WEEK 10 | Paradise Island Game Review

This week, I had a sudden 'hunter / gatherer' urge (thats the best I could do to describe it!).  I remembered a game I had played a year ago, so went about finding it and playing it again.  

The game is a mobile device app called Paradise Island, where the player builds up an island, collecting revenue which allows the further improvement of the island.  Needless to say, it fulfilled my hunter / gatherer urge in the short-run.  

The game has some additional functions that have been added since the last time I played which has greatly increased the longevity of this game play this time around.  It now has themed events where players have a certain time period to collect special items in the game in order to build different themed buildings which earn more money than normal buildings.  One such event that I participated in was an athletic event that coincided with the Olympics   It was a cool feature that really got me hooked because I really wanted to collect all the required items before the time ran out.

I have since found that my interest has waned without the activation on anymore events, which is exactly what happened on my first play through a year ago.  I do like the social feature they have included now, where you can add friends (with you can get from the games facebook page) and you can go to your friends islands to clean them in order to get blueprints which allow you to build special buildings.  This feature also allows you to see what other players have built, which acts I think to prolong the gameplay as players desire to improve their island increases.  It is also a good boasting quality to it, which is an important game feature to have according to things I've read in the subject readings.  You can also get special codes off the facebook page which allow players to build special things on a set day.  

Overall:  Pretty cool game.  The mechanic of collecting money is a very addictive one and fulfills some of our very basic desires.  The addition of leaderboards/awards, and  being able to see other players islands allows the competition of social status, which is the core activity of all humans.  I normally don't play these sorts of games, and I usually suck at them, but this game was simple and fun enough to provide a couple of weeks of entertainment.  Like in my review for Command and Conquer, I said that even though the game was not meant to be played consistently (you log in a couple times a day for a few mins), I think this style of play can be just as immersive as normal games, as I found myself thinking about it many times during the day.