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Galleon (Xbox) | 
| From: Eidos
Category: Video Games
New (7) Used (14) from £1.35
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 8229
Platform: Xbox
Media: Video Game
Number Of Items: 1
Age: 12 - 18 years
Operating System: Xbox
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5021290022683
ASIN: B00006FX1N
Release Date: June 11, 2004
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Galleon has been so long in the making it's become almost something of an urban legend. The first game to be produced by Tomb Raider creator Toby Gard (none of the Tomb Raider sequels had anything to do with him) it has essentially being eight years in the making, having originally been designed for Sega's Dreamcast console. As is often the case with massively delayed games like this the final product has been rather overtaken by events and its graphics and design are clearly rooted back in the nineties when it was first conceived. The main gimmick with the game is that you do not so much control the lead character as the camera following him - pointing him in the right direction and letting the game do the rest. This works up until a point, with the various acrobatics this enables being fairly entertaining, but it's often rather unwieldy and makes it sometimes difficult to predict what reactions your button presses are actually going to yield. It also makes combat extremely irritating and dull and the seemingly endless training sequences do nothing but convince you the game is far more complex and difficult to play than it really is. When one adds the seriously dated looking graphics to the mix, which are further encumbered by some distinctly unappealing art design, you've got a game that is rather difficult to recommend next to the ostensibly similar, and far superior, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Ninja Gaiden. --David Jenkins
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Garbage more like! July 5, 2008
I remember this being previewed on the Dreamcast and on a video that came with NGC and I seem to recall it started on the Playstation.
It was always banded about as being a faster/streamlined Tomb Raider and I admit the preview footage looked quite enticing so I got a copy...on the cheap.
It's dreadful and has pretty much everything I hate about videogames in general,You control Rhama with the one stick,or moreover the camera,the other stick is for the inventory,because I'm so used to using this stick to adjust the camera in games like The Suffering,Bloodrayne etc..I found it very hard not to want to keep my thumb on it,The Mark of Kri uses the one stick but touching the other only pulls up the 'selector',Galleon,however,causes you to go through your inventory like dishwater,and yes you can use healing items even if you're at full health!!,add to this atrocious combat,time limits galore and unclear objectives(during your (timed)escape from an island the cutscene sticks you facing completely the wrong direction and you waste minutes as you realise you should be going the other way!!),one part sees you requiring a hammer to bend a pin,you're in a workshop without any!!,you have to retrieve one from a sunken Viking ship and then Rhama plunges his hand in MOLTEN metal to get the pin back!!!,if he's that tough why doesn't he just bend the flippin' pin himself!!!
It just gets worse after that,you rescue Faith(who has healing abilities)she goes back to the ship and you can't use her!,unlike later Tomb Raiders this isn't save anywhere but has very infrequent checkpoints and I just gave up on it,as I was about to turn it off I noticed the rolling demo...let's just say I've never put it on again!!
 Welcome from the Bermuda triangle you salty Sea Dog! June 7, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Like playing retro games? Well, this is the game for you, out of date by a good three or four years when it was finally released in 2004. If it had been released on the N64, it would have been remembered alongside classics such as Zelda, James Bond and Jet Force Gemini. In the end it's more of a 'Body Harvest' game. No one will remember this game, except for being that flop that the Lara Croft guy couldn't finish. Which is a shame, as it's a good game defeated by time. It has distinctive ideas and art direction, which time has made look crude and derivative. It could have been hailed as a game that beat Lara Croft at her own game.
There are numerous problems with the game that may well disappoint players, but if you bear in mind it's a retro game, not an Xbox game, then you'll see the ingenuity of it's construction and how Toby Gard strived to make what he hoped would be a great game.
It's control system was obviously a labour of love for them, a great idea that doesn't work as well as you'd hope. Once you get used to it, it generally works okay, bar the odd unintentional back flip into oblivion... Which brings me to character animation which it possibly the best thing about the graphics. The textures are solidly in the N64 camp, the architecture is up with the best moments in Lara Croft (the vertigo inducing moments the original offered), but perhaps not as dazzling as Zelda N64 (I liked the Water Temple). There are bugs, like the bug that made Rhamas feet smoke throughout my play, the annoyances of B-Button lock-ons to control useless partner characters, the stupid time challenges and boss fights, and awkward control moments that led to unfair death plunges. I bust a controller in anger, so buy some spares in advance...
