Lost Artifacts: Time Machine is yet another offering this month in the time management genre and it does not disappoint this addicted fan.

I admit, upon seeing the game, it seemed a bit simple at first, and I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. I’ve played a lot of quality resource management games lately and Lost Artifacts had a lot of competition to vie with.

The graphics seemed a bit childish and cartoony compared to say Viking Brothers 5, but it did have a certain charm to it if you could get past the strange story line and loopy characters. The concept of the game is that there’s some evil villain out there destroying important structures, but you can control time with your scientists, so you can go restore these places. Now I expected these placed to be important historic buildings, but the very first one I had to restore was a Ski Resort, so clearly, I was way off the mark. But whatever, I’m not really concerned with the story in these kinds of games, so I wasn’t put off much.

What I did really like about Lost Artifacts: Time Machine was the need for a strategy from the get-go. Most resource management games, you can jump right in and start clicking away without having to worry that your task has a negative consequence. With Lost Artifacts, I quickly realized if I didn’t collect and use the resources in a certain way, I wasn’t going to be able to move forward on the path. I had to restart a few times in order to try different strategies before I found the one that worked for me. This added a unique challenge to the game that I really enjoyed.

Lost Artifacts: Time Machine is available in a Collector’s Edition, which means it comes with the normal set of goodies such as concept art, bonus levels, and a Lost Artifacts: Time Machine Walkthrough integrated into the game. In my humble opinion, this game just didn’t seem to warrant the CE version, so I’d definitely recommend waiting for the standard version if you’re picky about which Collector’s Versions you spring for.

All in all Lost Artifacts: Time Machine was a cute little game packed with 40 levels of gameplay that were challenging and fun to play. If you want to play Lost Artifacts for free and take the game for a test-drive yourself, you can download and play the game free for 60 minutes. Just click on the “install” button above to get started.