Country Story: Game Guide and Review

Welcome to the newest little Playfish game in town! Country Story is a free game which combines many of the best features of other popular interactive video games on social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, Bebo and Android. Keep reading and I'll tell you how to get around and level up fast in this easy to follow guide.

It's time to take a break from city smog and traffic. In Country Story you hear the birds chirping and smell the fresh air. You can even hear a stream running nearby. In this game you plant crops, fertilize, water and eventually harvest them. So grab your gardening gloves and lets get started!

When you arrive, the first thing you will do is choose a name and what your character will look like. You also choose the color of your house and the scene around it. Would you like to look out your window to see mountains? It is easy to change the scenery whenever you want. Now what color would you like to paint your house? Click on the tabs to change from "Roof" to "Walls" to customize your home. After you are finished with that get yourself acquainted with the icons and other information that surround the window. Hover your mouse over the blue bar in the top left to see your stamina. As you work you use stamina so make sure you have enough food to bring it back up. Resting also helps but waiting is never fun. Below the blue bar you will see a green one which shows how many "green points" you have. This determines how many plots you can have. As you level up you will get more green points and therefore grow your farm. A little green circle near the green bar tells what your level currently is. Also in the top of your screen you will see how much money you have symbolized by a golden coin. Your Playfish money will also show up there.

Recruiting neighbors is important

At the very bottom of your screen you will see where your friends will appear along with a box to the right to invite them. Go ahead and send off as many as you can. Every time a new friend joins you get 3 rewards upon your first visit to their farm. You can also earn "friend points" by sending them gifts. You get 1 point for every gift you send worth at least $100 and you can earn a maximum of 10 per day. Try to find a gift that is worth $1000 to get your points for the day in one shot. You can see how many friendship points you have by clicking the icon that looks like three little carrots with a heart on the right side of your screen. Next to each friend you will see a "handshake" symbol. This indicates how many friendship points you have. These points can be used to get a friend to look after your crops and harvest them for you. They even protect your crops from being stolen!

Starting your garden

The icons at the bottom of your screen are divided into two sections. The 7 icons toward the right of the screen help build your garden. The white gloved hand lets you select things. Use the plow tool to add plots to your garden and clear them after harvesting. The water pitcher is used for watering crops and trees but first you have to fill it at the well. Just walk over to the well and click to fill it. The square basket is used for harvesting your crops and collecting milk and eggs. After that you will see the fertilizer bag and sack of seed icons. So once you have your plots ready, select some seeds to plant and water them. If you have some fertilizer you can use that too otherwise you will have to purchase some or try to earn some doing quests. Take note how long your crops will take to grow. They wont die while you are gone but you can make money and level up faster if you harvest them quickly and plant more.

Decorating and adding trees and animals

In the row of icons on the bottom left of the screen you will see what looks like an old fashioned cash register. Click that to visit the shops. There you will find many items for decorating your garden including fencing, flowers, and garden gnomes. New things are constantly being added too.

You will notice there are some other tabs which take you to different shops. Moving to the left you will see:

1. The construction shop where you can purchase sticks and stones if you are running low.

2. The animal and tree shop

3. The market where you can buy seeds, food, and fertilizer

4. The storage where you will find everything you own

You will want to plant some trees as soon as you can. Each tree will go through a growing process and once completed you will be able to shake your tree to collect the fruit. After your tree dies you can collect the tree spirit. Collect and trade tree spirits with you friend to get magic trees. Look on the right side of the screen for a book that shows the different magic trees and which three tree spirits you need to collect to get the tree you want.

Buy some animals or earn them doing quests. Make sure you keep plenty of food on hand! Also, you will need to brush them to keep them happy or they will not produce.

Making money

On a daily basis, go out and visit each of your friends. Gather rocks and sticks along the way. You just click to pick them up. They can be sold or used to purchase animals. While you are out, water your friends crops to make some extra money and even (Shhh!) steal some crops. Click on the black glove at the bottom of the screen to nab a limited amount. It's all in fun and they can also steel from you.

If your friend has any trees click to shake them and gather some of their fruit. Oh, and just to be a good neighbor, put the black glove away and select the white one and brush the animals. After clicking on an animal you will see a brush symbol. This will make them very happy. The owners will be sent a message that you did this good deed and maybe they will send you a gift to say "thanks!".

Quests

As you play you will be offered several quests by various members of the local community. They may ask to plant a certain type and number of crops. It is important that you don't sell the crops in your storage that you need for your mission. This will reset your count back to zero and you will have to start over. These missions are designed to help you learn the game and level up faster so try to do as many of these as you can. It also makes things more interesting and fun. If you ever forget what your quest required just click on the black book at the bottom left of your screen.

Good luck and happy harvesting!