Genre: Board
Developer: Sierra Online
Publisher: Sierra Online

Carcassonne is a tile-driven, turn-based board game that uses hand-drawn tiles and character art. The tiles look a bit like oil paintings, and are consequently rich in coloration, yet simple in theme as befitting a board game.

This title features catchy, synth fantasy tunes that are easy to listen to for extended periods and are really very catchy. Their solid composition provide a nice, even tempo to the gameplay, and sound pleasant accompanied by the clean selection of tile-placing, ecclesiastic monastery, and town-building whoop-and-hurrah sound effects.

Carcassonne has several gameplay rules, and they are explained fairly well via tutorials. There are multiple zoom levels for the camera and pieces are flipped with the trigger buttons. Control scheme and user interface work well, and there is online play as well.

This game is easy to learn, but deceptively deep. There are a decent few layers of strategy, but perhaps not as many as other thinking games like Chess or Magic the Gathering. All the same, Carcassonne is addicting, and it becomes easy and enjoyable to play several matches on end in a sitting.