Monopoly

At last the game that inspired family arguments at Christmas has arrived on the videogame market and possibly due to the “Credit Crunch” it’s one cheap package. On it’s plus sides, and there are few, Monopoly’s instruction manual is clear and easy to understand and the basic workings of the game are correctly applied. As you play the main game and buy properties you slowly unlock other boards. It wouldn’t have been hard to adapt comments to each particular board to make them a little more imaginative.

The negatives however... Let’s start with a sloppy menu control system that often doesn’t react to placing your cursor over a button and can ask for three button presses where one will do.  There’s the lack of options issue allowing you to, gasp, turn the subtitles “On” or “Off” and seriously that’s it.  So there’s no chance of getting rid of the insipid tunes and “Mr Monopoly’s” quickly grating comments without involving the mute button or of course simply switching off.  There is also no option of speeding play (apart from the first round of the “Richest Edition” of which the title is a joke in itself).  Mr Monopoly’s description of what is going on is also flawed and it requires a sharp eye on the board to understand the machinations of the AI opponents as they deal and the dice are weighted to throwing doubles which not only has impacts on game play but would have a statistician in tears.  Also unlocking new boards brings no new comments from Mr Monopoly another cut corner manoeuvre on the part of the developer. 

AI intelligence is lacking as at the “low” setting it makes no logical or intelligent deals and offers are made with very little sense of price or location for the player offered the trade.  You may consider that this is what you expect from a “low” setting but when it can seriously spoil your game (each time) it is badly executed and allowed an exchange of Old Kent Road with Pall Mall and Mayfair.  At “high” intelligence the AI plays reasonably but from numerous games played it seems that the players have been allotted differing play personalities that never change, therefore Player 4 is always prone to reject trade even if it is to its best advantage or offer stupid deals that make no sense.  Still at least it’s possible to win games with skill at “high” intelligence rather than mindless dealings.

The Richest Edition is woeful and merely a game of chance in all three of its modes.  With absolutely no skill involved and choice of die rolls is based on mini games which the manual notes are weighted towards the poorest player and this is all too true as mini games became annoying and frustrating due to this fact creating the “I can’t be bothered factor”.

So surely the game would redeem itself somewhat with on-line play if that was an option but it simply isn’t and for that and the reasons above Monopoly smacks of a cheap production package for Christmas.  The fact is by Boxing Day the disc is unlikely to see the light of day again.