A lot of people complain about their people dying off within the game, but the game has been MADE to be somewhat difficult. In order (for example) to be able to harvest the noni (berries) you must first tear down the totem by distracting the Heathen while another dismantles it. Other totems require different dismantling techniques. After dismantling the totem, there will no longer be aggressive Heathens to scare your villagers, but you MUST take down the fence to make a granary before being able to store the food.
The game itself is very good, it is interesting and challenging, yet extremely pleasant to play. It is simply the people not bothering to explore how it works that write bad reviews. As for the controls, they are fine, but take some time to get used to.
KatesseKat about Virtual Villagers 5 Lite, v1.0.1