Virtual Villagers Origins takes the series back to its roots for free on iOS

Last Day of Work's Virtual Villagers is a popular franchise in the casual PC downloads market (also available to play right here on Games.com), and has even seen a resurgence via ports on the iTunes App Store and an official Facebook game. These games focus on the building of island paradises by allowing you to control the actions of pixelated villagers, and now, you can experience that same gameplay for free on iPad in Virtual Villagers Origins.

Virtual Villagers Origins is a free-to-play installment in the franchise that takes the entire series back to where it all began in terms of the storyline. A group of villagers are thrown from their volcanic home by a terrible eruption, and must start anew on the beautiful, seemingly deserted island of Isola. As you'd expect, the survivors are traumatized from their recent experiences, and they'll rely on you to set a course for success and peace in this new world. You'll be their eyes, ears and everything in between here, as you can command villagers to build huts, gather food and more.

As villagers complete certain tasks, they'll become more skilled in those areas. For instance, having a specific villager carry out healing or other medical tasks raises their healing task, giving them a better chance of success when performing those same actions later on. You'll grow the population of your island in a similar manner, commanding specific villagers to "pair up." They can refuse at first, but with repeated attempts, they'll eventually go to find privacy and may add another unit or two to your island's population.

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The island itself comes equipped with some basic structures left behind by previous inhabitants, allowing you to research and gain points in the areas of spirituality and technology, among others. You'll need to have your villagers forage for food, and have the children pick up rare collectibles that spawn around the island for even more success. All told, this is the Virtual Villagers experience you'd expect (and receive) from any other installment in the genre, but in a free to play setup. To monetize the game, you are given the option of purchasing permanent upgrades for your game, like one that permanently doubles all the food that's brought to the bin for the villagers to eat. Others give you large amounts of Tech Points, which can be spent on upgrades for your island's growth and prosperity.

Again, this particular game won't offer anything new or exciting to those that have already played through other installments in the Virtual Villagers franchise, but the free-to-play setup is definitely a positive for those that might be entirely new to the series. Why not give it a try?

Click here to download Virtual Villagers Origins on iTunes -->

What do you think of Virtual Villagers Origins on Facebook? Have you already played other Virtual Villagers games, or is this your first one? Sound off in the comments.