This easy-to-play game on Facebook gets four stars from reviewer Charles WheatonPros: Fun, free, simple, social

Cons: Tends to glitch

Overall: 4 of 5 stars

Here is a small jewel you may not have heard of on Facebook. “Restaurant City,” made by PlayFish, is a fun little game about restaurant management.
You would think that a game about restaurant management would be boring but, surprisingly, it is very fun and it’s FREE!!

After playing it, I found it is a great game to pass the time in your dorm room. I personally am slightly addicted to it. The restaurant practically runs itself. All you really have to do is make new combinations of food and decorate your restaurant as well as keeping “employees” energized and customers happy with your service.

The game seems to be a mash up of a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) and a strategy game. Because it is on Facebook, you can play with any of your friends. You can compare, cooperate and compete with your friends’ restaurants. You can also personalize your “Avatar” (your character in the game) to look as similar or different to you as you want.

The strategy in the game is in how you set up your tables and stoves. This determines how well your restaurant will do. A very spacious and open restaurant, for example, may make your waiters take longer to get to tables. This makes your customers impatient and leave, making your restaurant rating go down and, of course, you get no money. You will also restrict how many customers you can serve. Potential customers will leave if there is a lack of seating.

So the game is a little bit of a balancing act between what looks nice, what is practical, what is too much and what is too little.
However, the downside to this game is, because it is so simple, it has a tendency to be very glitchy at times, and sometimes it won’t work at all. The best way to avoid this is to have a good Internet connection.

The game does not have the best artificial intelligence (AI), so you will find yourself wondering why your waiters won’t clean the table that is sitting right in front of them.

If you want to contact me, get tips, tricks or just meet other people who have an interest in games, go to the Mercyhurst game geeks group on Facebook.