One of XBLA's finest multiplayer experiences
Finally, a good pirate themed XBLA game, a bottle of rum for you and me! Age of Booty is a lighthearted strategy game, which revolves around pirates fighting other pirates in territorial battles. The game is really simple. You control a single pirate ship in a hex based map, fighting another team of two or four opponents for control of various towns. Your goal is to simply control the map, this is where the game's teamwork focus comes in to play. The game may sound simplistic, and it very well is, that's what makes the game so damn good. It's a strategy game that doesn't bother with micromanagement, but never feels shallow.
The basic premise of the game is to sail around the level with your team, sinking enemy vessels and capturing more towns than they do. Don't get me wrong, this is a real-time strategy game, but one that's learnable and easy to control (all you need to do is press A). You sail up to an opposing village, press A to shoot cannons at it until it becomes yours, then move on. Although, you'll have to keep constant communication with your team discussing who's gong where, and so on. It's typically best to stay together, but always knowing when to split up is the challenge. In order to win, all four players need to know their role.
By vanquishing your foes and random villages, your team will collect a variety of resources. Wood, gold, and, most importantly, RUM! You can either spend these points toward ship upgrades such as speed, cannons, and armor, or utilize the resources to upgrade your towns defenses so they can fight off your enemies a little better to give you more time to arrive and defend. Anyone on the team has the power to upgrade, and anyone can be a total dick and just upgrade themselves. So in a controlled environment it's important to either pick a person who will decide what's best at the moment, or hope for a friendly game were everyone converses.
On top of everything, the built-in map editor defines user accessibility. You can create a map worthy of playing a competitive game on in a matter of minutes, and you'll even automatically download a friend's map when you connect with them!
If you have a group of like-minded individuals, Age of Booty is a wonderful strategy game, that's both addictive (one more game!) and challenging. The single-player mode, however, is worthless. The very fabric of this game is heavily dependent of cooperation among teammates, and that's impossible with AI. Age of Booty is all about user-friendly mechanics, and keeping a short learning curve. This is a game anyone can learn, but the great design keeps it from feeling shallow, or too simplistic. Age of Booty actually becomes very competitive! Hopefully though, you have some buddies that are willing to dive in this game with you, otherwise you may not have as much of a positive experience. For 800 Microsoft Points, it'll be tough to find a better multiplayer experience.
Steve
