Casual Gaming Review: Family Island
Title of Game
Family Island (Version 2021214.0.13795)
Developer
Melsoft
Game Type
Farming Simulator (at least that’s what they call themselves)
General Play Loop
Use energy to complete tasks and gather resources. Use those resources to create items or gain rewards.
General Review
The game is fun, if you enjoy the time management type of game. There’s more to do than simply plant crops and sell them. The game itself says it’s a farming simulator, but that’s not as accurate as it is for some other games. That is planting crops of course, but the other things overshadow that aspect.
There’s resource gathering — chopping down trees, busting up rocks, pulling up grass — and there’s building. You have to do something with all those resources right? You build housing and outhouses and firepits. There’s storage spaces and crafting opportunities. All the things that would make life on a deserted island work.
There are frequent “adventure” quests which take place on temporary islands. These are sometimes fun, but generally frustrating unless you play all day. You quickly run out of energy when you’re playing through an adventure and successfully completing one of the adventure islands, even when paying money has eluded me so far.
The non-temporary quests though, those are fine. You can work through those at your own pace and successfully complete them. It’s also nice to strip mine those non-temporary islands for the main island. Don’t worry, that’s encouraged. The quests are fun and shake things up a bit.
The humor is sitcomish with the occasional sly witticism creeping in. The main characters are a mother, father, and 2 children — one male, one female. These cannot be adjusted, so if the character design annoys you, you’re stuck. Then, there are side characters who are unlocked as you progress and gain levels. These new characters give you new quests or request items.
Gaining levels is done through a combination of completing tasks, quests, gathering resources, and creating items. It also gets harder to gain levels as you go, which is somewhat standard. New levels grant new opportunities to create more complex items and different structures.
Overall, it’s a fun game that encourages you to login at least once a day, if not multiple times a day. It held my attention for more than half a year.
Are there micropayments?
Yes. Yes there are. And the urge to buy energy or diamonds is pretty strong to be honest. I’ve gotten sucked in more than once; especially during special events. To be honest, I’ll be deleting the app as soon as this review goes live to keep myself from getting sucked in again.
Are there ads? (Can I pay to get rid of them?)
The only ads are for the micropayment options within the game. And no, you can’t pay to get rid of them. If only. The micropayment ads pop up when you load in; when you click on something and don’t have the resources to deal with it; when they feel like it; when there’s a special event; when the moon is half-full and the werewolves are howling. That is to say, there are a lot of them, but they can be ignored.
Rating:
Four frogs out of five
