Facebook Game of the Week: Stop Global Warming - Game

Yes, the first Facebook Game of the Week is a day late, but that's because I figured out how I want to do spotlights/reviews today. =P

Our first FB game is one that I find to be a little under used, at least by my FB friends, but it's also one of the more informative by proxy games on FB. At first it just looks like another management based game, but if you actually look at what you're doing in the game, you get a better idea of ways to do what it's title says - Stop Global Warming.

The game itself is brought to FB by the same teams that manage Metropolis and Zoo Builder, and uses a similar format to it's sister games. Aside from noting what "country" you're working in, there are three immediately noticeable "stats" - your CO2 Emissions Per Day, your Carbon Footprint, and your Current Support Level. Other important stats are your Money and your Total Impact Points.
Throughout the life of the game, you will be changing countries, so the Mini-Map, Flag Marker, and Country Title will change as you move around the world. You can't just go anywhere immediately; like any game, you have to "level up" to unlock more options. You start out in Iceland, a country with a relatively low Carbon Footprint and CO2 Emissions, which provides a great learning ground for how the game works.

At 1,000 Total Impact Points, 4 more countries become unlocked; another 5 become unlocked at 10,000 TIPs, 2 more at 50,000 TIPs, 2 at 250,000 TIPs, and the last 2 at 1,000,000 TIPs. The amount of starting CO2 Emissions and Carbon Footprint will raise as you move your way up the list of countries, making it harder to reach your goals. Your Current Support Level will always start with 40/255.

Currently, I'm in Russia, which is one of the harder stages of the game. I've been working on it for about a week and a half or so, and you'll notice I still have high CO2 Emissions and a large Carbon Footprint. Just for screenshots, I'll switch to India, where I haven't even started working on bringing down the Global Warming.

The first thing you'll want to do (after trying to invite some friends to play, of course), is start Building Up your country. Just click on the Build Up option from the main menu, and you will be presented with the starter screen.
Not a whole lot of options to begin with, but you work with what you have. As the game progresses, you will unlock more Revenue Generating Items and Structures, Non-Revenue Generating Items and Structures and Laws. The first section doesn't really add a whole lot of impact to your stats, aside from generating money for you to use on the subsiquent options; as you might have noticed in my first stat screen, the Money can rack up once you're running several countries.

The majority of your Total Impact Points - and location specific Impact Points - will come from the second to sections. There will be several options in the Non-Revenue Generating Items and Structures section that will only cost you Money to use, while the more impacting options will also require Support.

Support is earned via your friends playng and giving you Support once a day, or buy going under the Give Support section and posting up for support from random players. Support only counts towards the country you are in at the time the support is given, so if you move before spending that Support, you will not have it in your new country.

All of the items in the Laws section require a good chunk of Money and 100 Support to enact, however many of them cause dramatic changes to your overall stats in that country. You're given about 2 - 5 new Law options per Impact Point bracket, so this section will remain the same for some time, then suddenly expand when you reach a new bracket.

As you progress through the game, you'll be awarded for every country that you have brought into having a Nil Carbon Footprint. These awards are displayed on your overall stats page, along with your current country's information and progress.
Remember how I said the game was informative if you actually pay attention to what you are doing? All of the items in the Non-Revenue Generating Items and Structures are real ways that you can help stop global warming offline too. The same thing goes for the Laws section, however those are generally harder to do as a single individual.

Overall, this is one of those "pay attention to a day or three a week, and leave it run" games that is more educational than it is game play intensive. It is well designed, although after working in a few countries, the Money flow causes it to become a little unbalanced - up until I hit the higher Impact Point countries, I could blow through two or three in a few clicks.

Design Score: B+
Game Play Score: B-
Graphics Score: A
Replayability: B
Bonus: A for the amount if RL information used.

Overall Score: B+