HarryBalls.com

When I first heard the title of the game “Virtual Villagers 2” published by Big Fish Games, I thought that I was going to be playing simulation game similar to that of “Sim City”. I was not expecting playing a game more in line with the 90’s craze Tamagachi. Not that I was not a big fan of Tamagachi, as I, sadly, did have several Tamagachi pets of my own.

The story is that these people wandered and got lost in this village of lost children. It is now your goal to keep them alive and figure out the mystery of the village. The learning curve on the game is fairly easy thanks to the tutorial tips that flash across the screen when you first play; if these did not exist, everyone would probably be digging their own graves. You dictate these people’s lives by clicking and dragging them on to various intractable objects on screen. If you were to put them in the water, they would begin to fish, or if you put them next to a broken building, they would begin to repair it. As they perform these tasks such as fishing or repairing, they would gain proficiency in these areas.

The game was very enjoyable until I realized that the game kept going after you leave. I often times do not visit my computer for days at a time, and when I do, I do not exactly remember if I should check back or not. The game is not very forgiving ignoring your villagers and often times, I find myself deprived of people due to famine. I have to frequently check back every 6 hours to make the village is fine and appoint new tasks for people already finished with the current task. I really wish the villagers were smart enough to move onto new tasks themselves while I am away because it really becomes tedious when the village is starving and no one can figure out to for themselves that, possibly, they should start fishing or picking coconuts for food.

The progress of the game for new comers is a lot of trial and error. If I were to put this guy onto of this flower, I wonder what will happen. If you fail the first time, you should try several more times to see if something is going to happen. Seems the error rate for discovering new things is rather high. I have had to try several times with a villager before he knew how to fish properly.

Graphically the game is sound for what it is. I have seen more aesthetically pleasing games with the same memory size, 33 Mb, but this game makes good use with what it has. They use simplistic sprite driven animation upon a simple static background, but there are some nice subtle touches of visual flair, such as shadows under the characters, sparkles in the water, and rings that form when a character touches the water. The music is very nice, soft and subtle, and complementing to the overall theme of the game which is primitive and tribal.

I would recommend this game for someone who has 20$ to spare and find themselves in need of a game to simply pass the time. There is also a need for diligence in the player because abandoning your village for too long will result in their utter doom

3/5 Balls

Tags: Strategy Games //