by Julia Williams

Created on: January 24, 2009   Last Updated: January 29, 2009

Totem Tribe seamlessly blends a variety of casual game genres into a highly unique and addicting experience. Part island sim, part hidden object, and part real-time strategy with mini-quests and puzzles, Totem Tribe is a nicely structured game that's entertaining and challenging, but not overly complex. With more than 20 beautiful islands to explore and hundreds of gems, totems and other artifacts to find, as well as three different story endings, Totem Tribe definitely offers the casual gamer plenty of bang for their buck.

The Totem Tribe game play is divided into intriguing missions that unfold as you progress to each island. When you first arrive on a new island, most of the terrain is cleverly cloaked in darkness. You must build huts to train workers, then set them to work building the various structures required to progress. For example, building a scout lodge trains villagers who can go exploring (and thus make the terrain visible); building a hunting lodge trains fighters who battle malevolent mushrooms and other marauding forces.

There are many different structures to build that aid in completing missions and solving puzzles. A nice time-saving feature of Totem Tribe is that once you have your scouts, you can let your workers build while you head off to investigate the rest of the island.

My main quibble with Totem Tribe is the absence of a hint button for the hidden-object element of the game. Some objects are quite difficult to locate, but you can't progress to the next island until you find them. I scoured every inch of one island at least five times until I finally found the object I needed camouflaged in a tree. A hint button would've lessened my frustration and allowed me to move on.

Another thing the Totem Tribe game lacks is a gem counter for each island. As you collect gems, they disappear into an invisible chest. I've only progressed to the tenth island, but I suspect that at the end, I'll need to use all the items I've collected along the way. It would be nice to know whether I found them all, or whether I need to keep searching before heading to the next island.

Overall, Totem Tribe is a fun and interesting game that provides a very enjoyable experience. My subscription to a game site allows me unlimited downloads; otherwise, I would probably be interested in purchasing the Totem Tribe game.

PROS: great graphics, engaging gameplay, relaxing music, nice blend of game genres.

CONS: no hint button or gem counter.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars.

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