Go West - with another simulator - Westward

For «mature» players who need more than an easy little game to pick, play and drop, we've got something that is... well  not very brand-new and hot, but the game that has been in the top downloads lists at many portals on the net.

Westward, by Sandlot games, fathers of Super Granny, TradeWinds Legends and other funny games featuring serious quality was released in November 2006. It is a simulation, or strategy game just like Virtual Villagers, Kudos, and Fish Tycoon.

The point of it is to feel yourself in the shoes of the first settlers and found your own town, decorate and maintain it in a proper condition.

Your task list will include a lot of functions such as:

• building new homes and repairing old buildings;

• finding wells, golden veins;

• building farms, lumber camps, recruiting settlers;

• taking care of settlers and satisfying their need for accommodation, food, health and jobJ

• keeping bandits away from the town, haunting and defeating them. It is to mention, sometimes you'll have to do a lot of restoration work after a crew has some fun in your town.

What do you need to play Westward? Time...it'll take you at least one hour to get used to your new role as a master of the settlement in the wild west. And of course, you'll need an ability to read; ). Prepare to read a lot. You'll get the instructions from your Tutorial teacher and plus, you'll have to read what other characters will have to say in the process of the game. So, if you're full of patience and willingness to create and grow something great go Westward!

Game interface is user friendly and helps you get the information about the current stage of your affairs.

It displays information about the level of your food, water supply as well as the supply of wood and gold.

At the bottom of the playfield you'll see a toolbar indicating your tool kit as well as a number of buildings to construct.

The basic actions you need to take to advance through the game are:

1). Drag the characters to a desired destination.

2). Drag and point your mouse around several characters and drag one of them to spread the lasso and be able to move several characters together(berry bush, bank, camp, farm etc. ).

3). In order to construct a building, pick it out of the number of buildings and click on it. Then, click on a toolkit and construction will begin.

According to Gamezebo, Westward has 30 hours of single-player game play, spread out over 20 levels. Plus, you can decide on a destiny of 10 characters. By the way, switching between them is extremely easy. You just have to click with your mouse on the toolbar with the character info at the bottom of the playfield.

As a usual simulator, Westward is rather easy to play and does not require much of your computer. But as for me, the only drawback here is that the game is a bit slow. So, I wish there were an ability to speed up the game and characters.