My Country: 2020 Review

City building games have been around for ages, ever since the likes of the original incarnation of Sim City, and gamers have come to love titles where you control how a city should grow and develop. It would be fair to assume that most players these days would have a grasp of how these kinds of games work, but sadly this is the kind of assumption that My Country: 2020 wrongly makes.

Upon loading the game, there is no real tutorial on how to play; you get that you’re now in charge of this territory and that it is down to you to bring trade, tourism and life back to this sleepy little corner of the world. However, there are just a few visual indicators on where to click and with no real context, it's all quite unnerving.

The monotony of click-visual-cue, then click on the other point that is now shining removes any element of actually being in control from the player, especially when you’re placing buildings down for construction. The game takes total control here and will dictate specifically where said building will go, but surely it should be the player to decide if they want a doughnut shop next to the police station? Sadly, the game will automatically place the construction site at its own predetermined plot of land for you.

After that is down you can wait a certain amount of time for it to be built or use some of your energy resource to skip the build time and have your shiny new set of offices, apartments, or shopping centres constructed in an instant in front of your eyes. This for me pushes this game into the realm of all the annoying Facebook titles and mobile apps which punish the impatient player, nudging them towards the premium purchases in order for them to satisfy their instant gratification tendencies with a pay-to-win page.

Of course there are multiple currencies in the game, the typical dollar which funds your city and pays for some of the buildings, jobs and other small nick-nacks in the game. Then we have the Countrybucks, which can be used to buy more energy in the game or some of the premium items this title holds in store. On top of these we have the even rarer gold coins, the purpose of which is similar to the Countrybucks where you can purchase access to some more vanity items for the game, or use them in a spin the wheel game where you can win more coins or small items to be placed in your lands.

All of these currencies of course can be bought using real world money, ranging from small amounts for a couple of pounds right up to the big bumper packs of in-game currency for 68 quid. Yes, sixty eight of your English pounds as an in game purchase for some virtual currency! Though only dollars and Countrybucks can be purchased out of your own pocket, gold coins are bought using the Countrybucks currency. Why a game needs three separate currencies, I do not know.

However, once you’ve managed to chip away at the exceedingly simple outer shell of this title, you start to uncover some of its redeeming features. You’ll find that the graphics are bright, colourful and pleasing to watch in motion, from the local populace wandering around the town looking at all the new buildings you built them, to watching the traffic drive around the roads.

Looking past the annoying quest-based nature of the game, you can’t help but sit back and enjoy the ride, getting yourself more and more drawn into this living world that you’re helping to create. Clicking on the icons, moving your mouse over to collect the pop-up rewards, watching your small humble section of the world slowly expand into a thriving metropolis and knowing that you’ve done all this; these are your achievements.

For a free title on the Windows 8 store it’s a reasonable time waster, so give it a shot; just don’t blame me if you get addicted, or annoyed at the pay-to-win nature.