Welcome to Galleon; an incredible world full of bright and emotive characters set in a time period not so far off from the days of Christopher Columbus. Take a step back and prepare yourself to enter one of the most immense, challenging and gripping worlds seen on Xbox.

Galleon is a cross between an RPG and an adventure game as far as I see, it contains some of the finer points of a RPG yet there’s plenty of adventure and exploration needed in Galleons world. The story begins as Captain Rhama (the main character and hero in Galleon), receives a letter from a much respected Dr. Areliano. It appears that the Dr has invited the captain to Akbah, a port town to take a good look at a most extraordinary object that has come into his possession. Dr Areliano offers to pay 300 dubloons (the game’s currency) for his visit and most importantly of all, requests the captain to help ascertain what this mysterious object is. Captain Rhama decides he shall restock the ship at Akbah anyway and above all, accept the money and adventure while he’s at it.

Gameplay:

The game starts off like any other, with a training level. But before you even get to the training level there is a tedious amount of loading to wait for. In its defence the loading screens do throw game hints for the 5 minutes it feels like you’re waiting. Also the messages don’t stop there; you become bombarded with them as soon as you start the game. There is a reason behind this and that is because Galleon is a tough game to control; as it has an ‘intelligent control system’. It works in the fashion that you don’t move the character directly but instead use the camera to guide them. The analogue sticks are very sensitive and depending on how you move them your character adjusts its movements to the surroundings.

The control method does leave a complicated set of controls to master – every button does something or two things as the case may be, making Galleon a tough game to get to grips with. Weapons become available later in the game to battle the game’s many foes as combat is tricky yet fluid once mastered. As the game progresses you have to start using everything in your inventory as wisely as possible to allow you to progress further into Galleons world.

Galleon plays on a similar level as the Tomb Raider series probably because the creator of Tomb Raider led the development of the game and Captain Rhama is a very acrobatic character. So if you have played the Tomb Raider series then you will notice some similarities in the game play and feel right at home here. The story is a good one and will keep you hooked throughout the game wanting to find out what happens next, although you will come across the odd moment which takes ages to get past for no apparent reason. Areas are laid out very nicely allowing you to navigate with ease and progression usually takes a good bit of thinking to work your way through to the next area. Galleon also has its fair share of bosses to fight, which range from extra large crabs to sweaty ship bearing men - sounding more like the average chippy than anything!

Graphics:

Galleon is a unique game as a whole and its graphics are no exception; characters are highly detailed and amusingly thin. The environments in which you will play in are lush with scenery and look visually superb with no constraints over the Xbox hardware. You couldn’t ask for any more in the visuals department as you can explore whole islands without any slowdown and every area is extremely detailed. Brilliant effort.

Sound:

The music is atmospheric suiting the adventurous gameplay and does alter depending on where you are in the game. Obviously no hard drive music support because that would be well, lame really. However the music is a bit mediocre and doesn’t tend to pull any new strings, it is satisfactory and good enough to listen too rather than hitting the mute button.

Longetivity:

Galleon is an Adventure/RPG to me as I’ve already mentioned because of that it’s full of things to do in the game. However don’t expect any multiplayer or Xbox Live elements. Galleons story is split into 7 chapters all of which take a fair slice of time to complete; along with the collectables you can gather to create a full perspective of the story. Put simply the game has so much content packed into the one adventure you wouldn’t want for anything more. The longetivity is very good and will at least last even the hardcore gamer, several whole days to fully experience the game.

Round Up:

Overall the game poses a serious amount of playability. The story is strong and keeps you interested all the way, the control system is hard to master but allows fluent exploration of the environments (which are huge). Along with the sub-plot to follow throughout the game and all the extras to collect Galleon throws lots of content in. Galleon’s only flaws are the fact that it is a game that has a required taste. Mainly for gamers who enjoy the RPG genre, strong storylines and an exceedingly challenging game. For anyone else rent first to see if it’s to your liking.

Pros:

• Strong, Grabbing storyline.
  
• Good Looking and Unique Visuals.
  
• Unique, Colourful Characters
  
• Plenty to Explore and Play Through
  

  Cons:
  

  • Not a Pick Up and Play Game – Hard to Master.
    
  • May Not Suit Everyone’s Taste