Carcassonne (XLA) (Xbox 360) review on HonestGamers

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Review by Felix Arabia
July 05, 2007

While the Xbox Live Arcade has brought us the likes of furious shooters, near-perfect symphonies of the night, and refurbished classics in the art of gluttony, now something totally different graces the might of Microsoft’s mighty online service – a board game.

While past Live Arcade titles involved shape-shooting, vampire-whipping, and dot-eating Carcassonne brings the art of placing tiles on a board to make medieval vistas come alive. It may seem unexciting, maybe even a bit blasphemous, but this isn’t simply some mere mediocrity. As it stands, it’s quite the compelling quest. Boring does not fit the description here.

You, and up to four other opponents, must sift through 72 tiles, which are randomly drawn, to form sweeping sceneries involving greenish country pastures, cobblestone highways, mystic monasteries, and impenetrable walled-cities. The rules don’t allow for these tiles to simply be placed in any manner you desire. Instead, you have to position them in areas that make sense. For example, you can connect one tile with a piece of road to another tile with an unconnected piece of road. The same goes for city sections and farmland.

The whole point is to build things. Once you’ve filled in all the holes for a city, towering walls of stone sprout up from the ground in order to show the finished product. You would normally get points when something like that occurs. But there’s a catch!

You’re given seven followers, which are essentially little pieces you can plop onto various parts of a tile. Their job is to claim various portions of the board in your name. When battling against one or two opponents, there isn’t such a rush to claim every potential point-giving plot of land; but when you’re going against numerous opponents, it becomes necessary to claim anything and everything. You have to play smart, though. You won’t get your followers back until you’ve completed the portion of the board claimed in your name. Risk is definitely rewarded, but it can be quite the catch-22 should you poorly place your pieces. You can’t get points for completed areas unless you’ve claimed them.

Even the smallest areas, like tiny plots of road flanked by trees will increase your score, while quaint monasteries will net you up to nine points (on default settings). The real trick here is to just take risks. On easy and medium difficulty, Carcassonne is a rather simple game. Claiming both finished and unfinished cities, as well as farmland, will probably be enough for you to handily beat the computer, but the harder difficulties really pack a punch. The same happens when you’re playing against four other opponents. The amount of total tiles never changes – it’s always 72 – so you get fewer turns when there are more people playing.

Keep in mind that playing against real people also adds a lot to the mix. This game is Xbox Live enabled, obviously, and the multiplayer matches can be highly exciting. They can even get rambunctious. Nothing serves the setting better for a heated display of anger than the subtle sound of flute playing. Luckily, if you’re like me and you always seem to run into trifling folk, you can play multiplayer matches with your real friends.

Another perk is that Carcassonne already comes with an extra addition dubbed the River II expansion set. Basically, if you play with it, you and your opponents will have to make a river before you can begin building cities and countryside. While it’s an interesting concept, it just feels underwhelming. The river neither splits into a delta, nor does it form into a lake. Its potential just seems unrealized. You know, or at least figure, there is going to be extra content coming out in the future to help vary things up. I don’t know why they couldn’t just do it now with the river.

It's odd because the main game allows for full rule customization, but the River II expansion doesn't. But perhaps that’s not really a major issue. Perhaps the thing that really matters here is that Sierra Online took a BOARD game and turned it into a fun and fast-playing VIDEO game.

It may not be Geometry Wars, Symphony of the Night, or Pac-Man: Championship Edition, but it doesn’t have to be. Carcassonne is what it is: an enjoyable excursion to the old European countryside . . . where you strive to build stone cities and rolling farmland, all while the subtle sound of flutes plays.

Rating
7	Very Good This game does enough things right that for the most part, you'll likely enjoy yourself while playing it. Recommended.
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Game Profile & Content

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Staff Score (Avg): 7.0 User Score (Avg): N/A Press Score (Avg): 7.9
Reviews: 1 Guides: 0 Cheats: 1 Ratings: 2	High Scores: 0 Screenshots: 18 Videos: 0

Title: Carcassonne (XLA)
Genre: Casual
Publisher: Sierra Online
Developer: Sierra Online
Release Date: June 27, 2007
ESRB: E

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