Banished vs Virtual Villagers: The Secret City
Banished
Banished is a medieval-themed city-building simulation that can be pretty difficult to get into at first mainly due to its many nuances and lack of a comprehensive tutorial. But once you get the general idea of how things work (we'd recommend starting with easy mode), you'll start to truly appreciate the game as the challenge that it is. In some way, this game is quite similar to SimCity in many ways with the obvious difference being the themes and the lack of piping, waste management or electricity. Different maps will pose a different challenge and of course, the bigger your village is, the more stuff you'll need to manage. Although it does have some strategy elements to it - mainly in the form of village management, the game is not a war game. There is no fighting involved but your villagers will die from natural causes or disasters like illnesses or famine.However, once you've gotten the hang of the game, Banished becomes less of a punishing game and a bit more boring due to the same-y looking buildings and the soundtrack. When it comes to replayability, we'd say that the game has maybe tens of hours in it before you'll get bored and move on to the next game... and this play duration may be drastically reduced if you happen to be a pro SimCity player.
So, in short, Banished will appear to be a somewhat frustrating game at first, but once you've gotten the hang of it, the game might gradually becomes boring mainly because there is nothing else to do except to expand, expand and expand! However, we can't say that we didn't enjoy playing the game, and even for the shorter play duration it has to offer, as opposed to triple A city-building titles, the game is worth the money it costs.
Virtual Villagers: The Secret City
Virtual Villagers: The Secret City is the third game in the Virtual Villagers series. In this game, you'll need to send your little villagers on a perilous yet necessary journey to re-populate the lost city of Isola. Thankfully, the place where the city was rumored to be on is rich with resources that can help your tribe to not only survive but also thrive... as long as you are there to guide them along. In addition to the intriguing storyline, this game also provides real-time weather which will greatly improve your gaming experience.If you're a fan of the Virtual Villager series, you wouldn't want to miss out on this game, but even if you're not, you might want to try this game out, especially if life simulation games are kind of your jam.