![]() ![]() ![]() Despite some small issues, this is surely a game I plan to revisit a lot over the years and will make for fun competition with friends. Ultimately, I found that Catan: Console Edition offers a very fun experience that doesn't just retain its classic charm and robust strategy that it's known for, but also offers plenty of good ways to play that are perfect for every type of player. Moreover, changes made to these games can often be cumbersome, both as a familiar or new experience. However, I had my concerns, as some digitized versions can fail to deliver the same experience as the tabletop version. When I heard a digital tabletop version of Catan would come to PC and consoles, I was ecstatic to return to a beloved game that I could finally play without having players altogether in one room. As settlers of a fictional island, players are tasked with building, maintaining and expanding settlements through obtaining resources and trading with other players to build their best settlement and ultimately win. Long before my youth was spent with series like Pokemon and Fallout, one game always stood tall amongst my favorites: Catan.Īs one of the first major European tabletop games to gain worldwide following, Catan maintained a strong status since its 1995 debut that has only grown in recent years with new expansions. For Catan fiends who just can’t get enough, the digital version is a fine substitute.Tabletop games have always been an important part of my introduction into the world of gaming. If you’re looking to play Catan with a group, your best bet is to just bust out the physical board game. ![]() It’s always a supplement another way to enjoy it.” He added that, “For us, the digital versions of Catan are never a for the board games. And therefore after a lot of discussion we decided to drop that feature in favor of a campaign and additional Seafarer expansions so you’ll have more fun as a single player.” more frustrating than fun handing over the device multiple times. “To be honest,” Beenen says, “pass and play always felt clumsy and complicated because during a turn of Catan you’re interacting a lot with your opponents, so it was. In a conversation with Beenen, Catan creator Klaus Teuber, and Teuber’s son Benjamin, who manages Catan licensing, the men agreed that a local multiplayer option is annoying and clunky, fundamentally throwing off the game’s balance. trading) “deteriorate the user experience and would excessively lengthen game pacing.”Īccording to Arnd Beenen, Head of Digital at Catan GmbH, very few people were even using the pass and play feature when it was offered on mobile devices anyway. However, Asmodee claims that the constant player interaction between turns (i.e. My favorite time to play digital board games is on long travel days when pulling out a game board is impractical. OK, fair enough, but what about pass and play? One of the Switch’s best features is its portability, after all. Being able to see what everyone is working with, Asmodee argues, would prevent essential Catan strategies, like pulling out a surprise win with development cards. In contrast to a game like Monopoly or Small World, where all the cards are (literally) on the table, hidden information in the form of resource and development is a core part of Catan’s gameplay. Why didn’t Asmodee Digital include what seems like an essential feature in arguably its biggest title?Ī representative from Asmodee Digital assured Polygon that local multiplayer was initially planned for the Switch version of Catan, but that “both technical and game design constraints” prevented it from making it to the final version. What’s the point of a digital board game if it can’t be enjoyed with friends like, well, a board game? My family and I have spent many long car rides playing digital versions of popular games like Ticket to Ride and Pandemic. Of course that means that everyone playing needs their own Switch and a Nintendo Switch Online account, which is far from a given.Īt first, I’ll admit, I was annoyed. There is an online multiplayer mode, so in theory we could play an online game together while physically in the same room. But when I booted up the game looking for a local multiplayer option, it was nowhere to be found. I was excited to try it out, especially since I assumed it would mean my friends and I could play a casual game of Catan without the extensive setup. Catan, one of the most popular board games of the last few decades and the game credited with kicking off a tabletop boom, recently came to Nintendo Switch. ![]()
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