Neroli's Opinion: Aztec Tribe is a building game that has you constructing Ancient Aztec villages. The production values are very good, but the control system is awkward, and you really need to micromanage your villagers.

Game Genre: Building

Release Date: October 9, 2009

Platform/OS: Windows XP/Vista

Screenshot:

Game Review:

Aztec Tribe is a building game that has you constructing Ancient Aztec villages. You need to help your little people to gather resources, build up new structures, and defend themselves against attacks. Building some structures relies on having enough resources and materials, so you need to have a strategy as you play. For each level, there are goals to meet in order to advance.

It's a little bit like Virtual Villagers, but not nearly as unstructured. There are clearly defined goals for each level, making it more similar to World of Zellians: Kingdom Builder.

The graphics are good, and the music and sound effects are fun. The concept is a lot of fun, too. It's neat that we're seeing more building games that explore other cultures and time periods, not just the usual tropical island theme.

What I didn't like was the control system. You have to click for everything, literally. Click to start work, click to stop, click to gather food, click to gather gold, click click click...some of these tasks could really have been automatic. You need to micromanage everything, which is sometimes the point of these “god games,” but it's made overly complicated in this case.

Once you learn the quirks, it's not too hard to play, but there is a learning curve. Not everything is intuitive, like the need to stop workers on other structures before directing them to a new structure.

Aztec Tribe puts a new spin on the building game genre, and the production values are good. However, it's a bit more complicated than other games in the genre, so expect to exercise patience when learning how to play.

Where to get the game, or play the free demo:

DOWNLOAD TRIAL

BigFish: $6.99

Disclaimer: Casual game companies change their prices like most people change socks! Always check before you buy.