Ship of Fools Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Some video games are best for two. Play Ship of Fools on your own and you’ll likely have deleted and entirely forgotten about the game by lunchtime. Play it with a friend, however, and you’ll undoubtedly both be obsessing about it after a long rambunctious night of seafaring; racking your brains with ingenious plans about how you can finally best that final blasted boss.

To explain, Ship of Fools is a rogue-lite co-op adventure, one that tasks you and your pal with defending your vessel from horrendous beasties as it plunges ever deeper into unknown seas. Played from a top-down perspective, your trusty ship will be attacked from all sides by hordes of creatures. You’ll have to man your cannons and blast your foes back to Davey Jones’ Locker, whilst also making sure you keep your ammo topped up and whacking away any creatures that get too close with your mighty paddle.

Whilst the cutesy anthropomorphic fish-like protagonists have no health themselves – they can only be stunned – your ship does. Take too many hits without repairing them with some helpful planks of wood and you’ll soon be taking on water and your run will be over. This being a rogue-lite, you’ll be starting your voyage from the beginning again, though not before making some permanent stat improvements to your ship, thanks to the resources you’d gathered.

It’s a solid enough formula, one tried, tested, and honed by many rogue-lites before it. The thing that sets Ship of Fools apart from its contemporaries, is that it is built for two players. Working together as a team is absolutely crucial to success. Imagine the co-op brilliance of Overcooked! as a rogue-lite and you are pretty much thinking about Ship of Fools. Whilst your ship has four cannon placements, it