Unfortunately I spent most of my weekend sick with a cold, but on the flip side this gave me plenty of time to hunker down with my latest obsession: Culdcept Saga for Xbox360. As a fan of the PS2 version and the artist who did the art for the cards in the game, I really wanted to be able to give this game a super positive glowing review. Alas there are certain issues I feel obligated to discuss that take away some of joy this game should have brought me, nothing major mind you, but just enough to make me feel less than 100% satisfied with my purchase

To begin, I will assume you have never played the previous incarnations. In doing so the problems I had with the game may seem less relevant since you would have no baseline to compare to. The gameplay is a mix best describe as Monopoly meets Magic the Gathering. Your character is known as a Cepter, people with the ability to summon creatures (think Yu Gi Oh) to do battle for you in your quest to bring back the something, blah, blah, blah… the story is downright useless. This is a game that does not need a story, it doesn’t really help explain anything related to the gameplay, and the gameplay is really all you’ll care about here. Bottom line, you are a Cepter, you will battle other Cepters, at the end of battle you earn new cards. Lather, rinse, repeat. It’s this simplicity that makes the game easy to pick up for anyone. The Monopoly elements come in as the main objective for each battle, essentially you will need to dominate real estate by laying down cards to defend the territory (made of one of four elements or a neutral space), level up said territories to collect tolls (payments of gold) and whoever hits the gold goal for the board first wins. Single player is fun thank to a decent AI and multiplayer local and online are even better. It’s that simple, and it’s surprisingly addictive. The level and gameboard graphics are basic yet clean and effective, and the art on most of the cards is fantastic. This is also what you would consider a budget game on the 360 with an attractive $39.99 msrp.

On the down side, as this game is really just a small upgrade for anyone who did have the PS2 version. Graphics received a slight upgrade, gameplay is identical, and aside from the addition of some new cards and the online option (which is great) the only other difference is a crappy story. I’ll complain here just a little because as much as I normally love Namco games, I really feel like they have been ripping me off lately. This game could and should have easily just been made into an XBLA Marketplace release, or at the least been a $29.99 release. Much like their recent release of Katamari for 360 it just feels like they are putting very little effort in development just to cash out on fans like myself. I half expect them to release some tiny unlock files for maps that are already on the disc and charge me $2 through the marketplace next month.

All said, even though I complain I would still wholeheartedly recommend you at least try this game. If you are a fan of strategy style board games at all this is really a great twist with a tough of luck thrown in to keep you on your toes (or ruin your game midstream) that is easily worth the $40 price. If you are one of the handful of people that had the last gen version, then appreciate the 1.5 version upgrade and get ready to have your azz handed to you if you run across me online, I’ll be bringing my Nike down to reign paralysis from above