My wife and I used to play this board game all the time. We played relentlessly prior to having kids and sometimes went into the AM before quitting. We’re incredibly intense with this beautiful piece of board game genius. Sadly, we can’t play anymore due to the intensely competitive nature that brews and is launched between us during gameplay. It’s a sad and regretful place to be when it comes to playing one of the best board games of all time. Two weeks ago I would have thought Catan was a memory that would never be dug up again.
But now, I have cheated on her…with the Switch’s Catan.
Behind her back, I saw that this game was getting released on the Nintendo Switch (as of last week). Secretly, anxiously, I have awaited its arrival with high expectations looming. I could rekindle my love for this game without my wife knowing it. Silliness aside, and more game focused, was this version of Catan going to go the route of the N-Gage and make the Nintendo Switch a vividly vivacious vessel for viciously venting competitiveness between players like its’ boardgames brethren? Or was it simply going to be a dud?
Let’s find out.
The gameplay in Catan is spot-on its IRL counterpart. The hexagon layout is intact with a birds-eye-view of the game board. You have all the ports intact, all the elements to collect (ore, sheep, wheat, brick, wood) and a chance to rob or be robbed when seven is rolled on the dice. All the basics are very much here and the old familiars will certainly reconnect you with the real-life board game. You can even trade elements to other players or trade to the bank, just like the IRL game, depending on how many cards you have on you. Everything you would expect from the board game has been translated over to the Switch. If you’re in it to have a replicated version of the game, then the basic elements of the structure are certainly there for your happiness.
Where the game departs a bit is the AI. In the past, and outside of real life, Catan has done a steady nosedive in this department. The N-Gage version of the game, which I might have had one of the sole betas for, did a helluva job of replicating how a real-life player would play a group of four during an actual match. If someone was clearly in the lead, the group would gang up on that player to keep them from ending the game. If the game was tight, the CPU players would become more unpredictable in their actions, as well as methodical. To be quite honest, the only reason to hold a phone sideways, on the spine, towards your ear with Nokia’s design disaster would be for Catan. It was quite good, but then things turned a bit.
The Xbox 360 version of the game arrived, as did online competitiveness, but the AI got a bit dumber in its actions. After a while, you could not only predict the movements of the CPU but also where you needed to be in the game to keep the CPU off your back. Probably 25-30 games into 360’s version of Catan, the game became boring, predictable, and easily winnable. It did bring in the multiplayer element of the game, which was phenomenal, but then started suffering from stability issues. It had all the right pieces, even the new ones no one had really seen before, but it couldn’t maintain itself.
Then the PlayStation 3 version hit the scene. Moving on.
Here we are with the AI on the Nintendo Switch and, I must be completely honest with you (why wouldn’t I? I’m reviewing this game), this might have bested the N-Gage. The AI here seems, at least in the 30+ games I’ve played, very well balanced. The AI seems to be spot-on with understanding the game’s situation at any given point. They know when to hit you hard, but also when to pick on other players. From stealing roads to building armies, even down to knowing when to not trade with leaders of the game, the AI is on what you would expect and want from the game of Catan. It’s quite perceptive and it makes the game rather fun to play over and over again, even when you’ve lost 15+ straight games on the third level (totally did this). It’s very impressive how the game functions on the backend. It’s, as I said above, truly the game of Catan.
Anytime you can go up against a smart CPU, you’re in for a treat. It makes the game something new and fresh each time you go out and play it. It’s the reason to praise AI, even when the AI clearly hates your guts and makes your life miserable. Whatever algorithm was used by the devs, that team needs a major raise. It’s just that good.
Beyond the AI, which should be mentioned first, there are different ways to experience the game. Outside of the multiplayer experience, which is an absolute must for this game to have any longevity to it, the single player experience is just what you expect from Catan. Here are the single player modes you get with this release:
– Campaign: The campaign is incredibly extensive for Catan. You have tiny stories ongoing stories that relate to the characters you’re going up against. I’m talking incredibly deep stories you’ll follow, but at least the setup was given and motivation created to push you through the game. Ultimately, the only thing really changing from story to story is the placement of board pieces, which makes this version of Catan interesting really quick.
When you complete the first three levels in the campaign, then the game starts branching out into multiple board pieces, as well as ships. Shifting over to islands and playing with new vehicles is your reward for the game, as is the amount of victory points needed to win the match. The game continually gets better and rewards you with new content and style as you push forward. There is a lot to do in the game’s campaign, and you’ll see it once you launch it (tons of little locked adventures waiting for you to progress…and probably upgrade to DLC (Cities & Knights — reasonable price for $5.99 as well)).
If there is a knock against the campaign, it’s that it doesn’t appear to randomize the numbers should you lose a match. This means that you’re going into the same board numerical structure as the last. I would have loved to see the game randomize the numbers after each restart because essentially your success depends on player order otherwise. I will say that chance that you hit certain numbers on the dice becomes incredibly randomized regardless of board pieces. That helps to alleviate some of the staleness to the lack of numerical variety.
– Scenarios: So, I’m baffled here. I played this a few times and couldn’t find the difference between it and campaigns. It felt like it was just isolated stories that you could play, but I couldn’t figure out the progression. Granted, you go up against three other people right out of the gate, in comparison to campaigns where you start with two, but beyond that, I just didn’t understand why this was separate. It was fun, but it felt like it could have been defined a bit better with regard to its purpose. Or eliminated completely.
Still fun as hell, though.
Anyway, outside of the two modes, and multiplayer, that is about all you really get with the game. It’s quite frankly enough because it will keep you engaged for hours. I think that Catan gives you everything you need to enjoy a portable, proper version of the game. There’s not a lot to hate about it, but there is some improvement needed in one specific area — information architecture.
If you aren’t familiar with the concept of IA, then enjoy this. IA makes everything run in the electronic world and helps to navigate morons, like myself, away from confusing technological structure. IA has been around way before computers made it to the world, and is essentially the order of operation for information. When you look at something, you have certain expectations of how that ‘thing’ should display the information your mind needs.
Related, the menus are tough to read at times, the game controls can be irritating with progressing the game, and sometimes you can get lost in the menu system because how it navigates isn’t 100% clear. That isn’t to say you won’t eventually figure it out, but the design is just a tad bit up in the air at times. For example, and it’s quite possible that this is a ‘me’ problem, it took me roughly 12 games to discover how to turn in multiple cards to the bank. When you go to the trading option, there is a tiny option in the bottom left that says ‘R = bank trade’. I honestly didn’t notice it until about the twelfth game. I had wondered why it wouldn’t let me turn in cards for singles. Thankfully, I looked hard enough and found it. That option needs to be more obvious, and it should be up front and center with player trading options. Instead, the game thinks you want to trade with players first and puts you in that menu without giving you any obvious sign that it can do both. Finding the bank option did change the gameplay dramatically. I don’t have many complaints beyond this one. It’s something that could certainly be improved with an update.
Overall, Catan on the Nintendo Switch is a treat. The inclusion of a large campaign helps to sell this game easily. The addition of strong AI makes the experience valuable and challenging. If the menu system could improve, then you’re looking at one of the best versions of the board game to ever grace a console.
