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Galleon Preview

From the creators of Tomb Raider, this adventure game takes place on the seven seas.

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Several members from the creative team behind the original Tomb Raider have been hard at work for several years on a new action-adventure game titled Galleon. Know as Confounding Factor, the development studio has been fashioning the fictional tale of Captain Rhama Sabrier. The game's story harkens back to a time when pirates ruled the seven seas and swordplay and adventure were the order of the day. Sabrier, a sea captain and warrior, is summoned to the town of Akhab to uncover the secrets of a mysterious ship and its cargo. This sparks an adventure that will span many lands and will introduce a diverse cast of characters.

As can be expected, the gameplay in Galleon will share many similar elements with the Tomb Raider series, including the familiar third-person perspective, heavy puzzle elements, and a wide range of character movement, including running, jumping, and swimming. However, Confounding Factor promises that the game will go much deeper than the direct action-adventure gameplay of the Tomb Raider series. The characters Galleon faces will be multifaceted and will react more realistically, from an emotional perspective. The characters will change their facial expressions, and their actions will change depending on your in-game choices and interactions with nonplayer characters (NPCs). Even in battle, you will be able to choose from a wide range of attacks, and the enemies' strategy and attack patterns will alter depending on your ability and tastes. An in-depth inventory system and perishable items and weapons will also add to the game's strategic elements.

At its heart, Galleon is really about exploration. The meat of the gameplay takes place in the many islands that Rhama will come across during his adventures. He will have to investigate vast lands full of mystical temples, magical skeletons, mysterious caverns, and fantastic shipwrecks. Every corner must be explored, and every friendly NPC must be consulted to uncover the secrets of the mysterious boat of Akhab.

The GameCube version of Galleon has not been shown at this time, but it is safe to assume that the game will retain its highly stylistic look. As opposed to the more realistic look of the characters in the Tomb Raider games, Galleon's characters are very colorful, with an exaggerated physical appearance. From the unusually broad shoulders of Rhama himself to the absurdly tiny waist of the assassin Mihoko, the characters all look as if they were transplanted from the pages of a comic book.

Galleon has been in development for a long time, but if Interplay has its way, the game will be finished and ready for release for the fall launch of the GameCube. Confounding Factor has invested a lot of effort in the game, and the final product will hopefully bear the fruits of that labor.

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