This is my first encounter with the Virtual Villagers, but not the first time I've played a sim-style game. I've played Populous, Sim City, The Sims - years ago. This game's objective is to complete the 16 puzzles with other tasks along the way. This game stands out from many adventure games in that every time you start a new tribe (new game), the experience doesn't feel like a repeated experience.
In the first tribe, I had a couple that had babies as soon as the mother finished nursing a baby. The second tribe ran into trouble very early on with the ocean rendered useless for food thanks to the algae build up. One of the villagers in the third tribe refused to swim in the ocean. He ran away every time I tried to put him in there to fish.
In other words, each tribe has personable characters and different timing of events. While playing, I thought to myself things like, "Oh it's that annoying villager who won't do anything," "That's a sweet villager who loves to tell stories and teach the children," "I appreciate the villager's dependability" and "Are these people ever going to master anything?"
I celebrated when the villagers completed a project, I got mad when villagers hadn’t mastered a job when I checked on them; I smiled when the children discovered a new item and I felt sadness when two elderly villagers passed away.
One thing I had to learn in playing this game: Patience. Sometimes there wasn't anything to do except keep an eye out for items - that means I needed to let them take care of themselves for a little while. Even when the game wasn't loaded, the villagers continued to go about their business. Those who have little time to play games, but long to play one will find this a perfect fit. It doesn't take much time to check on the villagers and do a few things.
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