Ocean Tales for iPhone

Sail away into the sunset with fantasy city-building game

This program can no longer be downloadedEver fancied sailing to some of the world's most glamorous locations, accompanied by the child of a famous sea captain who went missing ago and helping to return the captain's port to its former glory? Well now you can in adventure city-building game Ocean Tales.

Set sail for a land of adventure

In Ocean Tales, you not only build up your own piece of land with different buildings and decorations, but you also travel the world (to real cities), trading goods with other places and completing quests, both at home and abroad, while upgrading your city.

There are lots of tasks to complete, from expanding your territory to hiring crew members to buying cottages for them to live in. You can also discover treasure islands, be attacked by pirates or go on a whale hunt, as well as linking up with other friends who are playing the game to visit their cities to help them earn rewards (hopefully they'll do the same in return).

Given the feel of this game, Ocean Tales will probably appeal more to fans of adventure games than city-building ones.

Dig deep to find the treasure

Ocean Tales is more complicated and comprehensive than your average city-building game, although there is a good tutorial that guides you through the first few stages.

There is so much to do in Ocean Tales that it’s not always entirely clear how you complete a task. Sometimes you just have to scroll around the screen clicking on some buttons trying to figure out what to do. Sometimes it only becomes apparent later on in the game. So expect to be confused.

It’s also tricky to earn money and rubies so if you’re getting frustrated you may be tempted by the in-app purchases

The developer has clearly put a lot of work into the nautical theme and creating a real pirate fantasy adventure, which you can see through the attention to detail in the graphics and gameplay. This is great, but the game does crash quite a lot and freeze from time to time, and it can run pretty slowly.

More than just city building

If you’re a fan of adventure games and you like to complete quests then Ocean Tales is the game for you. If it’s a city-building game you’re after then there are better options out there for you. Overall, Ocean Tales can be complicated and hard to get in to, but it's fun when you finally get there.