The running joke in The 12 Labours of Hercules is that Our Mighty Hero only rarely rouses himself to do any actual labour - his trusty servants (ahem, slaves) race about at your command cutting down trees, clearing roads, filling in pits, picking up resources, building bridges, and erecting supply centers. Except when there's a star-powered Hero Task to do, Hercules spends levels resting happily in his hammock.

In each of this game's 40 levels you basically need to get across the map. That may involve clearing obstacles in the road; building bridges over rivers or ravines, or boats to sail away on; collecting gold for the trip; or disposing of monsters in your way. You'll gather riches (food, lumber, gold) to pay for everything you do, and generally there's just enough potential wealth in each map to make it to the end in time. Level design is attentive without being mean, and each level will run to solution in five to ten minutes, making this a perfect bite-sized casual game for I-have-a-few-minutes timing needs.

One clever and irritating design choice adds weight to game achievements by way of in-game monuments. Completing each level in Gold time (there are 10 levels per stage, four stages in all) builds a section of four acient artifacts that have nothing to do with anything, but sit there accusingly when they are only partially completed. In one stage, for example, you're building the Argo, and how can you not finish the Argo? It appeals to fundamental tinkering instincts, and makes the game hard (for me, at least) to complete casually. Because, you know, we've got to finish the Argo before we move on. Right?

Whether you breeze through 12 Labours, or dump hours and hours of just-one-more-try time into the durn thing - I'm at over 60 hours on Steam at this point - depends on two things: whether you are the sort of person who can peacefully leave your ancient wonders half-built, and whether you choose to play on Expert in the initial settings. Think carefully about this. The game is great pleasant fun, and making some of your Gold times on the Expert setting is HARD. With its little dollops of timed frustration, The 12 Labours of Hercules managed to fill up my scattered free time much more than I ever intended. You've been warned.

Once you finish this game, of course, parts II, III, and IV await. You've been warned, again.