Country Story
Country Story is a bit like a stripped-down web-based Harvest Moon. You play a character managing a farm and growing crops. I haven't played a ton (I'm at level 5.), but it doesn't seem to have much depth. The little it has seems to depend a lot on having a good number of friends playing with you. If you don't already have friends playing, this means you are going to need to bug your friends to join up. This is a bit too spammy for me. I don't particularly enjoy getting lots of notifications from the plethora of apps on Facebook, and I tend to assume others feel the same. Lite RPG elements also show up throughout the game including questing and leveling. This sounds much deeper than it turns out to be. Quests are pretty boring. Each new level opens up a new line of quests. However, there are not enough quests in each level to grant the experience necessary to reach the next level. Rather than questing, for the remainder of the level you will be grinding it out by planting and watering just for the sake gaining experience.Setting aside the lack of depth and evaluating the game on its own merits, it is an entertaining Flash game with serviceable graphics and sound. I like the art style which is primarily why I chose to try this over the similar and more popular Farmville. Everything is soft and pastel colored. It has a friendly, inviting look about it.
Most Facebook games utilize the social network in the game for multiplayer mechanics. The social elements of Country Story are very superficial and not at all engaging. I can visit friends farms, water their plants, and harvest for them. I may also steal crops from them. The only motivation I have for doing so is an occasional quest that asks me to do so. I was disappointed to find that I could not in any way interact with friends inside the game even if they were playing at the same time. If I go to a garden while a friend is online playing, I do not see them there, and there garden is a snapshot of whenever they made their last save. It makes the "world" feel very dead.
Speaking of saves, I don't understand why I have to take an action to save in this game. It seems to me the game should be capable of saving my progress on the fly rather than having to click a save icon in the menu. This is something I often forget to do because it feels so counter-intuitive in this medium.
One curious mechanic that is mostly unique to Facebook and is pervasive across every game I have played is stamina. Your character has stamina that is depleted as you perform tasks. Once your stamina meter is empty, you must either wait until you accumulate more or eat food to regain some stamina instantly. I can't quite figure out the motivation for such a mechanic unless it is to keep players returning on a regular basis rather than burning out in a single session. This would make sense considering the mechanics could get old pretty quickly.
Another trap of Facebook gaming present here is microtransactions. Players may use real money to enhance their game experience by buying fertilizers, special animals, and decorations for your home. Fertilizer is the big deal here as it allows the player to do more in a session than he could without it. Crops typically grow on a timer taking a number of hours to reach maturity. Fertilizer speeds the process significantly. For just a few bucks to Playfish, you can speed ahead of your friends by cutting out growing time. Although I'm not a huge fan of the microtransactions, these are not terribly pervasive and do not diminish my enjoyment of the game. I feel I am getting most everything the game has to offer without being hounded for a dollar every few minutes.
In short, the game is pretty and easy to play, but offers little in the way of substance that would hook a gamer for any length of time.
Thanks for reading. Check back for part two of my Facebook games series in which I will discuss the Facebook juggernaut Mafia Wars.
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