Lost Cities

What It's All About

Risk it all on the expeditions of a lifetime in the award-winning card game Lost Cities™ as it comes to life on Xbox LIVE® Arcade. Draw from a pool of cards to amass the most points, play your cards wisely, take chances with your money, and create the best strategy to outwit your opponent on the road to victory. - Xbox.com

Single Player

Imagine the simplicity of Uno, but the strategy of Catan, and you have a good start on what a game of Lost Cities is like. Each game is a one on one match where you must place a card and pick up a card every round. The first time you put down a certain color you pay 20 points to start your colony, the number value on each card is used to regain that original 20 points as well as surpass it. You also have investment cards which increase the value you gain when placing a number card, but also increase your start up costs. The game is pretty well balanced with the costs and rewards of placing cards, its all about using your strategy to limit your costs and increase your rewards, one that can take some time to get used to - but ends up being very addictive.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer game is the same as single player - but against a friend (or perhaps against a potential friend if you select a quick match). The enjoyment increases because you are playing against a real person which you can communicate with as the game goes on. Additionally, the xbox live vision camera also lets you see them as you destroy them with your high score.

Graphics and Gameplay

It is sometimes pretty hard to judge an xbox live arcade on graphics, now combine that with the fact that its a card based game and it makes it even less fair. As you wouldn't judge Uno on the graphics, I wouldn't put much weight into the graphics rating of Lost Cities. That is not to say the graphics are bad by any means, the game has a few different backgrounds and the faces on the title menu change characters as well as expression - all things that were definately not needed, but it shows effort.

Achievements

The achievments are scattered across single player and multiplayer - some of which can be completed on either mode. So far I have found the achievements rather difficult actually. I don't think they are too hard to obtain or unbalanced for the most part, they just are not flooding in like I remember Uno doing, which is probably a good thing!

Value

The price of the game is your standard original content game ($10 / 800MP) and being a social card game gives the game lasting power. The game is really addictive, and takes quite a bit of thought and strategy to win - which I admit, I am still working on. If you have friends that you like to sit back and play uno, catan or other social games with, this is definately another option for you.

In short...

If you are looking for a game that can be a fun challenge but still allows you can sit back and play with with a friend, then this game should be in your toolkit. Uno is great to sit around and play with friends, and possibly has one on up on this game because it allows for more than a single opponent, but Lost Cities raises the challenge and intellegence of the game.

 

Review by Dave [Squidpunch] Larrabee