Now, that I'm mostly finished except for a few rare relics & science objects, I have a better view of the whole game.

Meh. 3-1/2 out of 5 stars. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't *great*.

Sorry, LDW, but I thought the previous versions were better. Getting through the last conversions with nothing else to do was tedious and had nearly zero pay-off.

The main lingering problem with all the VVs (I've played all 5 now) has been solving all the puzzles and then not having anything to do while you're still short a few relics for the collections or in this case, also waiting on the heathens. I'd really hoped that the balance would be perfected in this version, but it isn't.

There are still not enough building projects. It would be good to do hut upgrades. And more housing should be required for a population of 90!

And markers on the detail page for villagers so it's easier to see where trainee, adept, and expert split.

I also didn't really like the puzzles -- I thought they were too simplistic in some cases, or just tediously repetitive in others (like constantly using lightening to scare off the heathens and then re-dropping villagers to work, lather, rinse, repeat).

Plus I missed potions in the lab. I missed the different levels of the areas like the lab or the hospital. These were really some of the things that made VV fun.

And I got only a few events -- out of 13 events, I got two repeats. I would think it would be easy to program events not to repeat.

I've thought that most of the past VVs were harmonious and fun environments, but the heathens made VV sort-of aggravating, and I didn't like that mood change.

All in all, some of the lingering issues don't seem improved and it wasn't as polished as some of the past outings.

I did like that when you convert the Master Farmer heathen that It would have been a fun progression if this had happened with each of the Master heathen conversions.

And I do appreciate that LDW is looking for new ways to take VV so that it doesn't get stagnant. Can't say I loved the heathen interaction and conversion process, but kudos for breaking out of the box! I can see the story line moving to reunite the villages on the island, and maybe the the next VV is a more linear map building a road between the villages with the puzzles related to interim spots on the road (barriers, etc.), road building materials, reunite each village as you get to it, etc.