Galleon: Islands of Mystery has certainly been a long time in the coming. The brainchild of Lara Croft creator Toby Gard, the game was originally announced for the PlayStation in 1997, put on a significant hiatus, re-announced for the Sega’s Dreamcast, pushed back again after that system’s untimely death, only to finally end up as an Xbox exclusive here in the Summer of 2004. It’s remarkable that the game even made it out, really, and like an old, well-traveled vessel of the sea, Galleon will take you on some mighty fine adventures, even despite its several minor leaks, patchwork sails and weather-beaten appearance.

Galleon is a story-driven action/adventure title that places you in the soggy boots of Captain Rhama – a square-jawed, swashbuckling sea buccaneer with a nose for treasure and high adventure. The game begins with Rhama sailing into a small island town, per the request of a famous healer named Areliano, to investigate the mysterious galleon of the game’s title (for you landlubbers out there, a galleon is a large three-masted ship with square sails and multiple decks). It turns out the ship was used to transport an ancient herb with wonderful medicinal qualities, and Areliano manages to convince Rhama to accompany him on an expedition to find the herb’s hidden source plant. Sadly, before the two can set out, Areliano is murdered by his no-good, traitorous assistant (named Jabez), who then promptly hijacks the galleon for his own evil purposes. Naturally, Rhama, who’s accompanied by the dead healer’s beautiful daughter and game’s obligatory love interest, sets out after the galleon in effort to thwart Jabez from tapping into the herb’s mysterious dark powers.

The story in Galleon distinguishes itself from the monotonous me-too plots found in countless other videogames, mostly due to a certain cinematic awareness that the developers obviously had when designing the game. The combination of superb camera angle choice during cut scenes, stirring musical score, snappy, intelligent dialogue and high quality voice acting creates a distinctly movie-like experience that immediately absorbs you into the game and refuses to let go until the final credit roll. It’s extremely rare to genuinely care for the characters in an action/adventure title like you undoubtedly will for the entire cast of Galleon, and that alone makes this a near must-have experience – especially for cinema aficionados.

I say near must-have, because there are some significant issues that take some of the wind out of Galleon’s otherwise full sails. First off, there’s the unique way you are forced to control Rhama. Instead of the traditional system where you use the left analog stick to control character movements, and the right to maneuver the camera, Galleon marries camera control and character movement to the left thumbstick. This means you use the left stick to swing the camera back and forth, and to move Rhama forwards and backwards. All basic actions like rolling underneath low obstacles and climbing over objects are done automatically, making the game straightforward to control — all you really have to do is point Rhama in the direction you want to go and he’ll do whatever needs to be done to get there.

On one hand, this is a promising and innovative way for controlling a third-person viewpoint game, and it does manage to keep your character from never disappearing off screen. But, on the other hand, this “autopilot” style of control means there are plenty of times when you can’t get Rhama to do certain precise movements the way you’d like him to. The manner in which he floats around in front of you, climbing up or ducking under environmental obstacles at his own discretion can be infuriating, and you’ll find yourself spending far too much time trying to get him to do simple maneuvers than should be needed. Traditional third-person actioners like Prince of Persia and Ninja Gaiden may have a constantly shifting camera to deal with, but the precise control you are given over the main character more than makes up for this.

Thankfully, instead of enemies like Gaiden’s agile Black Spider ninja or deadly sewer fiends, Galleon features mostly slow and cumbersome baddies that are usually easily defeated, even with the game’s awkward control setup. Rhama does come across several different types of weapons during his island-hoping adventure, like various firearms and blades (and, of course, he can use his trusty fists), but combat remains largely uninteresting throughout and takes backseat to the various exploring and puzzle solving portions of the game (which are quite excellent). Really, the game doesn’t force you to use complex maneuvers or perform tricky jumps all too often, so the wonky control scheme isn’t nearly as damaging to the overall experience as it potentially could have been.

The other nagging issue shackling the game from reaching it’s true potential is its decidedly uneven visual presentation. Some areas that you traverse during the course of the game are wonderfully modeled, with swaying vegetation, shimmering reflections and an impressive draw distance. But, these sections are in stark contrast with the excessive polygonal clipping that takes place with all the character models, PSOne quality textures in some places and a framerate that bogs noticeably during hectic moments. You really do get the feeling that Galleon was planned for a lesser system, then cleaned up around the edges and released on Microsoft’s big black Box. As mentioned earlier, there is a definite cinematic quality to the game’s many cut scenes and the audio presentation is top quality, but one can just image how much better the game would be if the Xbox’s considerable horsepower was effectively harnessed.

Despite the irregular quality of its visual presentation and a somewhat quirky control scheme, Galleon still manages to be a lot of fun. Its large cast of likable characters and engaging, swashbuckling story go a long way in redeeming the game as a whole despite its several niggling problems. If you are a fan of the action/adventure genre or enjoy a good cinematic game experience, then I absolutely recommend giving Galleon a try. Just don’t expect Game of the Year material or you’re bound to be disappointed.