by Ja.W. Smith

Created on: December 01, 2008   Last Updated: January 17, 2009

My Tribe makes dreams of living on a tropical island come true. The entire experience is like one big Sims vacation. Not only is the game extremely relaxing to play, but it continues building and growing, even when the computer is off. With limitless possibilities for exploration and natural expansion, this game is a winner.

The story starts off with a small band of explorers sailing a boat. As is with all sailing stories, a huge storm sneaks in and wreaks havoc on everything. The explorers eventually realize the storm shipwrecked them on a deserted tropical island and they have to somehow make due. Hopefully, the group can pool their limited skills together and figure out ways to come up with life's necessities.

Right away, a fair-voiced narrator begins instructions on how to lead your people to a successful life. It seems your people can muster just enough skill to get by and grow their skills the more they exercise them. Eventually, you find this misfit clan regularly indulging in activities that the average stressed-out American would kill to do. Fishing all day, exploring uncharted islands, hunting butterflies, and just relaxing on the beach develop into the norm for your people. There's no such thing as an office or boss (besides you) for anybody to fret over. The characters also get to "call the stork" (as the game calls it) with whichever other characters they want; must be real tough duty. Chopping wood and hauling rocks require some attention, but you can tell somebody else to do that and almost forget about it.

The game perpetuates most of the work for you, making it that much more pleasurable and at the same time mysterious. The scenery would benefit from improved graphics, but the current setup certainly makes everything visible and understandable. The real innovation of My Tribe lay in what you can't see right away. Just set the tribesmen and women to their tasks and they will continue as long as they can, even with the computer off. Players don't have to sit and babysit agonizingly slow characters every step of the way; quite nice. Another feature that blows the mind is the huge number of totally different islands your tribe can aspire to explore. The sheer incalculable number spurs on the drive to find and explore the next one, and the next one.

My Tribe has so much going for it that one searches for anything bad to say about it. More sound effects would enhance the overall experience, but the lack doesn't seem to actually hurt anything. Overall growth and progress within the game almost crawls to a halt sometimes and could use a bit more octane, but this feature might also come across as realism. Aside from that, buying My Tribe definitely adds to game libraries in a positive and rarely relaxing way. This game washes up on shore, with a rating of 4 out of 5 palm trees swaying in the Pacific breeze.

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