Game Review 1: Third World Farmer

The game opens up with a view of your little family of (gasp) third world farmers. They are a poor lot, and you have 50 dollars to spend on that which you deem necessary.

On my very first play through, I was immediately rofl-stomped by a drought which killed all of my plants and left me with -2 dollars. The game then politely informed me that my family cannot afford the price of living, and their health will suffer. Luckily, a businessman gave me a deal I couldn't afford to pass up, offering me 75 dollars to put his harmless barrels of toxic waste on my farm. Surprisingly, My family didn't grow extra appendiges, so I planted my 73 dollars of crops, and got a woman pregnant. The crops then failed fantastically, leaving me with -25 dollars. We flawlessly had a baby however.

GREAT!

The merry man of business then proposed to me the previous deal, again. I accepted, planted my 50 dollars of crops and pressed go. The little window of updates and joy informed me that the barrels were not safe this time, and someone had died.

Yay. Alt+f4.

Playthrough two showed me a fabulous turn of luck.

I bought a shovel this time with some of my opening cash, and speckled my field with corn. Preparing for the worst, I pressed go. Corrupt officials then stole my 2 dollars of savings for a farming tax. My harvest however gave me sixty-sum dollars.

I smiled and sent my family back to the farm, planting a mixture of Cotton, Wheat, and Corn.

Next update: ALL UR PIGS R DED FROM SWINE FLU. Huh--- wasn't aware I had pigs, so I suppose I'm fine. I continued dodging various maladies and when the drought decided to steal mah waters I was ready with a well. This continued until I beat the game.

I didn't know it was going to happen, but when you buy all of the special upgrades, (school, clinic, non-asshole Politicians...) You win the game. Granted, it warns you immediately before you click WIN, but thats a bit late, in my opinion. Score saves, explains how you got your points, and lets you save your score.

The first problem I found with the game is the lack of tutorial. The loading screen tells you everything you need to know, but I know for a fact some people may either ignore the whole thing or at least miss the part about "clicking family members for more options."

The tool tips are also a bit questionable. (ex. "Elephants: Elephants help.", "Cotton: Cotton is light and fluffy.") Would really like to know exactly how much elephants help, or how fluffy the cotton is. Failing that, it would be great to see how much profit I can expect from my cotton or corn.

It would've also been great if the game told you how to win during the exposition, as opposed to let you click around for 3 hours and not know why the game hasn't declared you a winnar yet. Would've also been great to see how I could obtain points in the game before I started, rather than after I finished.

In conclusion, the game was acshully quite fun. I enjoyed the random events (as long as it didn't destroy in you during the begining) and the upgrade system with the tools was quite well done as well. The tool tips were iffy, and it seems like a quick fix would be all it would take to fix them. The educational value is also a bit surprising if you care to look for it. I learned that life as a third world farmer is quite difficult, and the fact that I rage quit on my first playthrough will attest to that.

Overall, I enjoyed the game, and I recommend to my followers to give it a shot.