Catan is based on the immensely popular strategy board game, Settlers of
Catan. While Settlers of Catan certainly works well as a board game, the
question is really whether or not it works well as an Xbox Live Arcade game.
Let’s take a look and see…
First let’s start with the gameplay itself, which is identical to that of the
board game. In fact, you play Catan on a virtual representation of the physical
game’s board and use virtual versions of its cards and tokens (there is an
alternate skin available to turn the board into more of a 3D world instead of
the default flat game surface). The board is an abstraction of an island
represented by an array of hexagonal game spaces. Each hex has two attributes: a
resource (wood, wool, grain, brick, or ore) and a number which corresponds to
the possible values of the roll of two dice. Players place settlements at the
intersection of the hexes and roads along the spines. When the dice are rolled
at the beginning of a player’s turn, any hex with the same number as the dice
roll generate resources for the players with a settlement touching the hex. For
example, if a player has a settlement next to a forest hex with a four on it and
a four is rolled, that player gets a wood resource card. The resource cards are
used to purchase new settlements and roads, or to buy special cards known as
development cards which have various effects on the gameplay. Success in the
game is measured in terms of victory points which are earned through things like
building settlements, upgrading settlements to cities, and even having the
longest road in the game. There are a few additional wrinkles in the gameplay,
such as a special token known as the robber which always sits on one hex and
prevents that hex from producing resources, but the core gameplay is centered on
grabbing up the available building spots on the board and trading for the
resources needed to secure enough victory points for the win.
Since settlements can not be built on adjacent hex intersections and hexes
with mid-range dice roll numbers will generate more resources, a lot of thought
and planning are needed early in the game to grab the best locations and make
your first moves towards building new settlements. After things have gotten
tight on the game board and there’s no longer room to grow, the game’s emphasis
changes to the trading of resource cards. The limited space on the game board
and the randomness of the dice rolls mean that you’ll rarely be able to
accumulate all of the cards that you need on your own. Other players may not
always trade with you, though; they have a vested interest in keeping you from
winning after all. To prevent a complete trading deadlock, the game also allows
you to trade in four resource cards of the same type for any other type of
resource. It’s a lot slower method than trading, but at least you’ll eventually
be able to get needed cards if the other players are shutting you out.
That’s the basics of the gameplay, which pretty much matches that of the
board game exactly. Now I can turn our attention to the Xbox Live Arcade version
and try to determine whether or not this version is for you. Like most Live
Arcade games Catan can be played on your own against AI opponents or you can go
online and play against other live gamers. The offline version is a challenging
game in its own right, due in large to the fact that the original board game is
such a well-crafted strategy game. The AI is pretty good when it comes to
placing roads and settlements and provides plenty of challenge in this aspect of
the game. However when it comes to trading cards the AI is not quite as sharp.
First of all, the AI will often refuse to trade with you, using the in-game
emote system to flat out tell you so. I ran into situations where I was sitting
in third place and couldn’t make a single trade off because the AI players would
complain that I was too far ahead. I also encountered some trading oddities
where an AI player would offer a certain resource in exchange for another and
would then immediately follow a trade by asking for the first resource back
again in exchange for the card just acquired. Of course when you play online
against other gamers the trading takes on a whole new character.
The videogame version of Catan also suffers from a bit of a pacing problem.
There’s no way to speed up the action when it’s not your turn, so games
regularly take an hour to complete. Spending an hour playing a board game with
friends is enjoyable, but an hour for a single game is quite long for a
videogame. The game does have a speed option, but it doesn’t really speed things
up all that much. Catan is really in need of a faster clock speed control or a
turbo option with the rules adjusted to make for shorter games.
Catan is not for everyone – those with short attention spans and an aversion
to games with complex rules should stay away, although an excellent “learn while
you play” option does a great job of easing you into the rules of play – but for
those who like their strategy games with a heavy dose of strategy it is an
excellent opportunity to flex their brain cells.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
84%. Catan introduces videogamers to a classic
strategy game that board gamers have enjoyed for quite some time.
