Gameforge Takes Farming Into The Wild With Funfari

There's no doubt that there's a battle raging for the most compelling Farm game on Facebook, and Gameforge's Funfari is the latest competitor to the scene. Funfari is a virtual farming game by Gameforge that strives to augment the conventional farm model with an adventurous African Safari theme and currently has 264,000 MAU. Check out our impressions of the game after the jump. Title: Funfari Genre: Virtual Farming Game Developer: Gameforge Game Publisher: Gameforge Released: 2010 Summary Funfari is a virtual farming/safari game where players run an African savannah-like wildlife preserve and earn by performing traditional farming functions such as plowing and watering crops. Although farming games are a bit played out, this game provides fresh entertainment with a unique theme, addition of wild animals and plenty of virtual items to decorate your preserve with. Pros: Great presentation. Interesting decorative items and animals that display specific animations. Mechanics that FB players are familiar. Unique theme Cons: Same features in farm games we've seen before. Dismal sociability. Lack of innovation. Not much visibility of cooperative play. Full Review Gameplay The gameplay is basically things we've all seen before, at least most of us. The player begins by entering into an African setting, an animal preserve of sorts that needs upkeeping. Growing and selling crops earn money and XP. You plow the land, plant, water, harvest and so forth. The appointment mechanic is there as well, causing the crops to wither if you don't return on time to harvest. The look and feel of the game allows the player to get started right away. Players begin with some planted crops and a lion as the tutorial guides them through basic farming chores. In addition to the coveted farming mechanisms, the game delights users with safari animals that can be planted on the farm as well, occasionally demonstrating life-like qualities. The shop is one of the highlights of the game, with an abundance of plants, trees, animals and buildings one can purchase. The crops are familiar to us: corn, millet, onion, bell pepper, rice etc., although I'm still wondering why one would need to grow crops in a game about safari - it seems as if Gameforge is trying to leverage the popular psychological exploit. The trees can also be harvested, similar to Farmville. The key differentiators are the animals that can be placed and make their natural sounds occasionally. The downside is that too many animals are revealed even though they are locked, thus detracting from their mysterious allure. Gameforge aims to cultivate regular users into engaged players through offerings of functional virtual items intended to help optimize the farming experience. The more you play Funfari, the less you will have to play Funfari. Once you plant your crops and run out of money, there isn't much to do but to go on about your day. Other than that, the achievement section will keep us busy once its rolled out, along with the desire to customize the preserve in different ways. Leveling seems OK - I got to level 4 in the same day of playing, planting as many 4-hour maturation crops as I could, selling, and planting the 16 hour ones. Presentation The game's presentation is stupendous. The game does well to separate itself from traditional farming games with a safari look: shades of brown and trees originating from jungle environments. The music is spellbinding - derivative of an epic saga, manifesting itself in the seamless backdrop of a safari. The sound effects are also nice and pleasing to the ears, and the animals sporadically create sound as well, such as the lion roaring, adding to the suspense. Sociability Sociability in this game is unappealing, reticent at best. It's analogous to the sociability of social city, a game where you visit your neighbor and click 'ok' on a popup box to perform some function, which gives an illusion of helping your neighbor. That's the situation in this case as well. Gifting and other traditional social mechanics are in place and substantial enough to keep players interested. Lasting Appeal Due to the unoriginality of the gameplay, it's hard to say if users will be engaged for long periods of time. It will be imperative for Gameforge to roll out interesting new features such as the ability to create Safari Rides which function similar to the cruises one can initiate in Happy Island by Crowdstar. Also stationary animals aren't very appealing but help distinguish the game slightly from other players in this genre. Overall this game appears smooth, but if you're looking for immersion into the African wilderness, this might not be it.

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Gameforge Takes Farming Into The Wild With Funfari

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