MOAI: Build Your Dream Reviews

AT A GLANCE: 4/5 Stars - Fun loving game, but crazy hard to get all achievements. If you enjoy time-management games and would like a challenge pick up this title. GAME GENRE: Single Player, Time-Management, Cartoon, Casual GAME DESCRIPTION: Release Date: April 2013 - Help the natives restore their land. Gather resources, fight off ghosts, and rebuild villages. A time-management game that will use all the strategy you can throw at it. KID FRIENDLY: (First know that I am very strict on kid approved material. A game with a standard rating of "PG" I might rate "PG-13". These are my ratings and have nothing to do with standard ratings) I rate this "PG-13". If it wasn't for the characters saying "damn" a few times, I would've rated this "PG". Would've been great for kids, and offer a good challenge as well. ACHIEVEMENTS: 53 Achievements ranging from easy to crazy hard. TRADING CARDS: 6 Trading cards PROS: -Very entertaining -Good amount of achievements -Great storyline CONS: -Some levels are too hard to beat under the time limit GAMEPLAY: Good point and click game control VISUAL EFFECTS: Cartoon storybook graphics which are colorful and well created AUDIO: Pretty good audio, and sound effects. Music is fun, but seems to be more African music than Hawaiian music. Either way, it works. STORYLINE: Fun and entertaining story REPLAY VALUE: Definitely has replay value PROBLEMS/ISSUES: None - No problems installing game. No issues during start up. No game freezes, or unexpected quitting. WORDS FOR DEVELOPERS: Great game, but tone down the difficulty on achieving the three coins in each level. CURATOR: If you like my reviews please follow my Curator page. Thank you! :) https://store.steampowered.com/curator/37878480/

If you've played 12 Labours of Hercules, you'll fall right into the rhythm of this one. MOAI: Build Your Dream (first in the series) features the same kind of resource/time juggling, with similarly fluid gameplay and 'cute' graphics, but it's far more strategically challenging. In a good way. It also introduces some classic tower defense levels to mix things up. 12 Labours is an absolute breeze in comparison, since they give ample time to get gold even on Expert. MOAI makes you [i]really[/i] think and plan in order to get 3 stars on a level. But even if the timer reaches all the way to zero, you're not penalized for taking as much time as you need. The only thing that takes a hit is your score (and any achievements requiring gold times). There's no 'fail' message or a way to screw up a level unless you waste starting resources. So if you don't care about score or achievements, this is very easy to approach as a slower casual game. If you've just [i]got[/i] to get 3 stars on every level however, you're gonna have to break out your micromanagement skills. [h1]Getting Gold[/h1] When it comes to the more intensive gameplay needed for 3-stars, tight strategy is key. The order in which you collect/build is important of course, since as mentioned you're sometimes given a very limited amount of starting resources and can build yourself into a corner early on. But mid-game is important too, and how you spend collected resources can be a make-or-break situation, such as choosing whether to upgrade something with a limited/low amount of stones, or build a bridge with them to gain access to the temple. Both options have pluses and minuses depending on level layout and threats (more on that later), but there's usually one "best" way to go about it. Sometimes you'll need to make quick decisions on what to build for resource collection [i]then demolish[/i] to complete objectives. For example, a requirement could be huts on all available plots, but you need farms/quarries/etc to gather materials to build them in the first place. Building and demolishing eat seconds off the clock though, so even just one unneeded building can throw off your goal. Note that quarries, farms, etc will not continue to produce that resource unless you mouse over to collect stuff they just produced. Forgetting to collect anything mid-game can leave you short when you really need it later. Many levels require very precise clicking in that respect, or remembering to trade ASAFP for mats like wood/mana, to just [i]barely[/i] make the cutoff time for gold/silver. In other words, gold is essentially a level's speedrun time. A handful of scenarios can get rather frustrating if you don't hit on the proper order of things right away, but overall it's pretty satisfying when you figure out how to handle a tough or demanding level. I admit I had to watch a playthrough for a few levels because I just couldn't get my timing down or juggle ghost attacks effectively, but others may not need to. [h1]Tower Defense[/h1] The tower defense aspect of gameplay was surprisingly less stressful than I expected. About 1/4 or 1/3 of levels feature attacks by ghosts of varying strength. All buildings have health bars, and will revert to their 'ruined' state if ghosts deplete that bar with attacks. You can either dispatch them manually by clicking them repeatedly (I think it's 5 clicks for regular ghosts, 10 for red, and 20-30 or something for purple), or build Moai statues that defend with lighting strikes. 3 or 4 levels are true tower defense ones, where you have to build and max out the Moai statues while a conga line of ghosts snakes its way around a path to your base. Building/upgrading them all at once leaves you at risk for carpal tunnel, so there's strategy there too, for which statue to build first and in what order to upgrade them. [h1]Tips[/h1] It's possible to figure out workarounds for some of the trickier levels. Here are a few things I learned from trial and error: 1) You may not [i]need[/i] to build a certain type of building, because opening chests or trading will give you that resource. 2) Not every ruined building needs to be fixed (including the statues). Some are better off being demolished ASAP to build something else, [i]especially[/i] in levels where you need X amount of a particular resource and a limited number of plots. 3) Not every plot needs to be occupied right away. It may be better to leave it empty (till you have enough for huts, for instance) instead of setting yourself up to waste time demolishing things later on. 4) Unless the goal is to stock up resources, always try to have a worker trading for mana or wood. It's easy to forget about, but it makes a huge difference. 5) If you always seem to come up short with resources, focus early game on upgrading everything as fast as possible. Ignore bridges/bandits unless they're blocking something needed to complete an upgrade. 6) Designating a building for an upgrade will completely halt production. It's better to hover over the upgrade button (to eke out another round of stone/food/etc) and wait till your workers finish the last thing they're working on. 7) On the flip side, ghost attacks will slow or stop temporarily if every resource building is in that "halted" mode. In some levels it's in your best interest to watch your mana and wood levels and simply keep every building in a cycle of upgrading until you have everything maxed out. Then you can focus just on clicking ghosts and collecting resources till you meet the objective. 8) Use power-ups wisely. Some levels offer more than one of a particular bonus, and if you waste them both at once (or use one too early) you'll kick yourself for it later. Save the Horn of Plenty (2x resource payouts) for when you have buildings maxed out (or at least upgraded once). Save the Scales (2x wood payout) for when you actually have enough to trade for wood. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Anyway, this is getting long enough. As someone who doesn't like timers and stressy games, I still managed to 100% on this in about 20 hours without having an aneurysm. Interpret that how you will. :p I also found it satisfying to complete, even if I had to replay a few levels to grind the collection achievements. By contrast, the 12 Labours games are lots of fun, but they plateau in difficulty and just *end*, like the entire series is one long game with no cap-off. If you're new to time/resource management games and looking to try your hand at the genre, I highly recommend starting with the 12 Labours series and "graduating" to this one.

[b][u]Game Information[/u][/b] "MOAI: Build Your Dream" is a Strategy game. The game was developed by Toyman Interactive & Alawar Entertainment and published by Buka Entertainment. "Build Your Dream" is the first episode of "MOAI." [b][u]The Game Review[/u][/b] Game Visuals I want to mention that the visuals in the game are well done. The visuals can be adjusted in the game's option menu. Game Audio I want to mention that audio for the game is well done. Even though the audio is somewhat simplistic and repetitive. The audio can be adjusted in the game's option menu as well. Gameplay There are no difficulty game modes to choose from. All levels have their own difficulty. This is a strategy game, where careful planning is required, due to the limited amount of resources that are available. There are sixteen different locations with a total of sixty-four levels. There are building structures that generate resources but they need to be collected manually by the player. There are special power up bonuses in the game that helps the player to complete the level much quicker. The special power up bonuses does have a time limit attached to them. These special power up bonuses show up much later in the game. There is a minor setback in this game. All levels require multiple playthroughs to get the levels within gold record time. There are five different statues in the valley. Four of the five statues are connected to the four tribes. These four statues upgrade overtime but it is a long process. When the four statues have been fully completed. The fifth statue will be automatically completed. There are fifty-three different achievements that can be unlocked from playing the game. Each of these achievements does come with some requirements that need to be completed before they can be unlocked. Miscellaneous There are six different trading cards to collect. Only three of those trading cards are given out by the game. There are several ways to get the rest of the trading card: Purchased from Steam's Community Market; Trade with friends; Booster Packs and its' Booster Pack Creator. Final thoughts: I have found the game enjoyable to a certain extent. The replay value for the game is low. I would recommend this game, but not at the game's full price value.

This is a casual strategy game. Resource and time management. It's a fun game, the dialogue is sometimes funny, the gameplay is easy to learn but hard to get 3 stars on every level. Each level you have a goal to meet. If you do so in a certain amount of time you get either a 1, 2, or 3 gold circle thingys (the equivalent of 3 stars in other games, so that's what I'm gonna call them). You start out with 2 or 3 villagers to run around doing your bidding. They build a field which produces food. Or a stone quarry to produce stone. Later on there is a sandalwood tree grove to build, and a statue to protect you from ghost attacks. There is also a merchant which will convert any of your goods into wood (sandalwood and regular wood are different, which can be confusing at first). And you build a temple where a priest will convert sandalwood into purple blob things (mana). There are also special people you need to talk to and exchange stuff like 100 wood for 200 mana or something like that. Sometimes they are a bandit guarding a villager that you need to rescue. I found it difficult, at first, to distinguish those people from my regular worker dudes because if you're waiting for stuff to be produced and the workers aren;t doing anything they just sit or laying around. So I thought they were them until I moused over one of them and saw that they will exchange stuff. So if you want to get the best time you have to plan ahead what you need and what to build. Later on your buildings can get upgrades to 3 level to produce more stuff. Sometimes ghosts will attack and destroy your farms and other buildings. You can attack them yourself with a spear (just put your mouse over a ghost and it changes into a spear) or build giant statues that zap the ghosts with lightning. The ghosts can really get annoying, especially later on when they get faster and stronger. About halfway through is a neat concept that I haven't seen before: a mist that covers most of the screen so that you don't know what's there until you get enough mana to light a fire pole to burn away the mist. I really like the music, it sets a good tone for the game. And the voices when they are exchanging stuff is nice. It's just nonsense sounds and grunts but it adds a nice verisimilitude to the game. (there's your word for the day, look it up!) There are achievements but don't think this will be an easy one for 100%. I don't think I will be able to myself, since you have to get 3 stars on every level and some of them just seem really difficult to do that.

Entertaining. This is a time management game. Decent cartoonish graphics. Ok music. The story is kinda Disney's Pocahontas but on an island and tropical natives. No bugs or crashes. Runs fine on Win 7. Overall... OK. Games like this are mostly the same. If you're a fan of the genre you probably gonna like it. There's a story here, a little on the cliche side, but fine I guess. The timer is very unfriendly, almost too much for a casual game, a little rage-inducer you could say. It includes cards and easy achievements. On sale is pretty cheap. I think it's average, so here comes the like.

Not sure what the deal is as the overall reviews seem positive, but this game was completely and irredeemably broken for me, and judging by the forums I'm not the only one. Bugs such as enemies not appearing make certain levels impossible to beat. If only I hadn't sat on it in my backlog for over a year I'd be getting a refund on this one. What a shame.

A charming time management game with a simple storyline. You play as a westerner who is stuck on a tropical island, and have to guide them through building huts, gathering resources etc.. The game is narrated by a relaxed male voice who guides you through the simple story. As you proceed the challenge becomes higher, starting with simple tasks like 'gather 200 food' but later on introducing obstacles like bandits and ghosts. The story makes it all fit in the world though. MOAI has a nice art style with vibrant colours that make each level nice to look at, without hiding the various clickable spots from view. The soundtrack is relaxing and never gets in the way. Alawar has a lot of time management games out and it's obvious they've mastered the genre by now. MOAI is another example, design-wise it is perfectly balanced. It has Steam achievements, trading cards, and Steam cloud support for saves. The only real negative remark I have, and it's a tiny one, is that I can't get it to run maximized on a single 1920x1080 window, instead I either have to play it full-screen with other monitors blanked; or windowed at what seems to be 1440x900. Definitely earns a positive recommendation.

You're an explorer but your last journey ends up on a island, where a local tribe helps you. But the chief has several problems: not only wood is rare but his daughter has been kidnapped! MOAI: Build Your Dream is a casual time management game, where objectives must be met in order to advance. But you have to respect the timer if you want to win the maximum of stars (achievements, achievements). In each level, you sent workers to remove obstacles (down trees, rocks or holes), to build/upgrade/repair buildings (fields, quarries, houses, temples, markets, bridges, trees, statues), to trade with bandits or hindus, to open chests, to fish or even to cut down trees. Indeed, you have five types of resources - all of them can be traded with hindus or found in chest): food (obtained by fishing or by building fields), stones (obtained by removing rocks or by building quarries), sandalwood (obtained by building trees), wood (obtained by cutting trees or by trading other resources at the market) and mana (obtained by praying at the temple by giving sandalwood). However, the game includes also bonus: a wealth scales to have more wood at the market, a horn to have more produced resources, sandals to make your workers work faster, a shield to repel ghost. Indeed, many levels has waves of ghosts attacking your buildings: you can whip them by clicking on them or build statues (Moai Statues) that will destroy them. The ghosts are of three types: blue (easy to kill and giving 5 mana), red (fast and giving 10 mana) and purple (slow but hard to kill and giving 20 mana). The game is easy but if you want to earn the three stars, you need to be efficient and fast. At least, play once the level and then replay it. However, achievements can be quite hard or buggy, especially those with levels in a row. The graphics are nice and exotic. I also liked the evolution of the Hero. Beginning as a Westerner, he transforms into a local by adopting their lifestyle. The soundtrack is also nicely fitting. MOAI is a very nice game, as fun as 12 Labours of Hercules. If you like the genre, go for it. Besides, as it's currently the Steam Winter Sale and as it's at -75%, you should really get it (and the rest of the series too).

A serius dissapointment, I felt like I was playing a facebook game the whole time, I dont know if it gets better later in the game, but I lost interest before I got that far. Nothing in this game was interesting or new.

Build your village and manage resources game-- casual. In a world of same old same old casual building resource management games- this game does offer fresh ideas and is a lot of fun and it can be addictive, It has that "must get expert/gold" appeal- BUT - it is very clicky when it comes to the ghost catching part, so if you are not so good with reflexes or have arthritis this game can be hard on you - sayiing that- good news, the game does not require you to pass levels on time to advance so it is also a great game for those that just want to play without worrying about gold/expert and achievements. 9/10