Office Heroes is just one of the many games that are out today demonstrating the widespread age range of iOS users. I was fascinated when I saw this app at first, but quickly realized that my 12-year-old cousin has a cell-phone number and that she would enjoy this app very much. If your kids have any type of iOS device, they might enjoy this free app that simulates a very basic version of day-to-day office life.
Tap the app, and you’ll be greeted by some very enthusiastic manga-type characters on a colorful intro screen. You can either connect with Facebook or play without connecting. If you choose the latter, you will have to assure the app that you do indeed want to play without connecting to Facebook. After that, you will meet Dexter, your tutorial instructor and co-worker. He will walk you through the basics of the gameplay.
Your goal in the game is to earn points, rep and paperclips, each allowing you to do more things and acquire items in the game. You can decorate your office, meet new people, change your looks and clothes, help co-workers, and much more. The tasks in the game at work stations around your office earn points based on how long they take. The longer the task takes, the more points/paperclips it is worth. Go help your co-workers on their tasks and you will up your rep. The longer they take, the more rep they earn.
The interface of the game is a lot like the Sims. You are at a fixed-angle, third-person perspective. You can tap on the screen to have your avatar move to the different work states. On the bottom of the screen are all of your options for decor, your avatar’s looks, your friends, etc. The upper right hand corner is all of your currency, and the upper left is your experience bar.
One of the more clever things about this app is the way tasks are set up in relation to real time. There are some tasks that take up to 24 hours to complete. This is where the app’s push notifications come in handy. Simply start the task, and when it is complete, Office Heroes will notify you that your task is complete. With a little bit of patience, you could quickly become the president of the company!
Despite the fact that I have very little interest in repeating an animated version of my daily life with the title of “drone” as the current level of my character, I know that, to some, this app will be a joy. For a free app, the overall functionality is vast and far more in-depth than I could capture in this brief review. Download for your kids, or check it out for yourself, you might just get hooked.
