Positives:
+ The tutorial quests are easy to follow and informative. They lead seamlessly into the main quests which are the game’s main distinction from other farm or frontier based games.
+ Building a new structure is as simple as choosing the desired building from the catalog and then clicking the ground where you’d like to place it. It also doesn’t take all of your supplies, energy, oil, or gold.
+ Planting crops is as easy as clicking on which one you’d like in the catalog and then clicking a spot on the ground where it should be planted. Once the crops are planted you can water them at various stages of growth for extra experience points.
+ Gameplay is mainly quest driven. Throughout a quest line the game will ask you to do various tasks like plant “x” crops or build a certain building. Accomplishing these tasks grants experience, money, supplies, and oil. It also moves the quest forward to the next stage where you’re asked to do more tasks, each a bit more difficult from the last.
Negatives:
- During a quest line the game will take control of the camera and move the player’s point of view where it thinks it should be even if the player is actively doing something.
- If you’ve finished all the quests there really is nothing left to do except click around your town to clear out debris, feed animals, tend crops, and visit neighbors. This takes 10 minutes or less and is not very engaging.
- The “hunger” indicator for the livestock is inelegant and blocks the player’s view of what’s behind it. If the player has no energy to feed the animal the only other alternative to see behind the hunger indicator is to move the animal.
- I do not like that the game requires the player to have a certain number of friends before allowing them to do certain things like finish a quest or expand their town. Granted it is a social game but this is a relatively unknown game and few play it.
- Some of the quests contain multiple parts which make them seem to go on forever. These multi-part quests also tend to overuse certain features such as fire-starting bandits or requiring an expensive recipe to be prepared in the Cook House.
Thoughts:
~ The game’s art is nicely done. I like the variety of facial expressions available to build your character. You no longer have to play a perpetually happy character if you don’t want to. They can be worried, frightened, or angry.
~ I like the fact that new NPCs travel into town on the train instead of just appearing out of thin air. This gives the player a sense of anticipation every time the train pulls up to the platform. Who is the train dropping off now? What adventure will they bring with them?
~ Energy seems to be a gameplay barrier. There is never enough of it to get things done. It can be a bit frustrating to find that you need to do a number of things but only have the energy to complete a few. Energy does increase as the player levels up but it is a slow process.
~ This game is full of stories. Every quest comes with one that is new or builds on a past storyline the player has already experienced. This is unique for this type of game. Usually it’s simply point and click with no real reason why. One thing I would like to change, though, is the fact that when you’re experiencing a story the game essentially shuts down until you’ve read the dialogue on the screen. If you were in the middle of an action when a story is triggered then the action is dropped and you’re forced to pay attention to the story. It’s too bad that your crops are now withered because the story was more important.
Would Like:
* More variety of clothing and hair for the characters. It’s obvious that the artists had fun with the facial expressions due to the large variety. Now, they should have fun with the clothing and hair options. If nothing else, add some more color options to what’s already available.
* The ability to purchase hard to find ingredients for the Cook House from the game catalog. They can be in the Premium section and cost Bank Notes but at least give us the option. As it stands we need to wait for that hard to find ingredient to drop if we need it. This can put a halt to gameplay as we can’t do anything until we get it.
* I’d love a revamp of the gift shop. It is confusing to use. As a new player, if you don’t have a gift shop in your town your friends can’t help you. Once you have a gift shop you have to decide whether you want to ask for gifts or send them. Each gift is assigned a weight. The weight limits not only which gift you select to send but also the number of friends you can send the gift to.
* I’d like the time limit for helping friends through the Facebook news-feed to be reworked. I understand the need for a time limit but the game only allows a player to help a friend with a news-feed task once every 24 hours. That is way too high of a limit especially considering that few people play this game and the quests require that you ask for a number of items through the feed. If you have 10 friends but need 20 items then it will take you 2 days to complete that part of a quest.
*Actions beyond the usual click-fest that this game ultimately is. When all the prettiness is stripped away this game is essentially all about clicking to get a reaction whether it is a prize, experience, or some form of currency.
Credit where credit is due:
Johnson, Jeremiah Leif. (2011, March 16). Wild west town review . Retrieved from http://www.gamezebo.com/games/wild-west-town/review
Clipwire Games. (2011, February). Wild west town - open beta forum. Retrieved from http://forum.clipwiregames.com/forumdisplay.php?111-Wild-West-Town-Open-Beta
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