Too good to be true, so it must be false!

How does one properly describe a game where you play as a few somewhat (okay, VERY) off-kilter pirates in a turn-based strategy game that features a dice-spitting cherub, sea monsters of a few types, gameplay on a “living map” and a reworking of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the New World? Yeah, you can’t, but you sort of just have to watch this trailer first to see why:

Red Zero Games? Congratulations are in order as you win the prize. What prize it is will be determined at a later date, but you win something for this pure madness in my book (Memo: give Red Zero Games a prize but not the stale popcorn from last week, that’s not a prize unless they’re dead parrots). I’m actually still playing Here Be Dragons (my laptop has been in haywire mode this week), but so far, this game has had me laughing with it constantly because it’s got easy to pick up, tricky to master gameplay, other than a few glaring typos is extremely well written, and its humor is right up my alley.

I plays like a board game you won’t get bored with

Granted, the Monty Python-esque humor won’t be for all tastes, but I was all in from the moment the opening cinema kicked things off by noting that Christopher Columbus maybe had a little help in getting through some sea monsters before he got to the New World. Sea monsters mean the history was WRONG and your teachers were all liars, so this game serves its purpose right from the start with a bang.

Things are very easy in the tutorial maps as gameplay is introduced and the safety net the game lays out starts to unravel and you eventually get a handle on commanding things yourself. Let’s just say if you’re not in the swing of things by the third new map. the game will eat your lunch there and past that point. Steam wasn’t running properly yesterday for a bit and I had some matters to tackle outside the hone office, but when I woke up this morning, the game was running fine as I was able to continue with no issues.

Still, I want to play this one until completion, so I’d say an extra day or two will be necessary before a final verdict is added, For the moment, that game map is being more fully unlocked and new monsters and challenges are being added. The hybrid tabletop/computer game vibe is working for me as the story rolls along with cut scenes appearing and playing automatically between chapters. Nope, I’m not skipping them, as  they’re so exceptionally goofy and keep me guessing what going to happen next even though the overall plot is so perfectly absurd.

Well, let me stop babbling and get back to the game, as it’s running in the background and I stopped only to jot these quick impressions before jumping back into things. I’ll say again that I’m having a blast here, but stop back in, say, Sunday to find out how much of a blast I had as a fuller review will be posted by then. Oh yeah, the music is absolutely fantastic here. Somebody go give the composer a prize too!

-GW