Monopoly Tycoon is, put simply, a marriage between the classic board game and the city-building aspects of Sim City. It's an idea that shouldn't work as well as it does. Licensed games usually don't take risks, and that's what makes this one quite brilliant. Instead of churning out a quick Monopoly-related cash-in, Deep Red has dared to take Monopoly concepts and use them to make a fun, unique game, a game of city building, but also of property management and brutal economics, all encased in one gorgeous graphics engine. It looks as good as it plays. After playing through a very detailed tutorial series of missions, you'll proceed to the main game: a series of locked scenarios, the next of which you unlock by succeeding at the previous one. There are three difficulty levels, and you can choose to play as any of the familiar playing pieces, each with its own personality, advantages, and disadvantages. The top hat is a stage magician, the dog is an old-money socialite, the wheelbarrow is a steady worker, and the racecar is a stuntman with a curling mustache. Respectively, the computer plays these opponents as cunning, shrewd, tenacious, and bold.
The game itself plays on a 3-D map. You can zoom in to see the wandering people and their cars, or zoom out to view the map top down like a board game. The layout isn't like the board game, however; it's more like a city, but Monopoly conventions hold true. Each block consists of two or three colored properties with familiar names. You can't buy these properties. You can build on any of them, owning various retail or residential buildings of varying size and height, and pay rent to the property owner, or you can engage in an auction to lease the property (for 25 years). If you lease all the properties of a color you gain a monopoly and can build lucrative hotels and even commandeer buildings away from rivals. You are all competing over convenience-oriented and fickle citizens, so property values, selection, and types of goods and services offered is what attracts them. A grocery store on St. James Place isn't going to command the same clientele or profit as one on Pennsylvania Avenue, and, of course, control of Boardwalk and Park Place is essential.
Chance cards exist as single-day random events, and you can even control the Railroads and Utilities and get money from your rivals that way (you get their services for free). The action begins in the '30s and moves all the way to the new millennium. The styles and cars all evolve to show the progression of time, a nice touch.
All told, Monopoly Tycoon is a must-buy for fans of the Sim or Tycoon lines of games. It's deep, fun, has a great multiplayer option, and has just enough Monopoly in it to be utterly charming to anyone familiar with the classic board game. Infogrames didn't invent the city-building game here, but they did reinvent Monopoly for the 21st century. --Bob Andrews
Pros:
- Attractive graphics
- Deep, charming, and satisfying gameplay
Cons:- The interface is a bit cumbersome
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