The original Carcassonne board game was developed in 2000 by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede and published by Rio Grande Games. Its name, and for the most part the theme, is derived from the fortified French town of the same name. As with Xbox Live’s version of Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne is an easy to learn game that is relatively fast to play and makes for an ideal board to console transformation.
I’m about to lose some major geek street-cred here, but I have never played Carcassonne before trying the Live Arcade version. This old staple of the board gaming hobby has never hit my table. Having now spent a more then generous amount of time with the 360 version I can pretty much guarantee that it never will, and that’s actually a compliment to how well the 360 version handles things.
At its heart Carcassonne is an area control game where players take turns placing one of the 72 tiles and then using one of their follower pieces (called meeples) to claim territory. The basic game starts with a single tile turned face up and then each player draws a tile and expands the landscape by placing it next to a legal adjoining tile. You have the option of placing one of your followers on a number of specific areas for the chance of claiming them. Roads, castles, farms and monasteries can all be claimed. The trick is knowing when to claim something as you can make your stake on tiles that usually aren’t near completion.
To be very blunt -- scoring in Carcassonne is something that is very hard to describe and is best examined after you have played a dozen or so games. That’s not a typo, I highly suggest just playing a dozen games and enjoying the experience. You’ll learn tactics from the skilled AI, start to get comfortable with the strategy and mechanics involved in this game. You can then pick up the scoring by simply watching the computer score your conquests.
Carcassonne can be played with 2 – 5 players over Live. I’d say most 5-player games can completed in less than 60 minutes and actually a lot faster if everyone knows what they are doing. But something that should not be overlooked is the ability of the AI in this game. At the lowest levels it is a cake walk, but when you bump it up prepare for some good games. The game certainly has that “one more game” and “one more tile” feel to it.
As a board gamer it’s nice to see that both XBL board game conversions were done justice and are perhaps expanding the hobby to a wider audience. Carcassonne by its very nature lends itself to being a better game on the 360. It plays fast, has good AI and best of all there is no clean up. Considering some of the bad games you can waste 800 points on (Wing commander anyone?) Carcassonne should take its rightful spot in the XBLA hall of fame, right next to Geometry Wars and Catan. While the true geek in me will always wish for meatier conversions of games like Arkham Horror, Age of Steam and BattleLore., I certainly applaud the effort by Microsoft of bringing another board game to the XBL lineup; let’s hope they keep it going.
