Review: VirCities

Fashion for social games is gradually coming to naught. To win the user in this niche became easier. And all sorts of economic strategies, on the contrary, are at the zenith of fame. And attract more people. On the fly of the popularity of one genre and the peak of another, non-standard hybrids are born. Such as VirCities , where the care of the life of their "avatar" is combined with the promotion of the character on the economic and political ladder.

To begin with, you need to choose the city in which we will live and strive for glory. And among the real capitals, and among them will be Moscow. Having created a profile, specifying the name and choosing the face of the hero or heroine, we get into the virtual metropolis. It consists not of squares and streets, but of tables and icons. Local residents introduce us into the course of the matter, offering tasks that draw in the game process. Get a job, go to the rocking chair, fight with bandits in the gateway, buy at the mall ... Everything is like in life! The balance of VirCities is also vital - it is built on energy, health and money and their competent use.

Money comes for work, performance of tasks, and later - for business or activity as a doctor or coach. Energy is spent on any activity, from the gym, increasing combat performance, to catching fish, which can then be sold. It is restored independently, with the passage of time. This process can be accelerated with the help of food or, as you may have guessed, a premium currency (read: "donata"). Finally, health is needed for battles. The world of VirCities is cruel, it is inhabited by computer-controlled gangs, and you can measure your strength with living people and neighboring cities. You can not influence anything in a fight, it all depends on how much you "pumped" the indicators and how the hero is equipped.

All this quite standard social system is diluted by the economy. Becoming a coach, you assign a competitive price to your services, opening an office, attracting employees a pleasant salary, shareholders - good dividends. Having taken up politics and joining the party, you can get to the mayors of the city and manage the system already globally, controlling the level of taxes, research and certain areas. However, success is possible in the role of owner of factories and newspapers, furnishing an expensive apartment with elite furniture. After all, like in any The Sims , there is a housing that influences prestige.


In theory, the system looks logical and suitable rather for short sessions in transport. It is clear that the interest strongly depends on the interaction of gamers. But they can be embarrassed by the simplicity of the design. There are no "beauties" - only a menu with simple icons and text, in the beta version there is even no music. We seem to be returned to the beginning of the 2000th, during the popularity of the Fight Club. People over twenty-five may experience a certain nostalgic urge. The only explanation other than the budget can be that VirCities runs even on very old and weak devices with single-core processors (in the case of Android) and iOS 6 (in the "apple" version).

The interface is organized is not always logical - sometimes, to get to the right item, it takes a few extra clicks. But everything works without complaints, quickly, and it has been translated into Russian qualitatively (only some notices were left in English). Of course, you need a stable Internet connection, but this is the norm for games with real people. 

To promote social stages, real money investments are not required. Just need to shift attention to some specific tasks that will propel you forward. Individual elements are not too closely related to each other - for example, work becomes almost unnecessary (it turned out unrealistically, well, yes, for the better), so you are offered daily tasks that require you to do everything little by little. In this sense, the action resembles a browser-based eRepublik - for a slow advance 20 minutes a day is enough, the interest is not lost.



VirCities should be praised not so much for what has already been done (and the project is at an early stage of development), how much for the vector taken. There is a potentially interesting set of mechanics, and it should appeal to more or less adult players.


Rate: 7/10

Thanks for reading!