Ecolibrium is a simulation game exclusively for the PlayStation Vita. It is a freemium game being free to download and has in-game purchases. You have your own ecosystem and get to place plants and animals within it. Each plant and anime has set needs, being a combination of moisture, food and minerals. On the flipside, they are also able to produce some of these and thus it becomes a balance act. You need to have a perfect combination of plants and animals in order to keep the ecosystem balanced and not run out of any one resource.
Plants and animals will eventually die in an unbalanced ecosystem as they run out of a specific resource. The whole point of the game is to earn more in-game currency to buy more animals and plants, and grow your ecosystem further. Each animal and plant generates a certain amount of points per hour, and the free ones have a really low value. The premium ones that you buy with real money on the other hand, generate a lot more. Note that there is another limit on adding to your ecosystem, which is Energy. This recharges in real-time so you cannot just dump a whole lot of animals in one go.
Having a variety of animals and plants will raise the ecosystem's biodiversity, giving you bonuses in your point generation. The game runs in real time and designed for the player to come in every so often to fiddle around for a few minutes before exiting the game. As a result, the game is slow going and takes a few weeks in order to unlock everything. Tied into this are that the animals will reproduce after a set time, as well as there being various tiers of animals. Animals on the higher tier will hunt and eat animals on the lower tier. There are a total of five tiers and it is quite satisfying when you have the perfectly balanced ecosystem with animals in all five tiers.
There are Artefacts which you have to use real money to buy (as no one will put it up in the Auctions due to its value and usefulness) to place additional effects including reducing the amount of food each animal requires, or more annoyingly, increase the capacity of your ecosystem. The biggest flaw of the game is the fact that you cannot buy any "premium" creatures using the in-game currency from an in-game shop, you are at the mercy of another player putting one up for auction.
The game has an okay tutorial but in addition to the ecosystem opened at the beginning of the game where it is a free mode, there are four challenges. Each challenge is comprised of four smaller challenges and they can be difficult if you don't know what to do or how to approach it. Each mini-challenge gives you a time limit and an objective. Due to the real-time nature of the game, it will take days to finish. Luckily, you don't have to be at the mercy of the clock as you are able to pause the ecosystem at any time, freezing it until you can afford for time to run away and the ecosystem to change. Completing these challenges will make new animals and plants available as well as give you a significant amount of in-game currency.
A lot of the plants and animals are easily available if you purchase additional packs from the PlayStation Store which is a shame (however, if you got the game via the PlayStation Vita Mega Pack, you can get four packs for free). The other way to get these premium animals is the in-game Auction. As it is an auction, the animals that more in demand will probably be sniped at the last minute, making it really annoying to miss out. Doubly so if you do not have the time to watch it end (and the system doesn't refresh fast enough for you to pick up on someone else sniping you).
There's also no way to move an animal from one of your ecosystem to another without risking putting it for Auction and hoping no one bids on it so you get it back as a "token". Due to the insane costs attached to unlocking the three other ecosystems in addition to the first one (plus one when you finish the fourth challenge), hard challenges and enormous wait times, Ecolibrium will really test your patience. The graphics are nothing to be wowed at. They're serviceable and look pretty good but with it only being a grass plain in a clear sunny sky, it can be a bit bland. You can use the touchscreen or the analogue stick to move the camera around. The seasons also change with time but that only changes the environments, not any statistics.
Overall, Ecolibrium had the potential to be an addictive and fun game. As it stands, it is hampered by the free-to-play nature and tough difficulty if you do not want to spend any real money. Ecolibrium can still be quite enjoyable but only if you are willing to put in the effort and patience to slowly build it up over weeks and months.
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