Virtual Villagers 4 - The Tree of Life Demo

Up until a few hundred years ago, people were still able to pick up their things and go to a new place, in order to start from scratch and establish their own community. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to do the same, but you can at least pretend to do it in video games. This way, you at least have full control over every member of the community, and you can mold the city/village as you see fit.

Virtual Villagers 4 - The Tree of Life is a simulator with sandbox elements, in which your goal is to help a few villagers set camp in a new location and slowly build a society. Every member of the community can be controlled and pointed in the desired direction, although it is nothing like in the usual strategy game. These people have unique personalities as well, which means that they might not agree with what you want them to do.

The story talks about a tribe that’s in dire need of salvation, with very few options left. In order to save themselves, a group of five people is sent to investigate the source of their trouble. While there, they must also establish a small camp to survive the elements, which means huts, a fireplace and the usual utilities needed to prepare food. Water is also important, as is a shelter and the ability to have fun every once in a while.

Every villager can be picked up and put to work, although they may sometimes refuse to do a particular activity. However, if they do start working, they also gain experience in that particular field. Hence, if a villager works on building a hut, he or she gains experience as a builder. Thus, this allows your people to get better at certain things and do them faster, which is obviously better for the community.

Villagers can also get friendly with each other and work on increasing the population. However, things move excruciatingly slow in this regard and in general. Thus, you might have to wait a long time for a specific task to be finished, although you can do a number of things in the meantime. Thankfully, the graphics are nice, and you have plenty to look at while you wait for a project to be completed.

Although Virtual Villagers 4 - The Tree of Life is not the type of game to keep you invested in the action for hours on end, you do feel the need to go back every once in a while. Hence, if you want something light to occupy your time with, this may very well do the trick.