In the end it was the Lara Croft killer, that sadly got lost sailing into the Bermuda triangle. Still Toby Gard must have laughed his guts out when Edios dropped THAT steaming turd of a game! Lara Croft has made herself irrelevant, however good the games get in the future. It's a shame Gards salty sea dog won't be back for a deserved encore.His game would have improved, if Gards genius could be held to deadlines! Hopefuly Gard will get another chance to dazzle game players, and outshine his Tomb Raider past.
Buy this game at a bargain price, don't expect cutting edge, expect a flaw or ten, some frustration at a game still unfinished and it will be an interesting treat.
Absolute toilet. February 25, 2006
I am somebody who plays games and does not align myself with a particular franchise. I will base my opinion of a game on how much fun it is to play, and not on my opinion of that particular genre. I am also proud of my willingness to try out new game styles, without passing them off before giving them a try. This has led me to discover a host of gems that nobody else I know have played, including Gregory Horror Show, Fahrenheit, and Ico.
With that in mind, it is my duty to announce to you all that this is one of the worst games that I have ever had the misfortune of playing. The graphics are terrible - I could do better on my computer in a couple of days. That wouldn't be a problem if the gameplay was fun. Inevitably, it isn't. The running is terrible, and the jumping is even worse. You can't even tell where you're walking - not just which way you're MEANT to be going, but the direction in which you're actually physically moving. It's pathetic. The combat is equally terrible. You can't fight more than one enemy without losing at least 70% of your life. Of course, Fahrenheit's gameplay wasn't perfect (although it craps all over this rubbish) but it had an intriguing storyline. This doesn't. The characters don't even speak, and the main 'intrigue' about this game is that you DON'T control the character you're controlling. How ridiculous.
In short, this is a terribly made game, that has no right to be on a current gen console. Even as a PS1 game - heck, even as a Gameboy Colour game it would be unacceptably bad. If you play this, you don't deserve an XBox. Stick with those little handheld obstacle courses with the metal ball inside. It's actually more mentally stimulating and has more longevity anyway.
 Good fun...up to a point. July 16, 2004
12 out of 17 found this review helpful
The first thing that strikes you about Galleon is the lack of graphical polish compared to the likes of Prince of Persia. It just looks like a 3 year old game (which ofcourse it is). The environments are particularly polygonal. I guess all the processing power goes into the central character which has loads of soft-body dynamics.Gameplay wise, well it has some nice bits and some bits which are just frustrating and frankly boring. People mentioned the combat system. Well I found it a bit crap actually. I didn't really know what was going on and just thumped buttons haphazardly when baddies appeared. You can forget any combo rubbish because that's for geeks. Another very serious issue with this game was the number of times it crashed. I lost count in the end. A few times it would hang just before I got to a save point...not annoying at all! In the end I got to a castle where you float around trying to get crystals. This was stupidly hard and very boring. As if the environment wasn't hard enough to negotiate, they have robots firing firballs at you from miles away with no way of killing them. At this stage I gave up and decided to sell it on Amazon. Overall it's quite good fun but annoying in equal measure. I personally wouldn't bother 'cos you'll feel like throwing your Xbox through the window in a couple of hours. Another game ruined by being too hard. Games testers and designers are freaks, I know 'cos I worked with them for 8 years. They think getting stuck for hours is a laugh...I rest my case.
Decent, but not a classic June 28, 2004
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
I bought this game on the strength of so many reviews I'm sure you've all read - you know, hugh islands to explore that are really detailed within a great adventure etc, etc.This review is more aimed for the casual gamers out there. I'm a big fan of adventure games with RPG elements like Zelda, Shenmue and Knights of the Old Republic so I was holding on to the thought that this might be something special but I fear I must give you this warning: I can't help but feel as though this is nothing more than a good looking platform game.
As far as the huge islands go, they seem quite small to me, plus I feel as though I'm following a set direction of play ALL the time - you never seem to be able to wander around much if at all at times. The islands are also quite bland looking, just grass, a few trees and the like - hardly lush.
I also have a real problem with the timed events that happen, they just make me feel as though I'm being rushed through the game to create some element of excitement, but they actually end up being quite annoying.
I'm sorry to say this but the game looks quite dated as well, it almost seems like Mario on the N64, but can never quite match that particular games merits.
All in all a solid game but I recommend you try before you buy - just in case you were expecting something else from this title.
As I said before - This is ONLY a pretty platformer.
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