4/5: Fun, fun, fun. I just wish you could forcibly drown people and such.
DEVELOPER(S): RELEASE: ?
Premise: From the game intro:
"Legend tells of a small but beautiful city, whose people were happy and safe. Yet they were adventures at heart, and longed to explore the limitless blue of the ocean. And so, a brave crew set out.
Uncharted islands emerged on the horizon, and the small band of explorers felt the joy of seeing what none had seen before, and of doing what they were born to do! But on the twelfth night, a storm swept down upon them...
Dawn found the explorers strewn along a deserted beach, safe from the storm, but far from their city, with no hope of finding their way back. And so, the new tribe mates set themselves to work, determined to survive, and to make a new home on this faraway shore."
Gameplay: The game is a sim', specifically a low-scale population management (I made that term up) game. After being shipwrecked and finding your tools in a crate, your tribe is ready to start their new life on the island of your choice. Each island has three different "mysteries" to solve, with eight in all. Luckily the rewards of each mystery get passed on even as you settle other islands, so you won't miss out on fountain water if you happen to move to an island without a fountain.
Each island will provide rocks to mine, trees to chop down, and fish to fish. Particular mysteries will give you access to particular materials, such as fountain water (as stated above), ironwood, and berries. While what you do with your fish is immediately obvious, I feel that I should tell you that both wood and rocks are used in construction, and if you run out of wood, you have no fire, which means your villagers cannot eat.
Villagers. They need to eat, they can only work once they come of age, they can start making babies when they reach adulthood, they have their lifespans, and they are all born swimmers. (You sadists should know why I mentioned the last one.) Along with their needs, all of your villagers have their own attributes; physical strength, mental strength, and expertise in certain fields.
On average, a villager will die at around age 70, though after solving a certain mystery you should be able to prolong your villagers' lives to infinity.
Structures are another pivotal part of the game. Huts provide a place for your villagers to sleep and call the stork, storehouses allow you to hold more supplies (100 units isn't much at all), and with a laboratory you'll be able to further your population's collected knowledge and conduct research, which you'll need to do if you plan to get on with farming some time in the future. Of course, these structures don't pop up by themselves. You'll need supplies (which your villagers will transport when needed), and of course you'll need a labor source.
The most unique aspect about Virtual Villagers is its potions. There are many different potions to discover, but I have to mention a good number of them are practically useless, either resulting in an explosion (and destroying your catalyst), just plain being bad (does summoning a hurricane sound good to you?), or purely aesthetic (changing hair colour, et cetera). It'll be trial-and-error, and definitely frustrating here and there trying to find a decent potion, but I assure you there are quite a few potions which I personally more than loved.
Graphics: Unlike Virtual Villagers, the art is 2D all the way, including character designs. Hoorah! What a breath of fresh air after seeing those little Lego zombies for so long. The character designs are very simple, yet just right. Smiles, glares, pouts; everything is fun to look at. OK, maybe not fun fun, but they're much more pleasant than Virtual Lego people.
Each islander is easy to distinguish. There are various different hair styles, hair colours, clothes, and with the Craft Works, you can make clothes of a myriad of tints and shares. While you can't exactly dress your islanders in ties, bikinis, or jockstraps on their heads, being able to specify the exact colour you want can be very satisfying; the whole tribe really feels like it's yours to tinker.
Hair is another issue. You can never choose exactly what kind of hairstyle you want. As far as I know, there aren't specific potions for specific hairstyles, and Moondust changes everything about an islander except for age and gender. At least we can choose what colour hair we want our islanders to have with the right potion. So yes, you can make them like the natives of Easter Island with their flaming red hair (they were all Caucasian gingers, did you know that?), or, if you feel like it, you can make everyone on the island a blonde. Too bad you can't make them all female...
The graphics of My Tribe is really top-notch compared to what I expect from a "casual" game. Building illustrations, the butterflies, the animation of guano dropping from the air, the rippling of the water all really add to the cozy feeling of a simplistic island life. No jaggies, nothing ugly, all the colours are bright and vibrant, adding yet more life to the game (aside from the lively islanders who in no way resembled dead Lego people). The whole game is coated with sweet yet mild eye-caramel; absolutely preferable to Virtual Villagers.
Sound: While the pop-up boxes alone would've been enough to help the user, Grubby Games goes one step further: they hire someone to narrate almost everything. And it's actually not a bad thing—her voice is soothing, calm, reassuring, ad has a nice, motherly feel to it. The game is truly one heckuva user-friendly experience; so no, she's not patronising. I did find her message to the players who've just lost their tribe a little perturbing though; at first she talks with sorrow of your voice, honouring your tribe's "noble effort" at surviving. And then right after that she nonchalantly tells you that you can create a new tribe from the main menu.
Rambling about the lady put aside, it's fair to mention that whenever you pick up an islander, they make a sound, usually a "huh?" But when it comes to children, they giggle, and when it comes to babies, they make baby noises. Strangely enough, your islanders' voices don't change even after they've matured into aged sages. They always give that young, somewhat energetic monosyllabic query like they always, as if they haven't aged a day. Not that it's unsettling or anything, it's just something to point out. I have to mention that there isn't a huge library of "huh"s either, not that it gets repetitive picking up several dudes in a row dropping them into the ocean to hear things over and over again. (That wasn't sarcasm.) It's like breathing; you don't think about it until you actually think about it.
Ah, the music, you thought I'd forgotten to mention the music, didn't you? Or did you think that there was absolutely no music in My Tribe? Anyway, to my pleasure, the tracks, while few, are pleasant on the ears and are not repetitive at all. They mesh in with island life perfectly, and would make for some great lounge music in say Hawaii, and really, the music's not annoying at all! Except for one little thing, maybe. When you start out, I guarantee you'll be constantly scoping the island for fallen objects when in actuality it's just a little background sound in the music. It's not annoying, though sometimes it can really dampen your spirits, but ironically enough, hearing the music itself will compel you to shrug the whole thing off. Not to worry: once you've got an observatory built, you'll be notified by a unique sound whenever you've been bestowed with a heavenly gift, and you won't have to think about turning off the music anymore. (Several players may find themselves doing this.)
Overall: Whether you're a "casual" gamer or an obsessed HCer, you're guaranteed to have fun with My Tribe. However, a few flaws here and there (mainly having to do with leaving your tribe alone for the night with a 50/50 chance of coming back to find half of them dead from starvation) have unfortunately held me back from giving the game a five. Still, the game really is worth buying, and it makes a great gift, too. In my mind, Grubby Games has really set the standard for "population management" (I made that term up) games. Here's to seeing what comes next because of the water mark this little Canadian (yes, Grubby Games is based in Canada) gem of a PC game.
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