Note: I encountered a very curious issue on my first save file involving being unable to progress past a certain point. A new save file (and deleting the old one) did not repeat this error, and I was unable to replicate the issue. While I consider this an incredibly rare event I'm sure is unlikely to repeat for others, I note it here in advance just in case. The exact issue seems to have been a corruption of game statistics in the save file itself which caused the game to glitch in such a manner as to make the game unable to progress after a certain point while still rendering it perfectly playable otherwise, merely leaving the game still in an eternal loop of repeating levels.

I wish to thank HH-Games for the review key for this title.

Match-3 games are very common. Those that tell good stories are somewhat less common, but games that accomplish both are even rarer. This is about one that accomplishes both.

The Chronicles of Moses and the Exodus is, for those not familiar with Match-3 games, yet another game in the genre where you match up three or more objects on a tile-based board to remove them from play until all the matches you are asked by the game to make is done. As is true of games of this genre, this one should not have surprising twists that have not been explored by many others in this vein.

Like many other games by the same developer, options are unlocked after getting a certain number of matches to knock some extra tiles off the board that are otherwise hard to remove any other way. They range from knocking a single tile to a group of them off the board, with further options unlocked as the story progresses across the included game story campaign map.

Graphically, the game engine uses a semi-realistic, semi CGI style look for the story scenes, often animating cutscenes to a degree. Given the story of the biblical book of Exodus being retold, two scenes in particular that stood out were Pharaoh weeping over his dying son during the plague of the firstborn and the later crossing of the Red Sea. The Match 3 scenes use the typical brightly colored tokens that are thematic to the story, like precious stones, anhks, and other Biblical/Middle Eastern appropriate items. Curiously, one of the token pieces looks like an ear of corn, which is anachronistic because corn did not show up in that region during that point in history. Whether the corn-shaped piece was chosen due to artistic liberties taken with the biblical sources for the story or was simply chosen since it fit the color scheme of the token pieces is unclear.

There only two instrumental tracks, but they sound like instrumental church hymn-styled pieces with some Middle Eastern touches, which fits like a glove. A few of the cutscenes have some degree of voice acting and sound effects, like seagull and water sounds for the Red Sea, and audible weeping sounds for the Pharoah scene mentioned above. I found the sound effects for these scenes greatly added to their narrative impact. The sounds during the Match 3 sections are nothing outstanding, but they aren't unpleasant on the ear either.

Controls are primarily done via the mouse, like all other games made by this developer. While some of their games have felt too slow to respond, others too fast, I found this game tailored the speed of reaction to mouse input to be well done.

Stability is generally good, though there is a known issue with starting in fullscreen mode on Windows 10. The developer has included a built-in workaround to choose to start in windowed mode, and the game can be switched to full screen afterward. Linux users should have a fair amount of success getting this to run via Wine/Proton out of the box with no special tweaks.

Morally, there is very little wrong with this title. There is some comedic violence against spiders who can crawl on your Match 3 board and web up tiles to make removing them harder by getting a match over them before they succeed. However, this is pretty innocent, resulting in a splat like sound and the spider falling off the board with a bug-eyed expression.

Otherwise, there is much to recommend. The retelling of Moses and the Exodus has a running theme of having absolute faith in God and being obedient to His authority. It should go without saying that is something I heartily endorse and can say stands out in terms of moral bonuses for playing this game for the story.

I recommend this game, it has all the hallmarks of being outstanding for its genre and morally is very Christian friendly.