12 Labours of Hercules III Girl Power

Story:   

Looking at the name of the game, you might assume you would play as the titular Hercules, but not this time. While Hercules is busy fighting the sea monster Scylla, he gets captured by the whirlpool monster Charybdis. So, it's up to his wife, Megara, to rescue him and his three-headed dog, Cerberus.

You then accompany them on adventures through places like the Forest of the Amazons and Mount Olympus. It's a cute role-reversal that gives the game its "Girl Power" title, even if the plot is just a basic vehicle to get you from one level to the next.

Graphics:   

As the tradition with “12 Labours”, the graphics are colourful, cartoony, and clear. Being a casual title, everything is bright and easy on the eyes, with a comic-book style that fits the lighthearted mythological theme.

The levels have decent variety, taking you from forests to underwater caves and volcanic areas, which helps keep things visually interesting. It won't blow your mind, but it's pleasant and does its job well.

Gameplay:   

This is a pure time-management and resource strategy game. Your goal in each level is to command a small group of servants to gather food, wood, and gold to clear a path of obstacles, defeat monsters, and complete objectives before the timer runs out.

You mostly point, click, and queue up tasks for your workers, managing their routes efficiently. Megara has special abilities, like watering plants which makes them grow and generate resources, but the real work is done by your servants, which can be helped with temporary godlike powers like: spawning more servants, increasing resources output, extra speed, etc. The core formula is identical to the previous games. The difficulty is debatable: the casual mode is quite relaxing, mindless fun, but if you dare to go for "Gold Time" on every level, you’ll find it a challenging test of optimal routing. Although if you click on flying birds, you’ll get extra points and it’ll make your life easier.

There are over 40 levels, plus bonus stages. A key side activity is finding a hidden puzzle piece in each level to unlock bonus content, though this can sometimes be frustrating due to interface quirks.

Audio:   

There nothing to say, really. The soundtrack itself is pleasant and inoffensive, providing a nice background noise for your strategic clicking.

The sound design, however, can get a bit annoying. There are constant sound effects for every action: your servants gathering resources, obstacles being cleared, orders being placed. It can become a noisy, repetitive chorus that will tire you off sooner than you think. You'll probably want to turn down the effects while keeping the music on.

Thoughts:   

"Girl Power" is still a solid time-management game. Yes, it's very much "more of the same". Yes, it has some repetitive sounds and can feel samey.

If you played one, you played them all. But if you enjoyed the first two games and are looking for another dose of that specific, strategic, casual gameplay, this will definitely satisfy you. It's perfect for short play sessions or for when you want to unwind without a complex story. Just know what you're getting into. Besides, it's very cheap.