and-error, it became evident the letters have to be selected in the order of their spelling for each jumble. But even with this limited method of playing there are no color shifts or other possible indicators that could mark what part of each solution a player is at while composing their answers. Spaces are apparently involved, which the sparsely described HOW TO PLAY instructions never even mention. Some solutions have spaces which were not present in most web search results until progressively pursued. If the clue's spelled incorrectly, the user has to deselect all the letters—one at a time. There's no "Clear Board" button, and some clues are so ridiculously long for any jumble, making their length counter productive to its gameplay for solving them without far more considerable time and effort. Each puzzle has to be solved before advacing to the next one—there's no option to pass on one and move on to the next. An option to do that and return later to solve unfinished ones or review correct ones as a learning aid for their retention isn't available either. But where this app really falls short of its true potential is in failing to use the game to educate players. The developer is clearly captivated by ancient cultures, their religions, various gods, cities, and their scientific and technological accomplishments. The illustrations, though limited to one per civilization, are artfully rendered alongside an initial world map of their locations. Selecting one presents a wide range of information alongside working through each puzzle. After choosing one, however, there's no MAP button for allowing players to switch to another location of interest and only the feintist of hard-to-find back arrows for exiting the sparse HOW TO PLAY section. Sadly, each opportunity for giving players additional information about an answer is strangely limited to a single sentence where the solution is left blank along with an optional hint. A few paragraphs of expanded background for learning more about the historical context of a solution—which would certainly add to the user's newly discovered knowledge of each culture—is instead solely left to the player's individual motivation and degree of curiosity. Inspiring players with additional knowledge while you have them in play, however, proves far more effective and the one missed opportunity that's glaringly absent from furthering what seems to have been the developer's initial inspiration and primary purpose for creating this app, namely: To further advance the knowledge of our past and awareness of the life-altering contributions made by an incredible variety of peoples and cultures, all of whom have well earned our wonder, acknowledgement and respect for really valuing the differences in each of us. This game has the potential to effect that for its users. Time and time again, our history reveals it's that very diversity that has given us countless discoveries and technologies as well as examinations of our behaviors, spiritual guidance, morals, the creation of laws to live by—and the importance of including play in the lives of all ages—that collectively have trully made us all who we are today.