When I first started playing this game, I was quite intrigued, it offers
a nice mixture of old school 'Settler' like village-building and
time-managment at the same time. You have to plan your city, make sure
you houses are not next to the sawmill or the inhabitans will be unhappy
and at the same time make sure the people actually go about their
business as you intend them to. If a house is ready to pay the rent, a
money bag pops up and you have to click it in order to collect it. If
you want wood produced, you will have to send a worker to the sawmill
and have him do it and so force. So there is some micro-people managment
in here that never quite allows you to sit back and relax.
Alas, the only inclination to actually be efficient and quick is the
potential gold star that you may earn when you finish the level within
the given timeframe but if you don't, well, you can keep playing anyway
because this being a casual game, the designers apparently were
reluctant to make it possible to lose the game. As much as I like to
play freeform games here and then, the fact that my decision only matter
should I try and go for points makes this game less exciting than it
could have been. There is no way not to win the level, I never have to
change my strategy or come up with a better way to do things in order to
progress in the game, it is a cakewalk.
As such, I lost interest about halfway through when all the game systems
were revealed and I did not really care for potential new buidings or
scenic features anymore. After all, with no real reason to adjust your
strategy, each level plays the same.
A shame really, as the potential is there and the odd mixture of
time-managment and city (village) building is neat, let alone the
gorgeous graphics, especially for a budget title.
I can recommend this for casual gamers and fans of the genre but it
holds no long-term appeal to all who look for a bit of a challenge in
their games.
