Ultimate Collector (shopping, collecting)

Ultimate Collector by Portalarium is a game about shopping for collectibles and selling them in garage sales. Players may also decorate their houses and assemble collections. The famed Richard Garriott is involved in the game development so there is some expectation for this game.

My Garage Sale.

The primary method of making money in the game is selling items through garage sales. In order to do that, merchandize for sale is required. One fun part of the game is looking for merchandize (called collectibles in the game) to sell.

In order to gather collectibles, a trip to one of the dungeons, erm, I mean, shops is required. It is also possible to visit other player's garage sales. Once there, the player may loot treasure chests, erm, I mean, peruse the sales racks to consider the items being sold.

Checking an item requires energy (a staple of Facebook games). More energy is required to identify the attributes of the items. Attributes can lower the asking price or raise the value of the item. The latter will potentially increase the price when it comes time for the player to sell that item.

As with RPGs, the player has skills that... er, what I mean is, the player has expertise levels for different classes of objects. Expertise sometimes allows the player to identify an attribute without having to pay the energy cost.

Interestingly, all collectibles are based on real-world items. For each item, there is a short description, along with a weblink to an outside address for more information. A few of the dungeons (er, shops) are also based on real-world retailers such as Macy's.

Yes, the Pet Rock is a real world item too.

Collectibles are not only for sale to generate income. They may also be collected in display cases.

I never realized the value of Barbie Dolls before this.

The idea is to collect items with similar attributes. Completing a set gives bonuses like additional strength or- erm, I mean, collecting collectibles with matching attributes award better Collection Score. Having a high Collection Score will make the player happy. At least, it does for me.

Collection Score also boosts Garage Sale Score, which will increase sales prices by a percentage. That means more income.

There are a lot of Quests available in the game.

Quests also provide background information.

A few of the Quests are to explore new dungeons (er, you know) but most of them involve collecting certain items. Interestingly, many of the Quests provide background information about the items to be collected. Some of them are good historical information while others teach a little more about the game mechanics.

I wish there was some way to review the background information of completed Quests. That information is interesting and worth rereading later.

Another fun part of the game is decorating the base, er, house.

Decorating the home.

House decorations make the place look pretty. In addition, they also improve the Garage Sale Score, which, as mentioned, boosts sales prices.

There is a long tutorial at the start of the game to explain the important game mechanics. This should make it easy for new players to jump into the game.

As with many Facebook games, energy is present as a renewable resource. Energy is used to buy and sell collectibles and it regenerates over time. Again, as with many Facebook games, there are waiting periods involved for certain processes. In this game, it is waiting for offers to purchase items put up for sale.

On the technical side, I find that the game runs a little sluggishly on my old computer unless I lower the graphics quality. Other than that, it sometimes takes a while to load the game images.

In summary, Ultimate Collector is a game about collecting artifacts. The collected items are based on real-world counterparts. The short descriptions that come with each item give entertaining historical information. It is also fun to hunt for collectibles to complete collections, whether required by quests or for personal fulfillment.

I knew it, the sword is Cursed!

Update 28 September 2012:
I forgot to mention that the game is still reasonably playable without friends, just not as fun. One of the game components is repairing damaged collectibles. That requires parts. Parts may be given by friends or found in Trinket Chests.

Other than supplying parts, friends' yards are additional dungeons (...). Bonus energy is available from there daily. And friends are a good comparison of how well the player is doing. And possibly targets for bragging.

Friends also help obtain Event Pass to unlock super dungeons (ok, this joke is getting old) where certain loot may be found more easily. Not strictly necessary since there are many other places to loot.

The game is playable without spending real-world money on premium cash (called PortCash). PortCash is used to buy premium items for houses. However, lower quality versions available for in-game cash is good enough. Also, PortCash is used to unlock a lot of other in-game functions that are not really that necessary if the player is patient enough to wait a little.

More screenshots on this blog:
Ultimate Collector Screenies 1
Ultimate Collector Screenies 2
Ultimate Collector Screenies 3