Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff

Since Smartphones and tablets have become an everyday item for those of all ages, games developers; both major-league players and small time entrepreneurial coders, have found countless ways to assist our need for boredom-curing mini-games that have come in all shapes and sizes. From the basic action of swapping candy to form lines of point scoring colour-combinations to erecting a thriving, self-sustaining miniature city to which you control all aspects - like it or not, they are everywhere; ridding us of that hours worth of thumb twiddling lunch break at work and helping us procrastinate at times when we know we really shouldn't be, and i speak to you from experience. Like now for instance, as I write to you, cup of coffee in to my left and electronic cigarette to my right, my iPad rests neatly between my elbows, allowing me to continue my recent new fixation of this genre; Family Guy: The Quest For Stuff.

Following the success of the well-presented and long standing titan of freemium, real-time city building games; The Simpsons: Tapped Out, it was an inevitability that FOX would team up with another development company to bring Family Guy to life in a similar context, and it is dangerously additive.

The game starts with a rather graphically impressive mini-epidsode to set the story in motion. The residents of Quahog are summoned to an emergency town meeting explaining the apparent cancellation of Family Guy by the newly elected president of FOX. Upon discovering this new head of the company is actually the Giant Chicken, Peter steps up to the challenge and, as per every appearance of this seemingly endless rivallry to which fans of the show will be familiar with, a fight commences. As the fight progresses the town of Quahog burns to the ground and thus, the game leaps headfirst into the standard tutorial phase with just one objective "rebuild Quahog" enticing you to get it out of the way and erect your town as quickly as possible by giving you several menial, yet slightly humorous, 6 second tasks.

For those of you unaware as to how games like this operate, the principle is simple; you send your characters (whoever they may be) on tasks that play out over variable real-time periods. Within this time period, they either take residence in a building related to the task, or they walk around with a minimalistic yet somewhat hypnotic animation. Once the task has finished, it will earn you in game currency and some form of experience points (XP) Examples of this might be say; sending Bonnie to "sell baked goods"; it takes 6 hours to complete, and when that time period is up, she generates $65 and 45XP ... awesome. The same story follows with buildings, you use your in-game dollars to purchase the building, wait for the given time limit and you are rewarded with a steady income, in short, as the game progresses, the more buildings and characters you have, which collectively give you access to more currency to rinse and repeat this process. $ are the main currency for erecting buildings and opening up more land for them to rest on, you may think it is hard to come buy at first! but eventually the pennies start rolling in from all directions and you won't know what to do with it all! the key, as the growing trend with these games seems to be, is patience. XP moves towards your level, as the levels increase, so do the amount of buildings and characters you will have access to, it's all about waiting.

Rebuilding is quick at first, as with all freemium games of this type, and as much as you tell yourself "I won't get addicted to this, I WON'T get addicted to this", you soon find yourself setting alarms for your tasks coming to an end. If not this, then at the very least, you'll be sat staring and tapping furiously perfecting your towns look over and over again. But BE AWARE, the tasks get longer and more challenging as the game progresses, forcing you to wait just that little bit longer for the McBurgertown to completed than you did for the Swanson House.

Unlocking characters seems to have been given a new twist also, gone are the days when you could build the required structure and instantly have a new person to send on tasks, you really have to WORK for it. Each Character comes with a specific set of tasks which require you to collect items they desire before they are yours to use at your leisure. This is hinted at very early on in the gameplay as Chris spawns without any pants on, You send Peter on a task to relinquish his own pants for his hapless son, collect $ from the Griffin house a couple of times and voila! Seth Greens loveable character is yours to keep. Again, the key is patience.

That being said, there is a way past the waiting, if you're willing to part with real world currency that is. Both in-game dollars and the games premium currency; "clams" are available as in-app purchases, with packages ranging from £1.49/$2.49 to a whopping £69.99/$117.07! (If I have the US prices wrong I apologise, I am from the UK and I know this is currently the exact exchange rate at this time). Clams are used for a multitude of tasks; (as would be expected, being a freemium game, clam and $ purchases from the impatient ones are the only thing that brings in the revenue) from speeding up those long tasks or building stuff quicker, to buying premium items such as Jake Tucker and the Church, or Consuela and her house. Like it or not, Clams are essential to the perfectionist in you, and without buying them with real money, it is near impossible to have it all, which wouldn't be SO bad, if it wasn't thrust into your face at various, and a little too frequent times.

In summary, the game is nothing short of an addiction to fill the gaps in your everyday life, you'll find yourself setting tasks around your daily routine and planning your very own Quahog in the spare hours of the day. But it has been done in such a way that it becomes less of a chore, and more of a fun addiction; the superb graphics and engaging storyline pull you in so that, at times, you'll find yourself opening the app, clearing it of floating $ signs, and still wanting for there to be more to do, drawing you ever so slightly closer to those dreaded clam purchases. The refreshing way of unlocking characters gives the game a new type of challenge that can last for days at times, and it only adds to the rewarding feeling of collecting them all. The only thing that knocks my personal rating? The fact that premium in-app purchases seem forced upon you, playing on your desire to create a town better than all your friends and in a quicker time. Premium purchases are necessary, and I get that, but having it thrust in your face at times can get irritating. Aside from this? Whether you're a fan of the series or not, waste no time downloading, a definite recommendation from me, bravo TinyCo & FOX!