Age Of Booty Docks In Your Port, Steals Your Rum

For those of you who would prefer to read this review entirely in pirate speak, you may do so here.

Age of Booty (formerly Plunder) is a pirate themed RTS developed by Certain Affinity, and published by Capcom. From the start, this game has shown a lot of promise. Capcom aimed to provide some high quality RTS action in a guppy-sized downloadable package, and they delivered.

Age of Booty has a Challenge mode, a map maker, and, most importantly of all, multiplayer. Challenge mode consists of seven sets of three challenges. Each set has an easy, medium, and hard rated challenge. During these challenges, you are tasked with taking over villages and towns, and taking their sweet sweet resources. Resources come in three flavors: gold, wood, and rum - hey, what else could you possibly need to be a pirate? These resources are then used to upgrade your ships and occupied towns. When you get into the later challenges that include multiple computer controlled opponents and allies, the game can be a little frustrating, especially when you take into consideration that your computer controlled allies are captained by what I can only assume are drunken chimps. They rarely go where you’d prefer they went, and they will frequently spend precious resources on upgrades for their own ships rather than saving them for you, or your occupied towns.

The map editor is, well, more or less what you’d expect it to be. You can create maps ranging from small and cramped to large and open. You have access to every type of hex (game tiles) the game has to offer. You can set the location of towns, and determine what resources those towns will have near them. You can create islands and other natural obstacles to make the map more interesting. You can then take those maps and play local, or private online games with them. I don’t think I could personally make anything more interesting than the 25 multiplayer maps the game comes with, but I look forward to seeing what my friends cook up.

Ahh the multiplayer. This is where Age of Booty really shines. I spent a good long time on the multiplayer - and I had a hard time dragging myself away from it to sit down and write this review. Multiplayer matches require that you coordinate with your team mates, and use your resources efficiently. Using teamwork, you can take down a town very quickly, defend your towns effectively, and even trap an opponent between you, one of your team mates, and a land mass, ensuring their destruction. Be warned - your multiplayer experience will rely heavily on your team’s ability to work together. A well organized team will have a great time playing this game, win or lose. A team where no one is communicating, and someone is stealing all the resources to upgrade their own ship will likely lose, and have a miserable time doing so.

While you won’t get a lot of mileage out of the single player portion of this game, the multiplayer more than makes up for it. Age of Booty is available for the XBLA, ~~and will be available tomorrow (October 16) for the PSN~~ has been pushed back to November for the PSN. According to the official site, the PC version is still awaiting a release date. I can honestly say it’s well worth the asking price of $10.

-Mike Kurz