Review: Playfish's new treasure game Pirates Ahoy

Today, Playfish gave us all a pleasant surprise by releasing their new treasure plundering game, Pirates Ahoy. We got the early scoop on this game last week but at the time, knew only the brief game description that was given to us. Now, we've had the chance to play Pirates Ahoy for ourselves and have a game preview to tell you why you should be playing.

Going in to Pirates Ahoy, you should probably know what to expect. At its core, Pirates Ahoy is a treasure game - similar in vein to Zynga's Treasure Isle and ZSlide's Treasure Madness. This means that you are given a specific amount of energy, and with that energy you can discover islands and dig tiles for treasure collections and XP. Pirates Ahoy isn't a straight clone, however, as it builds upon a theme that is proving to work by adding unique elements that give it a more piratey feel. Every player has their own boat (which can be customized to give some personal branding to the game) and they can sail around the seas, fighting creatures to discover maps. The ship combat is something we haven't seen executed well, and Pirates Ahoy does it in style.