I didn’t know what to think of Catan at first. I was never a big board gamer in my early days, and honestly had never heard of the game before a few months ago. After some prodding by a friend, I decided to give the demo a try. I have to say, I am extremely happy I did! The game provides hours of fun with great offline and online play. Here is the breakdown of some of the facets of Catan:
Presentation and Graphics: The game requires simple graphics and pulls them off well. The game has the look and feel of UNO, except substitute the cards for the game board. The default is a basic board, similar to the real board. You can, however, choose the Living World skin in the options menu. This gives the game board a 3D feel with moving animals and such on the board. The background is also changed from a standard blue background to flowing water. With what the game needs, I think it does a great job. 4 of 5
Sound and Music: You get some fairly standard renaissance-type music. Nothing fancy, but it’s not needed. The sound effects were basically taken straight out of UNO. I figured they could at least record a couple new sounds. 3 of 5
Gameplay: Catan offers a lot of gameplay for everyone from beginners to very advanced users. The single player AI is surprising good. The best part for beginners is a Learn as you Play mode, which has you playing through a game and teaching you as you go. I think this should be a standard on games. People don’t want to read the manual, they want to play and learn. This mode allows that and then some. For hard-core Catan fans, you can setup your own “house rules” for both online and offline games. Other than that, there are the standard 3 and 4 player games both offline and online. My own real gripe about the game is the number of different menu screens you need to pull up to see what’s going on with the game. You need to use the left trigger to see how much things cost, the left bumper to see what resources are on the board and how many roads and settlements other players have built. For a beginner, it was confusing. Possibly making these more accessible in an update would be nice. Given all that, having to hit a few extra buttons is my only gripe. 4 of 5.
Multiplayer: You can play on Live with 2-3 friends for some great online games. The multiplayer is where you really learn the game of Catan. The AI in the single player game is terrific, but playing against 3 other great players will really make you a better player. I’m assuming it’s because of the demographic playing the game, but you don’t get any insults or hate speech or anything like you would in other games. It’s a real treat to play this game online. 5 of 5
Lasting Appeal: There are 12 achievements totaling 200 points. Most are normal, but many require a lot of time to get, such as the “Chancellor of Catan” Achievement, which requires you to get 1000 Victory Points in ranked match play. Yeah, that might take a bit of time. Aside from the achievements, the game has terrific replay value. You can always fire up a game of Catan by yourself if with your friends. However, it is an acquired taste. 4 of 5
Final Word: Catan is an insanely fun game once you learn the in’s and out’s of how and why to perform certain actions in the game. It’s slower paced, but makes you think. The developers took a hugely popular board game and turned it into a very well done digital version. You owe it to yourself to try out the demo.
Overall: 4 of 5
1 = Not worth the bandwidth.
2= Demo is enough, not worth your money.
3= Game is good, depending on the price, seriously consider picking it up.
4= Worth your money. Should provide some good times for quite awhile.
5= Buy the game. Lock your door. Pick up a case of beer. This could take all night.
