Once again LDW, GREAT JOB!

I must confess, I hated this one at first. But now that I've gotten my sea legs I'm REALLY diggin it.

Beautiful artwork, LOVE the new hairstyles! Yes, I'm the kind of goddess who selected her tribe by how cool their hair looks. Just because you're being held captive n tormented by hostile natives doesn't mean you can't look fabulous.

Thanks for another fun, engaging & surprisingly personal gaming experience. 

Now, that I'm mostly finished except for a few rare relics & science objects, I have a better view of the whole game.

Meh. 3-1/2 out of 5 stars. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't *great*.

Sorry, LDW, but I thought the previous versions were better. Getting through the last conversions with nothing else to do was tedious and had nearly zero pay-off.

The main lingering problem with all the VVs (I've played all 5 now) has been solving all the puzzles and then not having anything to do while you're still short a few relics for the collections or in this case, also waiting on the heathens. I'd really hoped that the balance would be perfected in this version, but it isn't.

There are still not enough building projects. It would be good to do hut upgrades. And more housing should be required for a population of 90!

And markers on the detail page for villagers so it's easier to see where trainee, adept, and expert split.

I also didn't really like the puzzles -- I thought they were too simplistic in some cases, or just tediously repetitive in others (like constantly using lightening to scare off the heathens and then re-dropping villagers to work, lather, rinse, repeat).

Plus I missed potions in the lab. I missed the different levels of the areas like the lab or the hospital. These were really some of the things that made VV fun.

And I got only a few events -- out of 13 events, I got two repeats. I would think it would be easy to program events not to repeat.

I've thought that most of the past VVs were harmonious and fun environments, but the heathens made VV sort-of aggravating, and I didn't like that mood change.

All in all, some of the lingering issues don't seem improved and it wasn't as polished as some of the past outings.

I did like that when you convert the Master Farmer heathen that It would have been a fun progression if this had happened with each of the Master heathen conversions.

And I do appreciate that LDW is looking for new ways to take VV so that it doesn't get stagnant. Can't say I loved the heathen interaction and conversion process, but kudos for breaking out of the box! I can see the story line moving to reunite the villages on the island, and maybe the the next VV is a more linear map building a road between the villages with the puzzles related to interim spots on the road (barriers, etc.), road building materials, reunite each village as you get to it, etc.

Again, I know I will love this game (if the stupid 1 hour version would actually WORK) when I finally play it, but I agree with SquishedFairy, nursing women that can't work annoy me. I think they should now work for maybe 30-40 minutes game time, them work at a slightly slower pace until the baby is old enough to go around on his/her own. Great job anyway, LDW!

I loved it right away!
Then I made so many mistakes in the first couple of games I played...
And each game takes soooo much time to get anything accomplished,so now I'm a little frustrated.

I LOVE IT! Thank you LDW - the best VV yet! Much more challenging and interesting and no more of those stupid potions. The heathens are a riot. I finished the first one and working on my second. Getting very easy to beat those heathens now. Cute ending.

PLEASE give us a new Virtual Families now!

I couldn't wait for this game, and i'm a little disappointed in the respect by the time I got
I never had this many complaints with the other games, just sooo frustrated that I can't finished
Is it me or in this version there is less to do???

scallerbar,

I suppose technically you won't be able to "complete" the game. That's part of the fun. It is ongoing. The trophies are fairly unimportant. It's not meant to be finished in a few days.

One of the good things about this particular game is that

With the new game I really miss finding herbs to mix potions or prepare stews for my villagers. That would be my only complaint aside from the heathens going after elderly villagers and children. Other than that, I love the new game and have been playing nearly non-stop since I downloaded it. Good job LDW.

I love VV5!

The map is gorgeous. I especially like the river and waterfall and the rocky pools. The powers are a nice touch and solve several of the "problems" from the previous games. I like that there is more than one way to solve some of the puzzles.

I like the different heathens and wish there were more of them, or that new ones would continuously arrive from out of the jungle. That would have added a layer of difficulty.

Overall, I'm really impressed and I'm really enjoying the game!

People are saying in this thread that the game is more challenging.

I guess I agree, because this game has DOABLE challenges... whereas many (if not all) of the previous versions essentially required finding spoilers to tell us what to do. In THIS version, while we have sometimes gotten a little stuck, had to try a few things that didn't work, etc etc --- stuff makes sense and can be figured out (so far anyway, I have 9 or 10 of the puzzles done thus far)

On the conversion thing.... the details that are shown after completing one of the puzzles make a BIG DIFFERENCE, I think, in how many people would see the game.

I wonder if you should have included some of those details at the outset, making it all so much more palatable.