Since we are on a roll with bad games how about a Sims Castaways meets Farmville clone which falls short, aka Shipwrecked.
My first exposure to this game was in one of the in game ads shoved down your throat while playing Order Up To Go (if you are a Sony gamer and ever wanted to know what in game advertising looks like... this is in game advertising, here in Order Up To Go). The ad looked interesting, but like a great many ads it was deceptive and left out vital details.
So set sometime in... I don't know, the romanticized age of pirates not from Somalia... well you have two survivors of a shipwreck (hunky man and strong female female character) building a colony on this lost island with the help of other people you meet as you play... and already we run into the first problem with this game, people.
This is one of those rare games where people act as the cursor, requiring one person free to do tasks like clean up debris for resources (a common chore you will partake in in this game), gather stuff from all the buildings and stuff you put on your limited space, perform tasks involving expanding into the forest around you and expanding into the forest around you. Sounds simple enough... but it isn't.
Just doing simple tasks is alright, but when it comes to building or uncovering task items from the wilderness it ties up a single character for a few hours, and you start off with only three characters. So, once all three are tied up in long tasks unless you are willing to pay in spirits/potions your stuck... So where are all the other characters hinted at in the trailer? Oh you can find them... in the game store, being sold for Premium currency that is impossible to come by! Translation the first three are free, the rest cost real money.
But wait, that is not all! A major part of the game is clearing away the jungle surrounding your tight small landing spot, to do this you use swords in order to clear the jungle one small section at a time and it seems OK... until you run out of swords. No problem, that'll regenerate right? No. No they don't. Well then maybe you just need to buy the right building to earn or craft swords. And that seems like a logical idea, only none of these so called stores give you an option to craft anything, and not even the ones related to swords yield swords. You only gain swords by leveling up, at a disgustingly slow rate only to earn a very low yield if one or two per hard fought leg e l up (earned doing the aforementioned endless chore of cleaning and building tending). The only way I figure you can earn swords? Buying them with real money. What utter rubbish! Making the two most vital elements of the game, people and swords, a Premium currency item. Unforgivable! That insures the only way you will get full use out of the game is by spending real money on said game! Rubbish! It's one thing to love a game so much you are willing to make the investment, but quite another to be forced to invest just to progress! That is not a good way to motivate you to drop money nor should you on this game.
Too bad too, it had nice graphics a decent story and had potential. Potential squandered by a lack of interactive shops or the ability to craft vital elements like swords, a tight stranglehold on survivors (a problem I have with another Castaway/Farmville clone I will be reviewing shortly), and again that stagnation of game development unless your willing to spend real money for that progress. Rubbish. A 2 out of 5. Go play Oregon Trail American Settler... before GameLoft updates the game into the ground and an early grave.
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