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Electronic Arts are a company most well known for their
various franchises and licences these days. EA SPORTS somehow
manages to conjure-up a menagerie of updates for it’s
 FIFA,
Madden and Tiger Woods franchises every year,
developer purchases ensure the likes of the BurnOut,
Battlefield and The Sims series become the most unlikely
siblings, and relations with visual entertainment companies have
seen The Simpsons, The Godfather and Harry Potter
all receiving virtual worlds in recent past on behalf of Electronic
Arts. So why then, you may wonder, would a company constantly
pursuing the next blockbuster title be interested in producing
Monopoly?
The simple fact is that it’s one of demand. As Nintendo
have been finding with their Touch Generations! series, small
productions which take fewer resources to produce can often excel
far beyond the more Hardcore-orientated videogames in retail
performance. That’s not to say Monopoly will sell to the same
degree as Dr. Kamashima’s Brain Training: How Old is Your Brain?
– quite simply, it won’t – but being produced in-house on the
Renderware middleware developed by Criterion Software (one of
Electronic Arts’ development studios), the multi-platform release
will undoubtedly be cost-effective thanks to a potentially huge
audience well aware of the Monopoly brand.
The basic game functions as you would expect. The
Monopoly Mode plays the default set-up of the original Monopoly
rules, though changes to the House Rules ses
or trading with other players are available through a single Menu
labelled "Accounts". Once in the Menu, the layout can be confusing
at first, but after a single trade or buying of a house players will
find the design allows for quick access to any required information
about your, or your opponents’, property and status.
The variety of boards available adds quite some depth to what is
already a well devised visual rendition of the Board Game, and the
ease at which players can become accustomed to the exchange from
physicality to visual representation is perhaps the biggest
recommendation that can be given to a videogame based on a Board
Game.
There are flaws, however. The lack of XboxLIVE! Multi-Player,
Vision Camera and Avatar compatibility are all sorely missed
opportunities – and the ignorance of New Xbox Experience doesn’t end
here, with Installation actually degrading the game’s
performance by way of irritatingly cutting into the soundtrack at
the start of every players turn. The automatic save after every turn
is a very nice touch that is unnoticeable in-game, but the option
for only a single stored game is disappointing.
In addition to the incredibly well drawn recreation of the
traditional game comes Richest Mode. Richest Mode still requires use
of the game board, though dispenses with frivolities such as money.
Here, players play a Mini-Game at the start of each turn, the winner
of which getting first pick of four rolled dice. The number shown on
the chosen die will represent the amount of player pieces dropped on
the board at various locations. Once all player pieces are dropped,
the game moves around the board performing the required action for
each. Property not yet owned will be added to a players’ portfolio,
owned property will require one property in rent, owned property
with a house will require three, and so on.
The Mini-Games themselves are mostly rehashed efforts of previous
just as unimaginative titles, and generally quite boring ones. Here
it is evident; simplicity
 is
no substitution for gameplay. And in winning the Mini-Games, a
player has no guarantee of success in the actual game. Richest Mode
contains no acknowledgement of skill or the ability to improvise –
of which, the original Monopoly demands both in spades – and
is generally better left well alone.
The package is well presented, with clear-cut visuals and a precise
Menu System. The pastel green and multi-coloured borders create a
serene play space, and the action is rarely hectic. The in-game
buttons don’t always immediately react to player input, which can
prove frustrating at times, but most players will accept it as they
have with countless other games before. The sound quality is of
equal unevenness, with the easily ignorable soundtrack being
constantly interrupted with the opinions or advice of the Monopoly
avatar. This wouldn’t be too much of an issue – as his quips are
generally engaging at first – but the dialogue is so limited most
will have heard each and every line before the end of a single game.
For the Gears of War fans and those who have already given-up
on Wii, Monopoly is not. However, much like 505 Games recent
My Pet Dolphin 2 and Rising Star Games’ Cradle of Rome,
it’s very likely you’ll know someone to whom Monopoly would
not only make a fantastic Christmas present, but also encourage a
loved one to join you in celebrating your favourite hobby. And now
we know why a videogames giant such as Electronic Arts would pursue
such an unassuming franchise; because they already know how to make
appealing videogames out of them. |
