Virtual Villagers 3: The Secret City

I had a chance to play a demo of Virtual Villagers 3 and it looks great! The new layout is kinda of startling at first as much of the space is vertical, however either due to this new format, or to some tinkering in the coding, moving your point of view throughout the area is much faster. Which is a great improvement over earlier editions in which, especially for objects the kids can gather by the time you find an object and get a kid to it, sometimes it disappears just as you drop the kid on it.

The only flaw in the vertical layout that I found so far, is that occasionally dropping a villager on what looks like the edge of an upper level, means they fall through to a lower level, so ther is a bit of an adjustment period on learning the exact spot to place villagers occasionally.

As with other versions of the game, finding food sources for your villagers looks to be tricky. The only advice I have at this point concerns a new feature in the game, called "factions."
It is somewhat confusing, as the description implies the possibility of an immediate increase in food supplies if you choose the "Nature" faction, but I did not find this to be the case in the limited play time that I had. So, I'd advise waiting to choose (and spend tech points to do so) until after there are several constant food supplies available. The faction feature appears to be designed to increase the variety of playing options, in that once you do choose a faction, your players are committed to that "lifestyle," as it were, for the remainder of the game. Exactly what sort of differences in the Villagers experiences either faction will create is still a mystery (at least to me.) But the fact that Last Day of Work seems to be trying to increase the repeatable playing factor in the game bodes well.

Last Day of Work specializes in games that run in real time, that is, unless you pause the game, life continues forward for whatever characters or creatures in your game, which means if you forget to check on them frequently, they often die. On the other hand, it also means you don't have to have the game running, or even have your computer on, in order for fish or plants to mature, or Villagers to earn tech points. Finding the balance of speed of game play, frequency of needed check points, and just getting bored while waiting for something to happen is part of the challenge of their games. I do agree with one reviewer, that suggested the games need an even faster rate of time, for when you want to be hands on, but are tending towards boredom. Currently, there is paused, half speed, normal and fast, which appears to be about double. A times four speed option would be ideal.

The same reviewer also mentioned a zoom option would be nice in the Virtual Villagers games. I agree, especially for when a new game such as this one comes out, as there appear to be some items hidden in nooks here and there. And although the game doesn't actively need it, being able to rotate ones view point would be a nice touch as well, though I imagine both addition are left out because the coding for them would slow game play, increase game size and possibly create problems on older graphic systems. One of the nice features of these games is that the currently don't require vast resources to run. I'd hate for that to change.

I am looking forward to being able to own this game and learn all it secrets. I tried to find out when (or if) Big Fish Games will be offering it and ran into a road block as they have a company policy of not revealing release dates, apparently because all such dates are tentative. I'm a bit annoyed that they were not even willing to say whether or not they are going to be able to offer it, ever. My concern is, that to date, the only places I have seen it offered, actually link back to Last Day of Work itself, for the download, so I am wondering if Last Day wishes to keep this game exclusive. Which means a $20.00 or so investment, rather than my Big Fish game club rate of $6.99. Sigh. I live on a very limited income through SSI, as I have always been too disabled to work a "regular" job, so $20.00 is a rather significant chunk. I'll do it if my patience runs out before I can find it someplace else.

In the meantime, I am revisiting Virtual Villagers 2: the Lost Children and playing it in hard difficulty level. I have found that the Villagers require near constant attention in that mode, especially when it comes to harvesting and replanting efficiently. I use the pause feature a lot, and have managed to keep all but one of them alive despite frequently having no food, those magic stews are a lifesaver.

Well, I'm off to see if I can track down a bargain on Virtual Villagers 3, wish me luck, and happy gaming! If I find a bargain I will post an update here.