Silva
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 Inregistrat: acum 18 ani
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Let’s Ride! is a series of pet simulation games that allows players to become horse owners, without the expense. In this virtual world, players care for their horses and enter them in various competitions. Some of the games focus on a particular type of competition, and some focus more on caring for the horse. In Let’s Ride Friends Forever, the general theme is taking care of the horses and earning their love and trust, with a tournament theme as a secondary consideration.
On beginning the game, players choose a particular type of horse, and can choose physical characteristics for their horse. This horse is a young foal, and will take several game days to mature. Initially, many personal care products are provided for the horse, but only a few riding necessities. There are a lot of fun things for the horse in the beginning, such as cleaning and grooming products and a large variety of food items. Saddles, bridles and blankets can be purchased later with credits earned during the course of the game. Beautification items can also be purchased later. Riding is also something that won’t happen until the horse matures to about three years of age.
The horse requires quite a bit of attention, and players will spend much of their game time grooming the horse and cleaning out their stable. Petting the horse and feeding it treats will earn trust, and players will also need to exercise the horse regularly and often. Grooming and feeding are needed on a regular basis, as well.
In order to keep track of needed actions for their horse, players can just glance at the health meter at the bottom left of the screen. This displays a bar meter depicting exercise, hunger/thirst, trust and health (cleanliness). This menu also holds inventory items, and has buttons for location changes. Players can paddock their horse in the outside meadow, and also travel to a few set locations outside the stable.
The stable is where the general care for the horse takes place. Outside is where the riding and exercise happen. Outside, players can ride their horse around the fields, or travel to the tournament area and either enter a tournament if there is one available, or practice in either jumping shows or shows that demonstrate physical characteristics of their horse.
The menu interface is a good one and displays all the needed information in a useful manner. However, the general movement of the player in the game, particularly in the stable, is clumsy and awkward. The WASD or the arrow keys are used for all movement and viewing, which works fine outside while riding and walking, but less so in the stable. The problem is the use of set camera points for locomotion and viewing purposes, rather than a free-style camera while moving. For example, when standing by the horse, in order to move to the other side of the stable to fetch food or other items, players have to first use the keyboard to swivel around until an icon shows up for the food area across the room, then click on it with the mouse. The view yanks the player quickly over to this area, but then the player has to use the keyboard keys to move around this confined space. Often the beginning camera view has the needed items barely in sight, and players have to keep swiveling around with the keys until they’re in a good position. This is most problematic in the harness and tools areas.
Let’s Ride isn’t a difficult game to play, but it’s a little hard to understand in the beginning. The manual is rather sparse, and the in-game tutorial isn’t much better. Also, once the tutorial has been accessed during the first game, subsequent players have to manually choose for this option in the settings, which isn’t clearly explained.
There are also problems in trying to get a good angle by the horse in order to use items on it, such as grooming and feeding objects. Players will often be so close to the horse they can’t see the part they need to brush, and then they have to keep fiddling with the keyboard keys to get a better angle.
The game’s graphics are pretty nice and the horses all look great. The tools, food, and other objects are drawn well, and the various outfits, saddles and accessories are attractive. The environments are of a lesser quality and are rather barren.
Playing Let’s Ride is fun, and there are lots of things for players to do. Besides riding and caring for their horses (players can have more than one horse in separate game sessions), players can buy all sorts of cool accessories for their horses to wear in shows. This shopping exercise would be more fun, though, if players could actually enter the stores. For some reason, the designers chose to just have a list of items thrown up in a menu when players pass by the stores, similar to the store menus in Oregon Trail from years ago.
Besides the general fun aspect, there is some good practical knowledge to be gained from this game. Players will definitely know more about horses and pet care after they’ve played. Young girls in particular will enjoy this game, with the optimum age range best for players ages 8-13. My niece is 13 and on the outer age limit, but she is having a good time with this game. Younger players will probably need some help in the beginning, but once they learn the basic controls, they will have a great time.
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"In politica, prostia nu este un handicap". - Napoleon Bonaparte
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