Pioneer Lands: Old West Settlers Strategy Review

Pioneer Lands is a time/resource management game with the West as its theme.

Pioneer Lands is a time/resource management game with the West as its theme. Collect resources and materials, sell them to buy other things, and complete the objective within the given time limit. With 99 levels, you won’t get bored too quickly.

The biggest problem in this game is the lack of a help menu. The only way to refresh your memory on how to play is to go back to earlier levels and play them again. I prefer to read a set of instructions to learn, and I was disappointed that the game didn’t even have a simple help menu.

Another thing I didn’t like about this app was that it took me 28 seconds to get from home screen to the app start menu, EXCLUDING loading time. The app plays a 28-second animation every time you load this up. With multitasking, this might not happen every time, but I’m sure not all of us are patient enough to wait half a minute just to get to the start screen. If there is a way to skip this animation, or not play it after the first time, it will definitely attract more attention.

A minor concern is that the game doesn’t have a ‘free play’ mode- you can only play the 99 levels and play them again. Each level can be completed in 7 minutes or less. 100 levels means less than 12 hours of play. Once you complete all levels, I don’t really see a reason to play them again; especially if you’ve been doing the same thing for 99 times. Of course, not everyone will spend 12 hours and complete all levels. But a ‘quick play’ mode would surely be nice.

Completing levels will earn you stars you can use to upgrade your farm. Although this will not have any effect on gameplay, it is amusing to see your farm grow as you play.

There are levels, very challenging to get all 99 achievements, unique implementation of achievements/secondary mission. But there is no free game mode, repetitive action, can’t skip intro movie, $2.99 is a little too costly.

Overall, this game can be improved greatly. All of the cons can be fixed without major updates. The game’s graphics and animation are above average. Pioneer Lands is already a good strategy game, but it’s not really worth $2.99 as of now. Significant updates from Nevosoft will be required to attract more players.

Reviewed Device: iPod Touch 4G

[review pros=”many levels, strategy game” cons=”no free mode, long wait time” score=60]