Video Game Reviews

Video Game Reviews -
Virtual Villagers: A New Home: Navigation

Virtual Villagers: A New Home - NR

Rate It!
On 8+
4 stars

A simple simulation that teaches life lessons.

Publisher: Last Day of Work Category/Genre: Computer Software - Simulation Platform: Windows Price: $20.00 Online Enabled: No Graphics: Simple but effective. Playability: Easy. Even kids as young as 8 can play this life simulation. Reading Level: Medium Release Date: 09/22/2006 ESRB Rating: NR

It's quick and easy to pass on
this great info!

Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that villagers can die; when they do, they litter the ground with their skeletons. Eventually your villagers will learn to bury their dead in a graveyard. Parents of young children should also be aware of the game's mating aspect. Sometimes villagers will kiss and then go inside a hut. When they emerge, occasionally a baby will magically appear in the woman's arms. You can also pick up villagers and drop them on top of another villager to see if they like each other. If they do, they will kiss and go inside the hut. If they don't, one will run away. It's rare, but possible, for three people to go inside a hut together. One mother whose children played this game explained the mating behavior by saying that the villagers went inside the hut to discuss their compatibility.

Families can talk about what's important for a society to survive. The simulation forces players to prioritize how they spend their tech points on research. Is farming more important than building? How about spirituality over healing? This is fertile ground for discussions about what's important in life.

Rate It!

Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Jinny Gudmundsen

Computer-generated life simulations like The Sims and the Civilization series have long appealed to both teens and adults, but that type of game is complicated, has a steep learning curve, and requires a large time commitment. VIRTUAL VILLAGERS: A NEW HOME is a streamlined life simulation that's so simple even kids can play.

The game starts with a small tribe of seven people arriving on the island of Isola as the only survivors of a volcanic eruption. Your role is to manage these survivors as they evolve into a thriving village of 90 people. The villagers will need to find food and housing, develop technologies, fight disease, and mate. Players direct each villager to develop a specific skill, work with others to survive, and eventually explore the island to discover its 16 mysteries.

You control a villager's activity by selecting a preferred skill from a list that includes builder, farmer, researcher, breeder, or healer. Villagers with an assigned skill will initiate tasks relating to that skill set. You can also pick up villagers by left-clicking on them and then dropping them at a job site to teach them a new skill. For example, early on in the game before villagers have learned to grow their own food, they'll need to forage for berries. If you place any villager, regardless of designated skill, in front of a berry bush, he or she can learn to pick the fruit.

Researchers play a crucial role in this game because the only way your society can progress is by earning "tech points." Teaching villagers to research, an event that happens when you place them in front of the research table, earns tech points. With your tech points you can improve your villagers' ability to farm, construct, reproduce, heal, and become spiritual. Accumulating food points is another element crucial to survival. One tester lost the game early on because she grew her population too quickly without growing enough food for them.

What makes Virtual Villagers unique is that it runs in real time. Even when you quit playing for the day, your villagers keep living unless you choose to "pause" the game. This isn't a game that you play all at once. Instead, you fiddle with it for about 10 minutes at a time, then let the villagers get on with their lives until the next time you want to peek in.

Managing this virtual world isn't difficult; it just takes patience. It will take hours for your villagers to build huts so that their population can grow, and days before your villagers will learn to fish. One of the things that will keep you coming back is trying to figure out the island's 16 mysteries. Villagers will be curious about certain things, like a rock blocking a cave's entrance; but it's up to you to figure out how to unlock each mystery.

By playing Virtual Villagers, kids will think about life in terms of what's necessary to survive. They'll learn that people need shelter, food, healing, and the ability to reproduce. And to better their lot, they need to be creative and scientific. It's a perspective that many young people may not have thought about before playing this game.

Fans may like to go urban with SimCity 4 or to the zoo with the simulation game Zoo Tycoon 2.

Rate It! Send to a Friend

It's quick and easy to pass on
this great info!

Content
CS adults kids

Sexual Content

Reproduction is part of this life simulation, but it's handled by couples kissing and going inside a hut. Sometimes when they emerge, the woman is carrying a baby.

Violence

Language

Message

 

Social Behavior

The simulation reinforces how important it is to work together. But women with babies are automatically taken out of the work force for two years, and, unfortunately, shown doing nothing when caring for children.

 

Commercialism

 

Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco

 

Educational Value

Teaches how societies function.

Rate It Now

Tell others what you think!
Write a review or post a comment.

Tell others what you think!
Write a review or post a comment.

Tell others what you think!
Write a review or post a comment.

OR

Tell others what you think!
Write a review or post a comment.

It only takes a minute to get great benefits! Sign up now and get a FREE Internet Survival Guide!