Last month, Russian publisher Game Insight’s popular city building game 2020: My Country launched on Windows 8. The game did not run on Windows RT at that time, nor was the Windows Phone 8 version ready. Optimizing for ARM-based hardware takes a little more time, and Game Insight wanted to get the lead version out in the wild in the meantime.
One month later, 2020: My Country has arrived on Windows Phone 8! And the Windows RT version is now available as well. If you enjoy free to play town-building games, the sequel to the original My Country is definitely worth a try. Read on for impressions and Store links!
Build the city of the future on your phone
The Windows Phone 8 version of 2020: My Country plays just like its bigger brother. You’ll start out with a tiny city on the cusp of major growth. Erect buildings, hire professionals to work at those buildings, and complete missions to unlock new things to build. Like other free to play city builders, it’s a time-based game; everything takes real time to complete. That works well on the phone, since you can check in when you have a few minutes throughout the day.
The phone version, like the RT game, understandably runs a bit slower than the Windows 8 game. You can’t pan around quite as fast, but it’s not a big deal. The UI actually fits the phone screen a lot better than the Windows 8 version does when running on a high resolution monitor.
2020 doesn’t support cloud saving on any platforms, so Windows Phone and 8/RT players can’t share save data yet. But fear not! Game Insight plans to incorporate cloud saves at some point in the future.
Lonely Island
Since the Windows Phone 8 version of 2020 popped up, users have noticed that the Friends feature is down. Try to access it and you’ll receive a message telling you to check your internet connection.
You get access to the Friends menu upon reaching level 6 in the game and completing a specific mission. Ordinarily, it would allow players to send gifts to friends and visit their cities. Helping friends gets you Reputation stars. Acquire enough rep and you’ll unlock a few exclusive monuments for your town. Honestly, the rewards for friendly interaction aren’t very compelling. Still, it’s always fun to see how your fellow players’ countries fare.
As it turns out, the Friends connection issues don’t only apply to the Windows Phone 8 game. The Windows 8 and RT versions are experiencing the same issues right now. That means the problem is coming from Game Insight’s servers. The publisher is aware of the problem and hopes to get 2020’s social server back up soon.
Head on over to My Country
2020: My Country is one of the best free to play city building games in town. The genre is not for everyone. Waiting for energy refills or tasks to complete can be a drag. But with the right temperament, games like this can be a lot of fun. Learn more about 2020 in our full review.
- 2020: My Country – Windows Phone 8 – 41 MB – Free – Store Link
- 2020: My Country – Windows 8 and RT – 94 MB – Free – Store Link
