Carcassonne

The French town of Carcassonne is a medieval fortified town in the south of the country. Known for its city walls, the town has been the namesake for a board game (developed by Klaus-Jurgen Wrede) published in 2000 by Hans im Gluck in German. It was also translated into English and published by Rio Grande Games. The game was so very well done and rather popular, and it was honored in 2001 with the Spiel des Jahres award – a very prestigious award for board and card games.

So, what does this have to do with video gaming? Simple. The famed game is making its way to Xbox Arcade courtesy of Sierra. Part dominoes, part Scrabble in terms of how the board may look, the game features 72 tiles, with one placed as a starter face up on the board. Players then take turns placing a randomly drawn tile, trying to build the few buildings available (city and monastery), dropping followers in to claim cities, roads, or farms. The right placement translates into points. The points may result in a win.

To place a tile, the edges must match – a road must lead into a road, or a city tile must have a companion city tile, et cetera.

It sounds simple. It is easy to pick up and play. But make no mistake, what looks simple is a rather deep strategy game that has a random luck element, but will present a challenge regardless.

Sierra showed off the title during the Sierra Spring Event in San Francisco. Hands on time was available and GameZone took the opportunity to jump in and give it a go. Honestly, this game has charm, it is lush, bright and colorful, and is very entertaining.

Available in June, Carcassonne will have single player and multiplayer modes (for 2 to 5 players). The games will last about 10-15 minutes each, and the developers did a great job of making certain that tiles will auto rotate to fit available placement areas – which are highlighted so there is no guessing where the tile may work. There is also a free mode available, in which the scoring is ignored.

As the Sierra representative stated: “there is no hidden information – it is a very friendly party game.”

There will also be three expansions available at launch – River 1, River 2 and Kings & Barons. While players can change or tailor the ruleset, the game will use (by default) the most current board-game ruleset. The game also auto-scores during the tile placement, and then tallies up points at the end as well, counting held cities and so on. The game, amazingly, does most of the work for gamers and frees them up to engage the old cerebellum and try to not only strategically set themselves up but block their opponents.

Playing against the Sierra rep was a blast, and very friendly – though I’m still convinced that I was allowed to win as opposed to earning the victory.

Carcassonne is a terrific game that should appeal to players of all ages and skill levels. This game has a great look, a gentle lilting theme underscoring the action, and the gameplay is so user friendly that this is a game that may well be as successful as its namesake board game.