When Monopoly was first released a few years ago, who knew it
would take off and be a best seller for the PC. It was followed
shortly thereafter by Monopoly World Cup Edition. Now, Hasbro
Interactive is at it again with a trio of Monopoly titles in time for
the holiday season including Monopoly Jr. For children, Monopoly
Casino for adults, and Monopoly II for those of us who always
wanted to play Monopoly in 3D. So without further ado, let’s see
what Monopoly II has to offer.
Monopoly continues to be one of the most popular game in the
world, and so it’s no surprise that Hasbro Interactive has taken the
opportunity to update the classic board game for the PC, using the
latest in 3D technology. If you remember the original Monopoly,
that Hasbro Interactive released a few years ago, you might
remember that the game was played on a 2D board. When you
rolled the dice, a second screen would pop up showing your piece
moving around the board in 3D. It was a mish-mash technique that
didn’t particular work very well in my opinion, as I ended up
turning it off twenty minutes into the game. Monopoly II features a
complete 3D experience. The board is 3D, the pieces are 3D, and
all the action revolves around 3D animation including buying,
trading, and selling properties. It’s all wrapped up in a neat little
package, but unfortunately the emphasis on the 3D experience
seems to have taken away from the gameplay and fun factor.
The graphics in Monopoly are much improved. As mentioned
above, everything is in 3D, but the overall presentation is a bit of a
bust. If you’ve had the opportunity to play some of Hasbro’s other
interactive products, you’re probably well aware that Hasbro has a
knack for creating bright, colorful gaming experiences. Monopoly
II lacks that creative feel, as the colors are all quite dark and the
menu graphics are uninteresting and quite bland. They’ve gone for
a more realistic look to the game, particularly in the board display,
and it’s just not the same as previous version of the game. The
animations are all well done, don’t get me wrong, but the overall
atmosphere is dark and gloomy. The added 3D support also seems
to have slowed down the game a little. Gameplay is much slower,
having to wait for all the 3D animations to finish before continuing
with your turn. You might find yourself turning off several of the
graphical and gameplay options, just to speed up the game.
The audio in Monopoly continues to be top notch. Sound effects a
plenty throughout the game. There’s a sound for every aspect of
the game that you can imagine. From pieces moving around the
board, to landing in jail, there’s an effect for everything. There’s
also accompanying musical scores during the game as well. You
can choose from a half dozen original scores in the menu options
and it adds a nice touch to the gameplay. Monopoly II is also chalk
full of speech, from the menu prompts to the actual gameplay
itself, Hasbro Interactive doesn't disappoint in this department,
that’s for sure.
Hasbro has added a number of new features in this latest edition of
Monopoly. For starters, there are 10 new boards included with the
game. Besides the classic board, there are now 10 city versions of
Monopoly. Here’s a short list of the city boards available in
Monopoly II:
New York
Washington D.C.
Los Angeles
Boston
Dallas
Atlanta
Chicago
San Francisco
Seattle
Toronto
Streets, parks and other popular real estate spots associated with
each of those cities are located on the board in place of the
regular properties associated with the original game. A board
editor is also provided with the game, along with some clip art, so
you can create your own city boards using the clip art provided, or
clip art you might have on your system. Hasbro has also included a
three-level difficulty option. You can now set the difficulty level for
your computer opponents in case they seem to easy or to difficult
to beat. In terms of multiplayer, you can play with up to 6 human
players at the same machine or you can go online and play
against opponents from around the world. There is full Internet
support for multiplayer gaming.
Although you’ll never hear a woman tell you this, bigger isn’t
always better. Some of the best improvements are the little
improvements. The addition of a board editor was a fantastic idea.
The addition of 10 new city boards to go along with the classic
board is a fine idea. The addition of 3D graphics, not such a good
idea. If I wanted a realistic looking Monopoly game, I’d ask for
water. What I want from the PC version is a fun, interactive board
game. We got that in the original Monopoly, we don’t seem to get
that here. The atmosphere has mysteriously disappeared, as will
this game the moment I finish writing this review.
By: 
