CATAN - Console Edition Review (Xbox One)

STAFF REVIEW of CATAN - Console Edition (Xbox One)

Monday, March 27, 2023.
by Kirsten Naughton

I don’t have a very lengthy scope of board games. In my lifetime I’ve played Monopoly, Trouble, Snakes and Ladders, and Checkers to name a few. I haven’t had friends that I can play board games with and my family wasn’t really the ‘play board games on Friday night for family time’ type. It wasn’t until I was much older that a dear friend of mine introduced me to Catan. I’ll get into what Catan is, what you need to know, and what my thoughts are about Catan’s release on console that I had a mixed experience reviewing. I love Catan on PC and the physical board game, so my expectations for the Console Edition were that it would be the same awesome experience as the PC and the board game. So here’s the real question: Did the console edition live up to the PC and physical board game?

Catan is a strategy board game where the object is to dominate the board, build roads, make the largest army, collect resources, trade crops and get to 10 victory points before the other players. The board is a hexagonal shape which is more creative than the standard square or rectangle shape that 99% of other board games are. It gives Catan the feeling of more like being on a deserted island where all you and your fellow players have is what’s on that board and each other. Each hexagonal shape on the board represents a crop that will be used during gameplay for building and trading mostly. The hexagons all will have a number corresponding to the numbers on the dice. Each player at the start of each turn will roll their dice. After the dice roll, whomever has settlements on those particular hexagons will receive the crop. After that, you can choose to build, trade or play a development card. To be clear, the actual board game on the Console Edition is what I'd expect of Catan.

Building and trading are very simple. You can build three things: roads, settlements and cities. In the console version, you can also 'build' your development card here. With each settlement, city, certain development cards, achieving longest road and largest army you gain a victory point. Development cards can be described as ‘perk’ cards. Some development cards get you a victory point, some allow you to place a knight and steal a robber, or you can play the monopoly one and take all of one crop from all the other players. Get to 10 victory points and you win the game. Be warned though, Catan is not a short game. Games typically last about a half hour to an hour, if not longer, so don’t think that you can complete a full game in time for your partner to get out of the shower. The only way you’ll make things shorter is by having less players. This version of Catan only allows you to remove one player from the board at the time you’re playing” with the settings, which is upsetting considering the other versions allow you to play with two players.

The first hiccup of Catan - Console Edition is the lack of settings. In its PC version you are able to do many more things with AI difficulty, more settings in board layout are available, and there is more content offered. You’re able to switch on and off manual setting of your first settlements and enable ‘Second Screen’. The ‘Second Screen’ is basically a QR code you can scan on your phone that shows you all your stats of your game for your character. How many roads and armies you have, how many roads, etc. I personally used this once and never used it again.

There is an ‘option’ to turn off trade requests, however I generally advise you not do this even though it’s the most annoying pop up box on the screen. Most of the game, you might need some help from the other players, if they’ll actually help you that is. I found the AI not very helpful at all. When they wanted to trade, 90% of the time I didn’t have the crop they requested.

Another thing you need to keep an eye out for setting wise is choosing your own first settlement and building your first road. If you’re an experienced Catan player, you’ll know this is vital for the general success or failure of the entire game. When you first boot up Catan: Console Edition, your settlement and first road will be chosen for you and I didn’t realize it until a couple games in. That’s it for settings and ‘DLC'. Not even “Cities & Knights” and “Seafarers” expansions were available. They aren’t even available to purchase in the Microsoft Store which upset me. Both of those expansions let you play with up to six people. Now, if you’ve even played one game of Catan, you’ll know that playing with four is a tough order. Let alone six, but I like a challenge and the current Console Edition makes me cry out for a little more oomph. I’ll get into the ‘Championship Maps DLC’ later on that we were provided.

The second hiccup I have is the hexagonal board itself. I have played all other versions of Catan where the board was unanimated. This console version is animated and far more colourful than the two other versions, easily the most visually appealing of all platforms. One problem with the animation in the console version is that while it’s a nice touch to see people harvesting wheat, mining ore or chopping the trees, I find it unnecessary. The majority of gameplay, you’re not staring at the animations on the board or the people in the hexagons. When your dice roll on your particular settlement, they don't focus in on that. When you build a road, you're not zoomed in to that area of the board. You’re constantly being bombarded with trade requests, navigating through the clunky menus and busy trying to take over the free spots of land before your opponents get to it first. 99% of the time, I didn’t even notice the animations because of the way the camera was set to the board.

I could barely see any settlements and roads. Half the time I couldn’t see my character and when building a road, barely could see where I was placing the road. The build menu was very awkward to read because of the choice of colours. There are options on both the Right and Left Trigger that show you the building requirements and showing you what development cards you have. It’s a nice touch other than the build menu shows you on each item what is required to build the item. You also can’t build it unless the item lights up in your colour. These are purely nit-picky, however as an experienced Catan player I wasn’t very impressed with much of my experience playing on the board and with the menus in general. The gameplay itself was fine, but as I touched on earlier, it could have been much, much better.

We received the ‘Championship Maps DLC’ with our code. This is the third and final hiccup of my time with Catan: Console Edition. I’m not sure exactly what is going on with this DLC or the locked features and characters. This DLC claims “Play like a CATAN World Champion with the Championship Maps DLC which includes 5 board layouts from previous CATAN World Championships. Use these maps to play against AI, your family at home, or online”, taken right from the Microsoft Store. As Catan generates their boards randomly and that’s the way it’s been for every version I’ve played, I was confused as how I’d use these maps. There’s no indication at the start of gameplay that the map is indeed from the World Championships and there is nothing on the main menu directing you to a DLC link to find out more information. There isn’t really much information online either. When you first boot Catan: Console Edition up, you’ll notice that you have locked characters. How do you unlock them? I’m not sure. Catan: Console Edition doesn’t say how when I try to select them. It would be helpful to have “Unlock by playing more” or “Unlock by buying ‘Insert DLC/Pack here’. As for the music, there’s not much which wasn’t overly shocking. The other versions aren’t exactly thrilling in the music department. It’s standard board game music. It’s got somewhat a 'sailing on the seas' vibe for its ambient soundtrack. Catan: Console Edition doesn’t need better music; more attention needs to be put in the overall concept.

As for my recommendation, if you’re looking for just Catan as a barebones game, go for it. But, if you’re looking for an re-energized version of Catan and you’re looking for any shred of challenge beyond the base game, Catan: Console Version is not for you. I’m going to set sails on the open sea and find another island to embark on for now.

**CATAN - Console Edition was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series S**

Overall: 6.0 / 10
Gameplay: 6.0 / 10
Visuals: 5.0 / 10
Sound: 5.0 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of CATAN - Console Edition (Xbox One)

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