Monopoly Star Wars

Summary

Genre: Board Game Simulation
Number of players: 1-8

Review

That's right, kids. Everyone's favourite board game is now available in computerised form, and as an added bonus is available in a Star Wars themed edition, complete with much video footage from the movies, your favourite SW characters, and even the exciting changing of the street names to various Star Wars locations. I'll have a hotel on Dagobah, please. Yay.


Gameplay: Everyone loves Monopoly. Well, they do when they're winning, anyway. No-one likes it when everyone has a set except them, nor when a smarmy multiple-hotel-owning player offers to take all your properties instead of enforcing the $2000 fine for landing on Mayfair. Still, it's a classic game, and justly so. But is a computer-version necessary, and is this particular version worth getting?

The game plays exactly like Monopoly. So no surprises there. You travel around a square board by rolling the virtual dice, and purchase properties by landing on them first and coughing up the required sum. When you own all two or three properties in a colour set, you can build houses and hotels (or in this game, ships and spaceports) on them and increase the 'rent' which opponents have to pay you for landing on them. Other features, such as Chance cards, Jail and the vitally-important trading make a regular appearance, and add plenty of depth.

But all of this can be had by purchasing a regular monopoly set. So what's new in the electronic version? Well, firstly, and inevitably, a lot of fuss and clicking. Rolling the dice, trading properties and bidding for unwanted properties can be rather annoying when you have to do everything by using the mouse, particularly since there's only one mouse between all the human players. Gameplay is undoubtedly far slower than in regular Monopoly, and it has to be said that staring at a computer screen isn't really as involving as moving the pieces around physically, nor as fun.

However, there are several advantages to the game over normal Monopoly. Firstly, it's certainly much neater than having cards, notes and houses all over the place, and there's no potential for unscrupulous players to quietly nick your hard-earned cash while you're looking in the other direction. Also, there's the huge amount of video footage which you access whenever landing on a square, plus the amusing movement of the pieces (if you can stomach waiting ages for the cutscene to load up). These features can easily be disabled if you're more eager to just continue with the game itself. There's also the Star Wars atmosphere which the animations, background music and C-3P0's running commentary provide. Plus there's the inclusion of computer players to make up the numbers if you don't have enough people for a decent game.

The computer players play competently well, although they are a bit heartless when it comes to trading, constantly demanding more and more, or making counteroffers which would deprive you of all your sets. Still, it's nice to be able to play Monopoly without needing to convince other people to join you, even if it is a bit sad.

In any case, it's Monopoly, in a convenient, impersonal, simulated, atmospheric, uninvolving form. So if that's your scene...


Challenge: Winning is mainly down to luck and good bartering, so challenge isn't really an issue here. As regards replay value, being based on a classic and excellent game, together with the Star Wars licence, it's a game that you could really play any time and enjoy yourself immensely. Providing you're winning.


Graphics: The graphics are pretty good, with a nice 'outer-space' background, well-drawn characters and decent animations, together with good-quality video footage. Annoying loading times for the otherwise good movement animations (which mercifully can be turned off) are the only real let-down.


Sounds: Authentic and decent-quality Star Wars music is a definite plus, as is the mass of commentary from Anthony Daniels (y'know, the guy who does C-3P0), the various SW sound effects, and the rest of it. There's no danger of you turning off the sounds. Unless you hate Star Wars. But then you probably wouldn't have bought the game in that case.


Multiplayer: Playing with human opponents is where all the fun of Monopoly comes in, and the computer version is no different. There's not that much satisfaction in crushing the computer opponents, but nothing beats guffawing at the guy sitting next to you when he lands on two of your pricey hotels one after another. Making self-serving deals with other people is highly satisfying when your plans come to fruition, too, and basically if you play only with computer opponents you'll be missing out on the heart and soul of the game.


Summing up: Fans of Monopoly or of the Star Wars licence should enjoy this game, which has plenty of things you couldn't get in the real Monopoly. However, it's inevitable that putting a board game inside a PC is going to take a lot of the fun out of it, and whether the advantages conferred by the change of medium outweigh this is really up to you. As games go, it can be a lot of fun, although you really need at least one human to play with you to get the most out of it.


Gamesmark: 78%


Reviewer: Maverik



Tangycheese's opinion: Wow. Monopoly. And Star Wars. Combined into one! If you don't like Monopoly, don't buy. If you don't like Star Wars, don't buy. If you like both, don't buy. Call me old fashioned, but you can get the board game a lot cheaper, and it's a lot more fun to play! Just goes to show that sometimes, technology doesn't always win out.