New Software To Be Reviewed Review

This game is addicting - period! After trying out the trial version of Vacation Mogul from Alawar Games, I decided to buy it and I've been sitting with it for almost all of the weekend.

It's a simple build-a-lot game, where you take the role of one of two sisters who have just inherited a mansion and five islands from an uncle who has recently passed away. Mysterious circumstances lead to the disappearance of one sister, who has supposedly sold the mansion to the lawyer. As you progress through the levels, building hotels, bars, spas, and other tourist attractions by the seaside, you have to accumulate enough money to buy back your uncle's mansion, and at the same time, solve the kidnapping mystery.

There are about 38 levels, and at each level you have to reach the goals within a short time. The goals can be building particular buildings, reaching a given profit margin, or attracting a certain number of tourists. To make the tourism industry run faster and yield more profit, you have the option to use your researchers who will produce blueprints to new buildings, and give you upgrades. You earn more and more research points and gold or silver cups, as you finish the levels within allotted time. However, it's not necessary to meet the deadlines to proceed to the next level. But, you have to finish researching some buildings before you can start developing the next location.

There are three different types of buildings. Some are for lodging tourists, like bungalows, hotels, VIP hotels; to build these, you have to buy bricks and labor. These buildings will generate more money when they house more tourists and when they're upgraded. The "Line" buildings don't generate any income, but help increase the appeal of the area and attract tourists. The third type are the Shops, such as ice cream shops, yacht rentals, casinos, and spas. These will earn money for you. Each of these buildings serve a limited area on the map, which can be expanded as you upgrade them.

You can also buy land and other existing properties, which are put up for sale from time to time. At one point or another, your buildings will also require repairing, and you have to have the required number of bricks and labor available for that. The funniest part is when you get to save drowning tourists by throwing a line and pocket some quick money by doing so.

There are two puzzle mini-games to have some diversion with the clicking and building. I expected more, but those are the only two. One is a hidden objects game, and the other is finding a hidden match.

While it has its good sides, I can't help criticizing for not having enough touch with the story. True that the story goes on in a nice pace, but I expected the last level to be more special. It was not! It was the same deal as building regular structures, except a water park, and earning money. Also, the spaces where you build are pretty much set, you can't build at your own freedom. The game will also eat up a lot of computer resources, and make it a bit slow. The story gets a bit confusing at times, when instead of depicting the two sisters, it depicts one of the sisters with her husband. If you don't have enough research points, you may have to go back and play a previous level to earn that. Winning the gold cup is not very easy, however I managed to get the silver cup most of the time.

Vacation Mogul is one of the most downloaded games from Alawar, and for $9.95, I expected it to contain more levels and more variations. But in all, I really enjoyed playing through it!