Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The strongest reason to pick up Gunpowder, Treason and Plot is that each ship asks something different of your hands. Gunpowder carries three grenades that you can detonate at will, turning each shot into a small timing challenge. You are not simply firing and moving on; you have to decide when the blast will matter most, which gives the ship a satisfyingly hands-on feel.

Treason goes in the opposite direction. Charging up and releasing a mass of homing rockets sounds gloriously excessive, and it should suit you if you enjoy banking a big attack for the moment when the screen feels most threatening. It is the most immediately legible of the additions: build up power, let loose, and enjoy the rockets doing the chasing.

Ghost and Fortune are the more eccentric pair. Ghost can deploy a copy of itself alongside its Excalibur attack, giving it a distinctive tactical hook without requiring a long explanation. Fortune is riskier by design, mimicking one of the other seven ships at random. That randomness can be entertaining when you want to adapt on the fly, but it is not the craft to choose when you have a very specific plan in mind.

As a package, this is a smart expansion because the ships are not minor variations on one weapon. You can pick Gunpowder for control, Treason for a powerful release, Ghost for duplication, or Fortune for unpredictability. If you already know you like switching ships to change your approach, four genuinely different options are a meaningful reason to come back.

Graphics

The new craft are named with enough flair to make ship selection feel less anonymous: Fortune, Ghost, Gunpowder, and Treason sound like a proper set rather than four numbered extras. Ghost’s deployed copy is also a clear visual idea, since you can see an additional version of your craft join the action.

Story

Gunpowder, Treason and Plot carries its drama mainly in its title and ship names. “Gunpowder” and “Treason” give two of the pilots a conspiratorial, combustible flavor, while Ghost and Fortune round out the set with very different kinds of intrigue.

That theme fits the add-on’s combat ideas nicely. A remotely detonated grenade, a duplicate ship, a random borrowed form, and a charged volley of homing rockets all feel like tools chosen for mischief rather than plain utility. The DLC’s character comes through in those concepts.

Do not buy this expecting the four pilots to be interchangeable cosmetic labels. Their names are tied directly to how they behave: Gunpowder detonates grenades, Ghost creates a copy, Fortune borrows another ship’s form at random, and Treason unleashes homing rockets. The personality is in the playstyle.

Overall Experience

This is focused DLC for an existing Jamestown player, and that focus is a virtue. Instead of stretching itself thin, it adds four pilots with clear identities. The first session should quickly tell you whether one of them clicks, because their signature attacks are so easy to understand.

Gunpowder is probably the most rewarding choice if you enjoy setting up a detonation instead of accepting instant results. Treason looks like the safer recommendation when you want a forceful attack with less fiddling, while Ghost offers the most unusual single visual-and-combat trick. Fortune is the one to save for nights when unpredictability sounds fun rather than irritating.

The payoff is worth it for fans who want more ways to engage with Jamestown’s ship roster. It is not a broad reinvention; it is a compact set of new combat personalities, with enough mechanical contrast to avoid feeling like filler. Buy it if the base game has left you wanting fresh ships to master, especially if manual explosions or a charged rocket barrage immediately sound satisfying.

Retro Replay Score

7.5/10