Carcassonne review – The classic board game returns as a universal game for Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8

Early this summertime, a big batch of Xbox Windows Telephone and Windows 8 games disappeared from the Shop and into the ether. Some of these games would return without their Xbox features, nosotros reported, while others would stay gone for good. One of those delisted titles was Carcassonne, a strategic board game from German developer Exozet games. This week, information technology finally returned to Windows Phone.

Formerly a Windows Telephone 7 championship, Carcassonne has been upgraded to Windows Phone 8 status. The new version looks better and plays faster than ever. It has a new cross-platform online multiplayer manner that should make playing with friends easier than earlier. And even better, Carcassonne supports universal purchases. Buy it once and become the Windows Phone and Windows 8 and RT versions. Read on to find out how the game plays and what changes the Remastered version brings!

Know your tiles

In a game of Carcassonne, ii-6 players take turns placing tiles on the board. Tiles must exist connected to a tile that has already been placed, and the features of each new tile must align with any tile it will exist connected to. Grass must connect to grass, route to road, etc. The game ends when all 72 tiles (or more if playing with an expansion) have been placed.

Tiles may comprise four bones features:

• City: Building cities (and scoring from them) is the main goal of the game. Some city tiles accept bluish medallions; these increase the bespeak payout of the metropolis. Cities are considered completed when they are entirely walled off past edge pieces. Upon completion, the player receives points based on the size of the urban center and his or her follower is returned. Incomplete cities provide a smaller number of points at the end of the game.
• Road: Like cities, players receive points and become their followers back after completing a road. Roads don't pay equally much but still provide a reliable source of points.
• Curtilage: 'Curtilage' is a British give-and-take that I was unfamiliar with earlier playing the game; the XBLA version calls them monasteries. These are single tiles which must be completely surrounded by 8 other tiles in order to receive your points and follower dorsum.
• Field: Each tile contains at to the lowest degree i of the previous features, but most besides take fields. By placing a follower on a field, the histrion will receive points for each field that connects to it without being divided by roads. However, the follower does not get returned to player until the game ends, so seek score from fields judiciously.

Later placing your tile during a turn, you may cull to place i of your seven followers on that tile. Followers are the only way to earn points. You'll need to use them wisely, holding on to them at times. Tie up all of your followers with incomplete cities and you won't become plenty points to win.

Defeating the opposition

Afterwards getting a grip on the core game play, y'all tin get-go to learn how to compete against your opponents instead of merely doing your own thing. For instance, a skilled player can get in difficult or impossible for another player to finish a metropolis by placing certain tiles about the city.

My favorite way to hassle opponents is by stealing cities or forcing them to share points. If the enemy has an incomplete urban center or route with a follower on it, y'all tin can't simply build off of that structure by directly placing your own tile and follower side by side to it. Instead, you need to place the same blazon of tile and your follower at least one title abroad.

Once yous've done that, you're gratuitous to place a connecting tile between the two similar structures. Upon completion of the structure, both players volition share the score for it. Simply if yous manage to get more followers on the same construction than the enemy (by connecting non-side by side pieces with followers), you'll steal the structure from the other player. Tough to do, merely very satisfying.

Expansions

Similar the one-time version, the new Carcassonne includes 'The River II' 12-tile expansion, which can exist toggled on or off before starting a game. At least, that'south how it should work. At present, the IAP system appears to be broken. Y'all can attempt to download your free expansion, but information technology never actually installs. Update: Exozet tells united states of america this effect volition be fixed via update soon.

Equally we learned during last year's interview with Exozet, Microsoft refused to let the developer to release additional expansions for the Xbox version of Carcassonne. Now that Exozet cocky-publishes the new version of the game, they can offer equally many expansions as they like.

Once the IAP effect gets straightened out, players volition be able to choose from four new expansions: 'Traders and Builders,' 'Crop Circles,' 'The Festival,' and 'Inns and Cathedrals.' These toll $1-2 individually or $4.99 every bit a pack. Not a bad bargain for serious Carcassonne players.

Still no structure

Since lath games aren't usually fun to play all alone, videogame developers oftentimes add together new single-actor modes to compensate. Take the Survival Horror mode in Zombies!!!, for instance. The iOS version of Carcassonne (developed by TheCodingMonkeys, not Exozet) has its own exclusive single-player mode - though, to be fair, that game sells for ten bucks instead of four.

The mobile Windows versions only permit players to select from a pool of 11 AI opponents and play a standard game. Playing against the figurer tin can exist fun, merely the lack of a metagame really hurts the long-term single-player value. The original Windows Phone 7 version suffered from the same issue. Shame the revamped version of the game didn't throw in more structure.

Better in multiplayer

Carcassonne offers both pass-and-play and online multiplayer. Pass-and-play works well and could certainly provide entertainment should y'all and a few friends find yourselves stuck somewhere without a gaming panel or physical board game to play. That's a lot more feasible than in the original Windows Phone 7 release, at present that we have phablet phones like the Lumia 1520 and the ability to purchase once and get the game on Windows viii and RT likewise.

The old phone game offered online multiplayer, but the matchmaking and servers performed terribly. At present, the mobile Windows versions feature a unmarried 1-on-1 online mode. You just choose to play an online game and the matchmaking will seek another histrion out. The online multiplayer is fifty-fifty cantankerous-platform with Windows 8 and Android. Very cool!

Unfortunately, matchmaking still requires another player to hunt for a game at the same time every bit you, which is tiresome and impractical. A game like this needs Xbox Ane-style matchmaking, letting us dabble in single-player while nosotros look for an opponent to be found.

The game does promise an enhanced online multiplayer mode will come in a future update. It will add friends lists and the ability to switch betwixt multiple online sessions. Hopefully those changes will make it easier to notice a game!

What's old is new again

Did I mention Carcassonne looks better than ever? The game takes place on an actual wooden tabular array now, without fancy clouds passing by. It runs very smoothly, fluidly planning effectually and zooming in and out. And the AI opponents at present pop upward and breathing on-screen when someone makes a skilful motion, better simulating the experience of playing against another person.

Carcassonne still needs a existent entrada and better online matchmaking before information technology can exist the ultimate board game. But this is an fantabulous recreation of the real life board game, a genuinely fun game all on its own. I'm glad we tin play it once more on Windows Phone. The ability to buy in one case and go phone, tablet, and PC versions makes information technology even better. Hopefully Exozet will continue to improve the game (and set the upshot with 'The River II') in the months to come up.

• Download Carcassonne for Windows Phone 8 ($3.99)
• Download Carcassonne for Windows 8 and RT ($3.99)

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/carcassonne-new-review

Posted by: levinethaverce.blogspot.com

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