Sometimes, based on the recommendation of the lovely Touch Arcade community, you get to go into a project completely blind. I had never heard of the source material for Eden: The Game [Free], which is apparently based on a UK reality television show where a group of people live in a remote area of Scotland for an entire year. It's not only meant as entertainment for the masses, but it's also a social experiment in and of itself. The mobile game adaptation somewhat symbolizes how difficult it is to get an encampment up and running from nothing, with a little less thrill involved, of course.
Eden is a building game, devoid of some of the annoying tendencies associated with clickers and other devolved, similar titles. Your job is to start with a single settlement, with a group of people surrounding around a campfire, and build from there. Essential resources like water are paramount, as well as creating new tech trees by way of additional buildings like a carpentry hut. You've pretty much seen all of it before, but the nice serene package that Eden presents makes it a much easier pill to swallow.
All of the lush green landscapes are a joy to look at, as is the misty fog that surrounds unexplored areas, beckoning you to come in. All of the icons, while basic, are handy and easy to identify, like droplets of water, axes and other tools, and piles of wood. It gets a little muddled once you get into specifics like "fence posts" and "beams," but it's something...