I played Virtual Villagers a while back, deemed it “OK”, and moved on. When I saw this game advertised on Big Fish Games, I figured it was more of the same until I got a closer look at it. Virtual Villagers, for those of you who have never played it, tasks players with managing a tribe that must complete all of the goals to win the game. Some of these goals are hidden and a lot of the gameplay involves the player figuring out what the next goal actually is through trial and error. Virtual Villagers runs even when the game is closed…which can be detrimental if you leave the game sit on its own for a while as your tribesmen/women can die off.
The Promised Land (PC)
The Promised Land keeps with the theme where you must guide shipwrecked settlers and help them prosper. You’ll be directing these settlers to collect resources, gather food, research technology, and etc. Unlike Virtual Villagers, this game does not run in the background…that is…when the game is shut down. The game makes up for that by making resource collection fairly quick so that there isn’t that much downtime.
As the game progresses, you’ll be able to research technology and establish new ways of doing things. You’ll be able to farm different crops of your choosing or remodel a house to fit more settlers, for example. Your ship will also play a vital role as it will be going back and forth between your new settlement and the homeland, trading whatever goods you indicate in the process.
Deals pop up from time to time…watch for them!
I personally have had a blast with the game so far, though a lot of my progress has been guided via one goal after another. I’m hoping that later on I’ll be able to have more freedom in what goals I need to address when. This is one big resource collection/management game…and for whatever reason, I seem to enjoy that genre. I like how you can choose which crops you want to grow and how you can assign your settlers to different tasks on a whim. Keeping them in one place will specialize them and make them work better at it, so there’s that to keep in mind.
If you are a fan of resource management and village-esque games, then I recommend you download the demo and give it a shot.
Final Verdict: 6/10
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur3ETVatBg8
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Click below to visit the game’s page on Big Fish Games:
