The Tribloos - Review

http://www.gamehouse.com/download-games/the-tribloos 

Meet Trey. The fuzzy little blue guy on the right. Throughout this awesome little resource/time management game you assist Trey in rebuilding his island. There are 75 different levels that get progressively more complex and difficult.

Basically you are the manager of several little blue workers and you need to manage their time as well as three different resources. Wood, Tools, and Stone. This is not just another Diner Dash. Some real thought that must go into some of the levels. What should you build first? Start out wrong and you may end up with no supplies later in the level. Then there are additional little twists they throw in as well. Like a bird that scares the workers to random dripping lava falls.

I linked this from GameHouse since that's where I downloaded the game from. However there are a number of other sites this game can be download from as well. My sister was telling me about this game and later that day I got stuck over night in an airport. I started this game and was hooked. Since I wasn't pushed for time, I redid each level until I received the Gold Star for time management.

For what starts out as a cute little game, Tribloos turns into a great timed puzzle game with surprising complexity. How complex you ask? After watching a little game play in the short video below, press the link to see the rest of this article.

Gameplay of level 9

I'll start off showing a few of the elements you will be working with in the game.

The Houses
Cost: 5 Wood
Max workers to build: 10
Benefit: Gives an additional five workers once completed.

The Woodpiles
Cost: ---
Max workers to clear: 3
Benefit: Gives five wood after the workers have completed. This is the main source of wood early in the game.

The Tool Boxes
Cost: ---
Max workers to clear: 1
Benefit: Gives five tools

The Rock Piles
Cost: ---
Max workers to clear: 4
Benefit: The workers need Gives five

The Sawmill
Cost: 10
Max workers to build: 10
Benefit: Allows up to five workers to work for a time and then return with two wood each.

The Tool Shed
Cost: 10
Max workers to build: 8
Max workers: 5
Benefit: Turns two wood into one tool per worker.

The Bird Scarer
Cost: 5 Wood and 5 Tools
Max workers to build: 5
Max workers: 1
Benefit: Produces a horn sound and scares the bird away. This gives time to move in and clear the bird seed away.
Whenever the bird squawks all of the workers that are outside return to the main building.

        

But wait there's more!

Ladders, Wells, Bridges, Windmills, Street Lamps, Weather Vanes, Dripping Lava and more.

      

Each level has the goals listed and keeps a running tab of what needs to be completed for that level to end.

Time doesn't start until you give your first worker a task. This is a nice feature because it gives you time to review what must be done, how the level is laid out, and start building a strategy without worrying about the clock.

Speaking of the clock, it looks like this. You can finish a level with three different times. Normal means the Bonus Time clock has expired. You still move on to the next level so its not a make or break part of the game.

If you finish with the Bonus Time in the yellow, the level will  receive a star  on the map showing how well you did. Finishing a level in the green bonus time the level will have a gold stars  showing the great time.

Being somewhat of a perfectionist I had to work on a few levels over and over but finally I had gold stars on all of them.

The Options are straight forward and I don't think I ever had the game crash. I even shut the lid on my laptop, boarded a plane, and then picked up the game at the next airport.

It's not a graphic intense program. Even the storyline is given in slide show fashion so there is truly no 3D or full blown animations.

System Requirements
Windows XP/Windows 7/Windows Vista
800 MHzPentium 3 or equivalent
256MB RAM
DirectX 7.0

 

The levels are broken up into different parts of the island. Each part has additional features and a unique look. Shown below are my maps after finishing the game and a screen grab of a level from each area.

  

   

   

   

   

 

This is a game that pretty much anyone can complete. Especially if you were to simply play through the levels and not worry about time at all. What's that? You have never actually completed a computer game? To that I say, its time to stop looking for new games and finish the ones you already own! Take this game for example. Trey needs your help... a storm is coming! Don't bail on him just because a level is hard.

Overall I found Tribloos fun and addicting. I felt it could have been a bit more challenging and would have loved larger levels that would require scrolling from side to side.

For a game under $10 its worth every penny. For the price of a movie I enjoyed a good number of evenings telling my little workers what to do. Thanks for the fun Trey and glad I could help.

Shout out to my sister for recommending this game to me.