Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children

A game from my childhood!! So glad this is still available!! It doesn't really hold your hand and the puzzles can be tough to figure out at first. Graphics are nice for a game from 2007 lol but it's more about a laid back real-time survival management puzzle solver. I'm a biased reviewer for sure as the nostalgia is strong here but if you like this genre, go for it! Think of it as a precursor to Sims mixed with Oxygen Not Included. I love it. You'll get surprisingly attached to your little tribe, too!

Classic

I played this game as a child, and I'm so happy it's on Steam. It's a fun game full of puzzles and decision-making to keep your village alive. I'm really enjoying it again as an adult. Whether you've played it as a kid or not, I recommend purchasing this game.

I feel as though Virtual Villagers 2: The Lost Children holds up better then it's predecessor. It's also a lot harder to actually survive. One of the biggest obstacles in this feature is actually just staying alive - food is very scarce regrettably from the get go. You can briefly fish in the ocean from the start, but eventually algae will infest the waters and the villagers will not swim nor fish in it. To fish again you'll need Level 3 farming which is, if I recall, 90k tech points, not including buying Level 2 farming. Then after you get Level 3 farming you need to drop a Master Scientist/Master Farmer into the pond and they will pull out algae eating fish (don't bother questioning how a fresh water fish gets put in the ocean.) and you need to do this with a handful of people or a handful of times before it actually works. [b]The fishing is the only solution to feeding, regrettably.[/b] After the first bout of fishing and the algae if you get Level 2 farming you can unlock the ability to get coconuts. But these don't regenerate NEARLY as much as they ought to. It's essentially the fish all over again, but you get 10-30 coconuts every new day. Which is not enough for a rough villager count of 10-20 you usually have at this point of the game. Besides the coconuts you can create a dam above the covered ruins and reroute the water into a plantable field. This is a crop field that supplys about 700-800 food every yield. [b] Every 200+ mins (just over 3 hours.)[/b] It keeps them alive but rarely will you see that food counter not be at 0 unless you get to the algae eating fish pronto. The puzzles are more obscure as well from the original! After you get Level 2 exploration you are likely trying new things to figure out where you can progress - I was dropping villagers on the vines, the ruins, the box, everywhere. Eventually I caved and looked it up. Right above the research table is a pile of rocks. In a little nook in the dirt at the rocks there is a three tipped MINISCULE POINTY ROCK. You need to drop a villager on that. Then after that is done you need to drop a villager onto the vines right below those rocks. [b]This will make cutting tools, something you need for 2-3 other puzzles later on.[/b] It's actually ridiculous how small they are. Or this game also introduces Stews! The stew is made with 3 of the herbs that are provided around and also some food. It not only feeds the villagers but gives them a boost/debuff depending on the herbs you put in. And there is a SINGLE recipe you need in order to give the villagers water-breathing to dive into the pool and retrieve one of the gong pieces. By the way [i]you can use the same herb more then once in a stew.[/i] This game upped the difficulty for sure and I think it's still well worth it. Either on the bundle deal reduced or solo price reduced, mind you, as I don't feel the original Virtual Villager game holds up as this one did. I can't say I'd openly suggest it to people but it's still a nice edition. Wish they included achievements but I'd also rather not spend wasteless hours waiting for collectibles. I did the puzzles and that's good enough for me.

I like being able to run at half speed, normal, or double speed.

A continuation of the franchise, this one has the exact same feel as the first one but the puzzles are way different. Much more complicated and trial and error is your friend here.

It's alright,. Too repetitive to play for too long though.

:)

GOOD

Loving the game I remember playing this as a teenager in the 90's, brings back so many memories, def recommend this game