Galleon: Islands of Mystery for Xbox Reviews by Gamers

For many years, it looked like Galleon would never come to fruition. Canceled on several systems and stalled in production, it's a wonder the game finally got released on the Xbox. Sadly, all that time and effort has resulted in this.
The game revolves around Rahma, a swashbuckler with inhuman jumping capability, as he fights Jabez, a magically enhanced dullard. Rahma is assisted by a couple hotties who spend most of their time fawning over him. A pirate's life for me...
The graphics are unsurprisingly rough. The musical score is nothing memorable and sound effects are stilted and overused. But the voice acting is solid.
The gameplay offers lots of platforming, swordfighting, swimming and some puzzle-solving. It's obvious that the developers had big ambitions for the game. But, since the controls are so rough and the camera gets disorienting, these ambitions get bogged down in technical mishaps.
The game makes a couple design choices that left me disappointed. Islands are levels and you never go back to them, making the structure very linear. Rahma never gains new abilities, weapons or stats, so the game remains shallow throughout.
Galleon does provide many of the things you'd look for in a pirate adventure. You find lost treasure, fight pirates, explore some islands and woo lovely ladies. The game implements these elements into gameplay well, but suffers from one major problem: age. There might not have been any competition for Galleon when the project was started, but now it has more competition than it can handle. Games like Sid Meier's Pirate, Legend of Black Kat and Pirates of the Caribbean are it's high-seas contemporaries. Galleon cannot stand against the length, depth and lasting appeal of it's competition.
In the end, Galleon offers nothing special to the genre and has too many flaws to make a solid title. It's not terrible, but far from worth your time. Do yourself a favor and set sail for another game.

So I bought this because of my love of all things piratical. Which would explain why I spent almost half an hour in the first scene chasing some guy in circles and checking all doors by hitting every button before my wife asked me what I was doing. She supervised me for a few minutes before she told me I should send this one back and leave a bad review. And as typical when she gives advice, she was probably right.

Here's to hoping you don't hit the same gameplay bug.