Cellcommand 300

A review of Cell Command

Dream Master

Dream Master
Player

Went through the tutorial of the game, without registering, and it is a unique approach to teaching Cell Biology, but it's not something that will keep preteens and teens attention for very long. The "missions", while adequately challenging, are presented in a very controlled and textbook-like manner, which while it makes everything clear, it doesn't entice students into reading about the cells, and doesn't explain why the functions of the cell are important (such as "why sit here and read mRNA for amino acid codons all day?"). Furthermore, I don't feel that the Star Trek-to-Cell metaphor isn't appealing to current young audiences, since they're more into Action or Building-oriented games like Dark Souls II and Minecraft, whereas this game is solely about puzzles and achievements. There's a movement in games now towards combining gaming genres, and if this Puzzle only game isn't made to be more action packed, or having more customization/socialization features in the profile and crew-creating system, I fear it will be dismissed by students altogether. I also don't feel that the Star Trek metaphor is appropriate for Cell Biology, because that leaves to questions like "If this is a cell, then who are the green guys we're playing as,, why are they piloting ships inside our bodies, and are they restricted only to one cell, or can they travel throughout the body, and why?" Yes, game developers, kids these days think about EVERYTHING, which means we have to go the extra mile in making a science-based game.

Fun rating: 1 out of 5

Learning rating: 2 out of 5

Science rating: 4 out of 5

Total:

7 / 15

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