A uniquely persistent sim requiring your patience.
by Vincent Mysliwiec

Virtual Villagers ? The Lost Children is a unique sim game where you assist and steer an innocently young and uncultured civilization on the island of Isola. They are the product of your influence and naturally you want the best for them. After the tutorial shows you how to gather food, produce fire, and procreate for the betterment of the village you are on your own to explore and delegate responsibilities. Uniquely, the village persists without your involvement and the villagers will continue to grow, die, and reproduce even when not running the game so that when you come back the village has changed.

While playing only the adults seem to have direct influence over the progression of the village and can be steered toward five different classes: farming, building, research, healing, and parenting. Children are not without use and are used to collect items that will randomly popup around the village.

Slowly your technology points will rise and can be used as currency to buy technology that will help the village. Plus there are 16 puzzles in total like fire that will assist the village too. Finally, that warm feeling of collecting all the collectibles is another reward system to keep you playing.

One big complaint is that the progress of the village is very slow. Adults build slow, gather slow, and even walk slower than the children. An hours worth of two adults building a hut only raised the construction percentage from 48 to 50? Ouch! Even at a 2x speed setting it still seemed too slow. Everything seems to take time. And since only the adults can take action you are waiting for the children to grow into adults.

The next issue is that little or no help is offered after the tutorial. You will have to try a lot of things to unlock the puzzles and cultivate a village.

But if you have the patience Virtual Villagers ? The Lost Children has a lot to offer. This game is perfect for those that want a lengthy game where you can play a little every evening advancing the village and inhabitants.