Review: Rachel's Retreat

Type: Time Management
Platform: PC
Price: USD 6.99 from Big Fish Games

I recently tried out this time management game and I had so much fun that I bought the game when the trial period ended.

Plot
It is a simple story about Rachel, who after having much difficulty finding Nirvana, decided to build her own spa retreat.

Gameplay
There are five resorts in the game with ten stages each. The first resort is partly a tutorial to teach players the basics. Each of the resort has a different look.

In each resort, the player can build various stations to fulfil different needs. Some stations can be upgraded to handle three clients at one time while so stations can only handle one. The player has to drag the clients to the correct station based on the thought bubbles that appeared over their head. If the station is in used at the moment, the player can either let them wait in the waiting area or change their mind by clicking on a special table. After going through a few stations, the client will achieve Nirvana status. The Nirvana-state client will walk off to the Nirvana room when the timer runs out or the player can sound a gong to get a few clients to enter the Nirvana room at the same time.

After completing a stage, there is a optional stage where the player has to rearrange the clients' seating arranging to bring about Nirvana for the whole room.

Thoughts
I like that there is no sudden jump in difficulty. The tutorials were well written and everything was explained clearly.

As the player progress, there will be new challenges thrown in for the player to handle which keeps the game interesting. The player will need to build platforms and extensions before a new station can be added. At the later stages, certain stations will face water or electricity shortage and the player will have to find ways to avert the clients to other stations.

After the frantic mouse clicking needed to handle demanding clients, it is nice to have the option to solve a puzzle without any time limit. The earlier stages are pretty simple to solve. A bit more thinking is involved in the later stages and being too lazy to figure it out, I often skip them.

The graphics and sounds are pretty good. Even the voice acting in the cut scenes between resorts is not too bad.

Overall I find it to be a pretty polished game. It is definitely one of the best.

Verdict ★★★★★
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