A Treasure Trove of Gamerscore or a Shipwreck of Boredom?
In my decades of gaming, I’ve seen many, many trends rise and then fall away. But it was in the introduction of Xbox achievements and Gamerscore which saw one trend stick – a focus on cheap, easy to play games that would be perfect for filling the Gamerscore coffers, all so bragging rights could take hold.
In fact, I’d be amazed if there were too many Xbox gamers who didn’t take a sneaky glance at their Gamerscore from time to time, comparing it to their nearest, dearest and weirdest of friends.
And it’s that score gathering with which Afil Games have muscled in on in recent times, upping the likes of Ratalaika Games, Eastasiasoft and multiple other indie publishers, to deliver the cheapest, easiest, simplest of games to rinse of achievements and Gamerscore. Put aside what you think of the practice, there’s no doubt that Afil have honed the art of selling a game on Gamerscore alone.
However, that does mean that Afil’s forays into the Xbox market have felt more miss than hit, with a ton of Sokoban puzzlers failing to provide too much in the way of entertainment. However, it seems that with Pirate Trails and the recently dropped Bee Flowers, they are also trying similar tactics with the tile-swapping, Pipe Mania, hexagon switching genre too.
The issue is, Pirate Trails fails to ever head off on a good course. In fact, it pretty much sinks without trace, languishing on the bottom of an Xbox ocean alongside the multitude of ghost ships from the past.
Swapping Tiles and Sailing the Seas
The premise is a simple one in Pirate Trails – safely guide a pirate ship from one side of an ocean map to the other, with the route ahead dictated by your rotation of numerous hexagonal tiles; straight, curved or crossed. With the route set, dictated by your choices, sending your ship off on its journey is a simple process.
Of course, only safe travel is rewarded and along the way you’ll need to pass your ship through a series of treasure spots, grabbing the loot as you go, bolstering your coffers and building your pirate standings and reputation. Dock at the required port, and you’ll get to do the same thing again, over and over.
Creating the one safe route through each one of thirty stages is easy, with tiles twisted or swapped via a combination of thumbstick and face buttons. And it’s good that the control scheme is on point, snappy, sharp and without fuss too, because navigating through multiple tiles otherwise would be a right ballache.
Cheap and Cheerful
But of course, this is a cheap game, and it feels so too, with fairly crude, basic visuals and an ear worming soundtrack that is best switched off within a level or two. If you’ve played any Afil Games titles previously, especially Bee Flowers, you’ll know what to expect.
It’s also very short and we found ourselves getting to the end of the thirty levels provided in about an hour, only going back to rinse the game of the odd missed cheevo in the process. If you’re not bothered by that Gamerscore building or the achievement hunting, we’d suspect you could be done with this swift little game well within that hour, helped along by an unlimited use of helpful hints and tips that show entire solutions at the press of a button. But hey, we know full well that you aren’t here for such madness; you just want that sweet G.
Pirate Trails Offers Easy Achievements
And Gamerscore will drop more coinage than even the most stuffed of treasure chests. See, Pirate Trails is a game that is very difficult to fail at. Solutions are straightforward enough, even without the hints, and a quick glance through any stage and route prior to sending your ship (read: ships, plural, in latter levels) means that failure should, pretty much, never occur.
When you consider the low level of difficulty, it does tend to see Pirate Trails become more than mind-numbing, as you go through the paces, walking the plank across those thirty stages.
A Mind-Numbing Voyage for Gamerscore Hunters Only
With a cheap price tag and the promise of easy achievements and bags of Gamerscore, Pirate Trails is very much what you would expect from Afil Games and their seeming obsession with cheap games; a below average gaming experience that will be forgotten as that last achievement ping is heard. Yes, there’s no doubt that, mechanically, it all works fine but at no point will it ever test the mind.
Only join the Pirate Trails crew if you need another Gamerscore boost.
The Links To Head To
Chart a Course for Treasure in Pirate Trails – https://www.thexboxhub.com/chart-a-course-for-treasure-in-pirate-trails/
Buy Pirate Trails on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/pirate-trails/9mtbvtjt3mz8
