Hunger Games’ slow pace dulls appetite to play
Expect to sit and wait in digital world Panem
I’m waiting for the clock to run out so I can have another shot at practising my archery skills, or collect water from the well, or pick an apple.
Such is the extent of how I spent my time playing the beta release of The Hunger Games Adventures, a new social Facebook game released officially with Lionsgate — just waiting.
It would seem developers Funtactix would like to remind me that patience is a virtue.
As a bobblehead version of myself, I arrive in the digital Panem, the fictional state from the popular book trilogy that became a massive movie franchise.
The game is full of characters you come to love in the series, including Katniss, Gale and Peeta, whom you encounter in their home District12. You must complete various quests, which basically amount to bashing on objects until coins, energy and items spring loose.
A frustratingly slow-loading bar for each action serves no purpose in making game play more challenging or enjoyable.
Since it’s a social game, users are encouraged to invite their friends to join the quest. As promised, the game play isn’t halted — the way some of the social network’s games are — until you request help from a friend.
But since you’ll sometimes need to wait several hours for an item in your Forest Escape to replenish, it would help to have a friend or two around to just hand them over. I actually find myself spending $2.50 to land thousands of coins, instead of waiting days to earn enough to buy the items required to finish the tasks. Music for the game is borrowed from the movie soundtrack, which is great. But since I need to leave the game running in the background to wait for items or energy, I’ve just turned it off. Compared to something like World of Warcraft with its questdriven storyline, most will agree no Facebook game can live up to carefully crafted universes meant to support hours of game play. While the linear Hunger Games Adventures takes you to several District 12 locales and developers promise to expand the world soon, users would be much better off getting lost in the books.