I'm no stranger to simulation games. From The Sims to Animal Crossing, I have had moderate to pretty good success in raising little "sim people" and giving them comfortable lives. So it was with the utmost dismay that I managed to kill an entire village of people today. It's very sad, and I'm still a bit shaken, but I will try my best to recount the events of this tragic day so that you may take heed and fare a little better.

I had foot surgery last week, so I have spent most of this week sitting around, and a good portion of it downloading and playing through as many free trials of Mac games as I could find. Upon my first visit this week to the Big Fish Games website , I noticed a new-to-me game that promised (to my mind anyway) a Sims-like game experience: Virtual Villagers. The story behind this game is tragic in and of itself. A whole island of people were wiped out by a huge storm, and a small group of survivors have washed up on the shores of a new island, completely ignorant as to how to perform even the most basic of life skills.

Your job, as the player, is to teach each of the villagers to perform the tasks that are necessary when building a civilization. This isn't as hard as it sounds, as some villagers have an innate aptitude toward certain trades, like building, farming, and research. My very first mistake was listening to the tutorial and not thinking my actions through. The tutorial informed me very early on that the villagers needed to mate, so I chose the closest male and put him in the vicinity of the closest female, they hit it off, and went off together to produce offspring in a little tiki hut. Within seconds, a little baby was born, and the mom spent all her subsequent time on the island walking around nursing the baby. Unfortunately, the tutorial next told me that the villagers needed to build more huts to hold their expanding population, and I realized that the only trainee builder that I had was busy nursing her baby, and as a result, was unable to perform any other actions. I was forced to make another villager learn to build, but he was a trainee farmer, and kept wandering off to forage for berries.

The first red flag that I had was shortly after this, when a message popped up on screen telling me it was okay to quit the game and check in every now and then, because the villagers would continue doing the chores they had been assigned. Since nothing more could really be accomplished with the villagers after about fifteen minutes of play, I quit the game, and planned to come back a little later.

Fast forward two days, when I remembered that I was still growing a civilization, and decided to check in. Upon entering the game again, I was greeted with a barrage of messages, telling me things like a new hut had been built, the villagers needed to mate again, the berry bush had been depleted, and that a youngster was sick. The last message in the cue was one telling me that all of my villagers had died. Sure enough, when I swept over the island, I saw a little group of the saddest little skeletons you've ever seen on the beach. I was given no reason for why this occurred, and the only reason I can come up with is that the berry bush depleted, and I didn't check in in enough time to teach a villager how to fish.

Virtual Villagers is certainly an attractive looking game, and one that holds a lot of promise. As I played on the first night, I received a few messages hinting at puzzles and challenges that were to come, but I never was able to get to that point. There isn't a whole lot of action here, and losing the villagers so early in the game (I still have 29 minutes in my 60 minute free trial) is definitely deterring, but if you are looking for a casual sim, this could be it. To be fair, sims are not by nature the most exciting games on the market, but for a causal game, this one has good looks, funky music, and lots of potential activities to complete. If you are not easily discouraged and are prepared to sink your teeth in and really care for these villagers, Virtual Villagers could be a very rewarding experience.

As for me, losing my first batch of villagers thirty minutes into the game was pretty heartwrenching. After some time has passed, I may try once again to raise a thriving civilization, but right now, I need something with a little more action and depth, and a lot less disappointment. If you'd like to try your hand at your own virtual village, you can download the free trial and the game from Big Fish Games.