From Ophelea, "Nearly a year ago, a good friend of mine, David Bowman of Certain Affinity, asked if I'd like to visit the office to see what they were working on. Sure! I couldn't report any of it but this was about seeing the creative efforts of a friend, not work. It hadn't yet been released that the company was doing the 360 port of Valve/Turtle Rock's Left for Dead - Zombies are always cool - but I didn't feel compelled to run out and report about it. Zombies, biogenics...*shrug*. Next Bowman pulled out some hexagonal pieces of paper from a box of markers - oh yeah, game design, I remember this! He talked about sitting in a corner play testing, yadda yadda yadda - then he put a controller in my hand.
The sum total of information I was given: This is a pirate game, you are a pirate; you must take and plunder cities; there are three resources; the resources are used to upgrade your ships and later your cities; your ship upgrades are speed, armor and cannon. Then he sat back. No instructions on UI, control scheme - nada. Yarr.
Ok, my pirate home base is a wicked-looking volcano, the map is hexes, I can view the entire map by scrolling, and there's a city to the southwest. Move cursor, press X, go. Hot damn it works. Two games later he was kicking my booty around the map in multiplayer and an hour later I was holding my own. This is the game I have wanted to play on XBLA since it launched and I can't tell a soul. Gah!"
STP: Plunder is a paid game that plays like a freemium game. The basic joy you get at the beginning goes away fast, as you’re left doing the same thing over and over again with little pay off.
Mike writes, "Shiver me timbers, I have a pirate dilemma! Namely, I'm torn about what I should do. I recently started playing Plunder!, a great puzzle game with a pirate theme, but I quickly realized it's got a scummy side that will pillage your wallet at the first opportunity. Not only that, but a frustrating DRM-like service makes it unplayable at times. "
Pocket Gamer:
Best described as a puzzle version of Bomberman meets pirates, Big Fish Game's first freemium release Plunder! is set up in a grid, which contains one pirate ship per row, and is filled with mines, merchant ships and Royal Navy frigates.
