IGN: Plunder Hands-on – Sailing the high seas with a promising pirate title

IGN writes: "At Capcom’s Las Vegas media summit, most eyes were on Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter IV — and for good reason. Both games look great and we were excited to check them out, but there was one title that also deserved the spotlight, and that game was Plunder. Although it doesn’t have the same profile as the aforementioned titles, Plunder may delight casual and RTS fans alike with very easy-to-learn, pirate-themed antics that will soon find a downloadable home on the PS3, 360 and PC.

Similar to one of our favorite downloadable games, PixelJunk Monsters, Plunder is a seemingly addictive RTS game with casual roots. Although there’s potential for complex strategy and control mechanics, the premise of Plunder is very straight-forward. You control a single pirate ship and work with other ships to control a certain number of port towns. When your team controls those towns, you win. The game’s default view is essentially an overhead shot of the game board, which is made up of hexagonal tiles. Each tile represents either a unit of ocean or a unit of land, but the game is designed so that you don’t see the hexes so much as the overall environmental layout. Forests, towns and mountains coat the hexes to give it a more vibrant feeling than a lifeless playing field."