When is a game awesome, but so niche that terribly few will ever play it? When it’s a two-player (offline) only game. The 400 point price might be expensive for some (despite lots of $60 retail games that have virtually no singleplayer, or lots of 800 Microsoft Point XBLA games that bore me silly). But despite the lack of solo play, or of online multiplayer, for those of us with friends who play with us on the same couch, “Loot, Steal & Destroy” is definitely worth investigating.
I have a soft spot for two-player mandatory games, dating back to games like “Sea Battle” and “Utopia” on the Mattel Intellivision, a system that (unusually) spawned several games that required two local players. Not only did these games not suck because of it, some of them (especially Utopia, lauded as the first so-called “God Game”, long before SimCity, Black & White, or Populous) have gone on to be recognised as influential classics.
So with that all behind us, what do I like about “Loot, Steal & Destroy”? I like that it at times feels a bit like a tower defence game (except the towers are your enemies), at other times feels a bit like Atari’s classic Rampart, and at still other times feels a bit like a naval themed Super Smash Bros. Though I suppose, mechanically at least, the sea combat in “Sid Meier’s Pirates!” is the closest match, and that’s not a bad thing either. You race around well-rendered maps shooting at other players’ ships, while grabbing what loot you can and preventing them from doing the same. It’s a simple enough mechanic, I suppose, but that doesn’t hold it back from being a lot of fun. If you have a second (or third, or fourth) player ready to join in that is.
Here’s what the developer (Ludosity Interactive) has to say about the game:
“Hectic party multiplayer action. Loot, Steal and Destroy to become the baddest pirate on the seas!”
Writings of Mass Deduction 