Virtual Families
Uncategorized April 25th, 2009
(37 votes, average: 4.65 out of 5)
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When I was informed about the Virtual Villagers game way back, it amazed me how casual games evolved into a new level wherein you can already simulate people in them, even living separate lives while you are away from the computer. And now, with Virtual Families, you are again given godly control as Last Day of Work releases this much awaited sequel to their well known virtual simulation series.
Instead of some tribe of people trying to settle on a new patch of land, the setting of Virtual Families is put into a much smaller scale (so it seems). The story tells us that there are so many needy people living in your computer and each of them would love to be adopted by you. Choose one from the many random creations and have the virtual character started living on a big house with a potential to hold his/her legacy as well.
After choosing your first character with its corresponding likes, dislikes, career path and other status, you are greeted by the tutorial level of the game. After a brief rundown of the controls and how you will be interacting with your characters, it is much evident how Virtual Families is derived from the same engine that made Virtual Villagers a very successful game. Mouse dragging and clicking functions are all familiar to the fans of the series, but still convenient too for those who are new to the gameplay.
One thing different is how characters are already given a career path for you to progress and level up. While this deprives you of an option on how you would like to grow your character, it holds no big deal on the progress of your growing family. Of course, a certain career path can pay more than others, but the same is true that they are mostly just for financing your virtual family.
Personally, I liked all of the available careers. They all have funny names and progressing career paths is an enjoyable feature of Virtual Families. Examples of career names include being a pen designer, a donut decorator and my favorite name of all, a pesto sauce creator. And if by any chance you dreamt as being one of those, well, I guess this game is your chance to become one inside a virtual world.
The game also lets you review all your living family members on the Details tab located at the bottom of your screen. Opening this window lets you check on the status of each individual like happiness, hunger level and energy. Tracking each character’s career is also possible, letting you know on how much you need to train each unit until you make him/her progress in career.
Cool additions to Virtual Families are the Family Tree and Store features of the game. In the family tree, you can review on how you started growing and multiplying characters, and your progress in making a big family worth bragging. The store on the other hand, holds all the essentials to keep your family surviving. Groceries, medicines and other items can all be bought in the store depending on how much money you have in the bank. And you can even buy house upgrades as well, enhancing your family’s way of living.
In my opinion, Virtual Families is simply an enhanced version on what Virtual Villagers had left at. The game still has secrets you need to unravel aside from the usual collectibles and trophies you can collect as you progress through the game. Relationships are given more importance in this release too, since you’ll really have to expand your family to keep enhancing your gameplay. And like its predecessor, turning off your computer will still simulate a living family, therefore pressing the need for you to check on them from time to time.
One downside though is how slow-paced the game is on its first few parts. It’s quite a disappointment that you can’t fast forward the gameplay whenever your characters are sleeping, leaving you with nothing to do until they wake up. I guess the game is not really meant to be played in a continuous basis, instead just to check on it whenever you have some time to spare on playing.
All in all though, with its many objectives and in-game secrets, Virtual Families is really a game worth buying. It doesn’t only ensure you hours of fun, but even unlimited days of playtime as you build families generation after generation.
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