Customer Reviews

Virtual Villagers [Download]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I rated this game high because I didnt expect TOO MUCH from it. As a housewife, I found this game very entertaining...I cant play a game thats too involved since I am constantly being distracted by kids and chores. This game was perfect for when you have some time to procrastinate doing housework - you play it for a little while - then you let it run so your villagers can amass tech points while you get some housework done...and you can check on them periodically to see whats up. Like I said, Mindless fun. I read the cheat info you can search online that tells you how to solve puzzles - I know lame - but I dont have the patience. I enjoy going through the motions and seeing the story play out. If you need to leave the game for a long period of time you should pause it so that everyone doesnt get old on you.

This game is actually cute. It all begins with tragedy, but we don't get to see that. Some island is destroyed by a volcano and the villagers, after drifting on the great Ocean for a while, find themselves on... another island. Once here, they are quite helpless because they have zero survival skills so your mission is to teach them everything, from eating and drinking to building things and making babies. Each villager has its own personality: gender, age, likes, dislikes and skills and, through training they can improve.

Also, as the game progresses, you can 'buy' various technologies that can make the villagers' lives easier or more interesting. The game asks you to help the villagers solve 16 different puzzles of increasing difficulty.

So far, it's an interesting game. Judging by the level of complexity someone from pre-teen and up should enjoy playing it.
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WARNING!

Be aware that one of the skills the villagers learn is making babies and you encourage them to do so by dropping them one on top of the other - then they kiss, look for some private spot and... the new baby emerges. The what appear to be 'single mothers' take care of the baby through the age of 2, then kids get to walk around and forage by themselves.

Virtual Villagers is an addicted game. You start with a bunch of people stranded in an island and it is up to you to nourish them and develop the whole place to suppport a growing community. The key is to keep everything in balance. You can assign each person his specialty, like farming, healing, research, breeding, and so on. There are surprises along the way.

The game is cute. It runs in real time and your villagers continue to work even if the game has been shutdown. You can slow down and expedite the time via options. Also, you can do a little cheat by advancing your computer clock and then adjusting it back.

I had a problem when I created 5 or 6 profiles. One day, when I came back to the game, I found out that I lost 2 of the advanced profiles and I have to start all over again. A bit frustrating.

I like this game. It might not seem interesting, but that's because it doesn't require a lot of commitment. Unlike with other games, it will run itself just fine while you're away at school or work, and so long as you've prepared, you can make huge leaps and bounds. I've been downloading and playing one-hour demos for years, starting over every time. In that time I've become somewhat of an expert. Upgrade food, you get a farm which will reliably produce nourishment forever. After that you can work on the puzzles.

People have mentioned that the fact that you breed your villagers may be a problem. In my mind, it's no worse that seeing a pregnant woman at the store or something. A male and female villager go into a hut, "write a letter to the stork requesting a baby", and come out overjoyed that their wishes came true. After that, you have a doting mother, off on maternity leave, and a father who provides for the whole village. No problems.

I had to install Amazon's downloader, but I'd rather do that than buy from one of the many other sites selling this game. The game worked fine on my Vista computer, no adaptations needed.

I'll show this to my preteen sisters and see what they think, but I found this game entertaining for only a short while. There are lots of things to discover, including details that only happen later in the game, but they soon ceased to amuse me. Meanwhile, the puzzle-solving seems to rely more on simple trial-and-error than logic. This could be good for kids, since they can 'figure something out' quite by accident.

I didn't find the villagers' 'personalities' significant other than that the two villagers I got who liked running were useful workers since they would run from place to place carrying rocks, etc. Some things perplexed me, such as how to heal villagers who were more than 50% healthy, or exactly how the 2x speed option affected the game (certainly nobody moved faster). I was annoyed by how long some things took, such as clearing a mere dozen pieces of debris from the beach; the villager set to the task carried away the same piece several times before it finally disappeared from the sand, and this happened for every piece. I was also annoyed at other limitations that seemed artificial and not especially intuitive, especially the prerequisites for unlocking other abilities.

On the other hand, I found it convenient how women could continue to have children well into their 60s, and how I could check how much longer one would be nursing. Likewise, I could see the percentage of completion for at least some building projects. And (with the exception of pushing the boulder) I felt that the villagers' spontaneous curiosity, along with the descriptions of what they saw and did at each location, was indeed helpful in solving the puzzles.

Tip: I recommend buying Farming level 2 and then Science level 2 before anything else. Keep some people farming at all times (so you don't starve everyone), but the more you breed the sooner you'll have lots of hands for other tasks like researching and building.

This game came as a demo on my computer and my teen son and I enjoyed it. However I didn't want to purchase it on WildTangent for $6.99 a year subscription so I was ecstatic when I found it at Amazon. I purchase the game at Amazon for $6.99 without a year's obligation. The download was quick and easy. Now let us talk about the game. This is a real time game that means even when you turn it off events are still happening. So I invested a few hours up front getting my food supply, research and doctors in place then it is a game of just checking in to deal with events and steering your characters in the right direction. If you are looking for a game like Roller Coaster Tycoon, Sims or Sim City that requires a lot of interaction this is not the game for you. But if you want to invest a little time and see rewards and loses each time you check in to fine tune your civilization this is it. The best part is you can download the demo and try it before you buy it man so get to saving some villagers.

I downloaded this for my 8YO. He thinks it's great. You have to teach your villagers how to survive or they die. They even create babies. At first I was a bit concerned, you just drop a boy on a girl, they go in a hut and a few seconds later an announcement is made that the stork has brought a baby.

Actually, just watching this I became bored very quickly, but I'm not much of a video game player. Kids seem to like being in charge and this game gives them that.

The first thing to do with this game is to follow the tutorial. It teaches you the basics, like foraging for food, how to get water, how to build a hut, and how to increase the island population. If you go to the website of the makers of this game, like any other game, they have forums which offer tips. I had a hard time leaving my villagers alone the first day, but if you follow the tutorial you will be off to a good start. You find your people's interests and lead them to tasks you want them to do. Be persistent and curious. The village develops when you are not there, but the speed can be adjusted, under options, from pause to double time. You can also chose game difficulty. Enjoy your village.

I downloaded Virtual Villagers in September, and though the little characters are cute and it is fun in beginning, near the end it's extremely slow. The game itself runs at a molasses pace, even on 2x speed, and it gets boring fast because there isn't really enough to do, especially in the later stages of the game. The builders run out of projects, all the researchers do is stand at a table and wave their arms, and doctors stare at medicinal plants without ever figuring out what they are, etc. The island is tiny, so there's no fun in exploring, and the technology doesn't ever get past a very primitive stage.

This is also not a good game if there is going to be more than one person playing it, especially if that other person is a kid. That's because it's extremely easy to erase your own or another player's game permanently. All you have to do is have your cursor pointed about an 1/4 inch too much to the right of your or someone else's name, accidently click it and presto! your/their characters and hours of playing the game are gone. I had been playing the game with the same characters since September, and was almost finished with it when I discovered today that someone in my household erased my old game and started a new one in it's place. Because of this I don't plan on playing this ever again. I find it very aggravating that someone, for whatever reason, can erase another person's game so easily.

How appropriate is it for kids? I think it would be okay. About the hanky-panky aspect, they honestly don't show anything. The two villagers hug, go inside a hut, and when the female exits, she has a baby in her arms. There's really nothing explicit about it at all. I think the only thing that would upset kids is that the villagers die of old age, illness or starvation (you might want to warn them about that) and that they or someone else can very easily *Ahem* erase the game they're playing. I think a lot of kids might get bored with it easily, because it's definitely not what you would call action packed.

I got this as the gold box deal for ninety eight cents so I'm not out much. Like another it froze my computer. After many frustrating tries I finally got it to load. Understand I have 4 other Amazon downloads that worked fine first try.

I trained my people and they were doing well when I went to bed had 4 new children and new huts going up. All was well. The game continues while you are away. So this moring I went to check on them and they were all a bunch of skeletons. All dead. I'm not staying up all night with them. Perhaps I should pause it when I turn if off?

As another reviewer states this is not for little children as you have to be Breeding these characters by dropping them on top of the other they kiss and go inside a hut and come out with a baby.

I gave the game a second try. It is about knowing the right order of what tech tools to buy first to keep the villiagers living. I now have 70 and 6 deaths half to old age. If you just want a game running in the background and you pop on for a few min here and there it is alright. Not too much excitment. Just thought I should update that it is possible to have them live overnight and I don't turn it off.