Virtual Villagers 4: The Tree of Life

When the guys and girls that inhabit the world of Virtual Villagers get down with one another, rather than stripping down to their bare essentials they simply have a chat.

To spare our blushes, the actual act of reproduction takes the form of a discussion.

Virtual Villagers 4: The Tree of Life is no lifestyle simulator, and its unusual interpretation of life's major events doesn't even resemble the more fun-loving The Sims. Instead, this is a game that's too functional to be fun and too familiar to feel the slightest bit fresh.

Life in Virtual Villagers is cyclical. Rather than giving birth to something new, this latest releases plays out like a reincarnation of all that's gone before.

Virtual Villagers 4: The Tree of Life hands you a tribe of five people on a supposedly barren corner of the island Isola. Your job is to discover why life appears to be on the wane, animals and plants dying alike. At the centre of it all is the tree of life: a great big tree with far reaching branches you're ultimately tasked with reviving.

While the supposed ills that have infested the ground beneath your feet give the latest Virtual Villagers a different slant, at its core this is the same game it's always been.

This means you spend the majority of your time picking up characters with a finger and dragging them to points of interest.

Most of the lads and lasses that populate the island can be put to work on essential tasks, such as foraging for food, building shelter, or researching any objects you discover, though some activities are limited to specific characters. Children, for instance, are the only ones who can pick up scores of special artefacts that move the game forward.

Indeed, every discovery you make is somehow designed to evolve your society, although much progress is tied to what the game describes as puzzles. In truth, these are step-by-step point-and-click style actions carried out once members of your population have reached certain skill levels or when you have specific objects in your possession.

For example, early quandaries focus on boiling water or inventing soap, which have obvious benefits for your inhabitants.

Rotten wood?

Not that you're required to be on hand at all times. Your society functions without you and when you pick it up after a day or even an hour of neglect, you encounter the discoveries your population has made and even the deaths it has suffered in your absence.

Whether or not you care, of course, depends on what appeal such a methodical and repetitive simulation has for you. Looks aside, Virtual Villagers 4: The Tree of Life intentionally treads an identical path to the instalments it follows.

That's no excuse for those who part with their cash, though. Although Virtual Villagers 4: The Tree of Life will appeal to faithful fans and won't alienate newcomers, the rest of us won't be able to escape the sinking feeling that this is a series that's just as drained of life as Isola itself.