12 Labours of Hercules II: The Cretan Bull Review (Nintendo Switch)

Review code used many thanks to JetDogs

12 Labours of Hercules: The Cretan Bull is the second instalment in a fairly successful line of management games by developers Zoom Out Games and publishers Jet Dogs. It’s also the second Hercules game in the series to make its way to the Nintendo Switch.

Plow the Fields in Thebes

As the game opens up you’re treated to a few cut scenes which introduces you to the short storyline. Hercules comes up with the bright idea of taking the Cretan Bull and using it to plow the fields in Thebes. But there is a slight problem with his brilliant plan, the beast belongs to Hera! Thus, extremely angered by the theft attempt, Hera turns the Cretan Bull into a raging beast that tramples over everything in its path destroying roads and villages. Our Hero Hercules steps up to the plate and decides he is the man to stop the Cretan Bull in its tracks. Hercules and his servants set out to repair the damage the Bull has caused and capture the bull in the process. It’s not a bad storyline for a Time management game, it is quite engaging and it’s does its job of setting the stage for the game.

Gather Resources

On each level you usually start with two workers. You are required to complete tasks by collecting resources scattered on the roads, clearing paths, building wood and food farms and building Temples. Our friend Hercules is on hand for you to call him up to do the tough job of removing larger obstacles like boulders blocking the path once you have collected to correct amount of resources.

As you can imagine resources run out pretty quickly as you’re building farms for food and upgrading them to their next level to produce more food. All the levels have a couple of places that constantly generate these items, like the food farms, however if you’re not quick enough to collect them, they get stolen by a bunch of thieves. So keeping an eye on your farms output is key to keeping your resources in good supply. On some of the levels you come across a worker in a cage and once you have freed them from their prison you have an extra worker on your team. The gameplay is punctuated by boss appearances from time to time, which require you to quickly tap the screen the remove the boss as they scare your workers away from their work if you don’t act fast.

A nice gameplay addition is that you can queue up the workers actions, so you don’t always have to watch what their doing. Up to 3 actions can be queued and If you want a worker to do something else instead of the task you have queued, you just tap on the task again to remove the little numbered flag and cancel that task.

Bonuses and Puzzle Pieces

On some stages there are bonuses to use, such as Speed-up which makes your workers run faster for a few seconds. Or the Extra Servant bonus which gives you an extra worker to order around for a few seconds. And the Extra Resources bonus which makes your farm and wood farm work faster for a few seconds giving out more resources for you to gather.

In each level there are puzzle pieces to find and at the end of so many levels you complete a jigsaw puzzle with the pieces you have been lucky enough to spot throughout the levels. It’s a nice interlude between the time management and strategy of the main levels in the game.

The levels in 12 Labours of Hercules II The Cretan Bull get tricker as you progress and it gets challenging to manage a Gold medal in the time allowed. If the Casual or Expert mode setting is proving to be to difficult you can choose to play the game on Relaxed mode without a timer. This is a great idea, as you can play without the timer countdown looming and enjoy some relaxing gameplay without feeling any pressure.

Visuals and Controls

12 Labours of Hercules the Cretan Bull has a few different environments as you work your way across the map. From green pastures to snowy, ice levels the game is bright, colourful and clean with it’s cartoony look. The music and sound effects are suitable and the music is relaxing to listen to.

Controlling 12 Labours of Hercules can be done by the joycons or the touchscreen. I found the joycons to be fiddly to click on items on the screen and preferred to use the touchscreen and it works perfectly.

Conclusion

Zoom Out Games have added enough new additions to this game in the Labours of Hercules series to make it slightly different and fresher than the first game in the series but also keeping things familiar enough for fans of the series to still enjoy.

The formula for a great time management / strategy game is all intact and if you enjoy this genre of game 12 Labours of Hercules II The Cretan Bull will give you more than a few hours of challenging and enjoyable gameplay.

Final Verdict: I Like It A Lot