Monopoly (2024) review

Fun fact: Monopoly was one of the first games I ever reviewed on GameSpew, way back in 2015. Nearly 10 years later, Ubisoft is back with a new video game version of the popular board game, and here I am with a new review. It’s like the circle of life.

Monopoly, as it’s simply called — which I’ve referred to as Monopoly (2024) in the title of this review to hopefully mitigate any confusion — seems to want to take the game back to basics. Forget Monopoly Madness and those other twists on the game we’ve seen in the past; this version is simply about playing the game in the most realistic way possible.

The language you choose when playing will determine what board you get, which explains why Monopoly distinguishes between English UK and English US. It’s a shame you can’t simply choose your game board independently of your language; it would change things up a bit being able to play on different board.

As it is, you get a choice between a Standard Board — which is exactly what you’d expect it to be — and a ‘Living Board’. The Living Board places a digital city in the middle of the Monopoly board. It doesn’t affect gameplay but makes things a bit more visually appealing. It also gives you the opportunity to explore the city, which is a useful way to pass the time while other players are taking their turn. And adding a nice touch to proceedings is the fact that additional playing pieces are hidden in there. Find them, and you can use them to play next time.

Happily, there are different game types to choose from, so not every game you play of Monopoly needs to be the standard, long-winded version. Three ‘Fast Mode’ games are available: Real Estate Agent, which challenges you to be the first player to own a certain number of properties; Magnate, where the winner is the first to have $1800 in cash; and Architect, where the goal is to be the first player to build houses on a set of properties.

Related: 14 Videogame-Themed Monopoly Sets You Need to Add to Your Christmas List

You can also play with speed die, which adds a third die to the game to make things a little quicker, and you can turn on House Rules, too. If you’re the type of person who thinks you should pick up $400 when you land on Go or collect money from Free Parking, House Rules are for you. You’ll likely not find every random house rule you had when you played Monopoly as a kid, but there’s a decent selection that at least covers the basics.

Any mode can be played locally, either by yourself with CPU opponents or with up to five friends. If you don’t have enough controllers, the same one can be passed around, thankfully. And, of course, you can play online, although I’ve had mixed results. Getting into a game has generally taken a few attempts, and once I’ve been in one I’ve found myself booted out more times than not, with a random error thrown up at me. I wouldn’t recommend it as the best way to play.

What stands out about Monopoly is how tactile everything is. A great amount of work has gone into making gameplay feel as realistic as possible: you need to manually shake your dice, throwing them onto the board (or you can even turn on motion controls to actually shake your controller). Knocking over playing pieces, houses and hotels is part-and-parcel when rolling. A silly little way to vent your frustrations onto your opponent, I’ve found.

You’re in control of moving your piece too: moving your left stick will see your player counter move along the board, and you can jump for absolutely no reason at all. Sure, you can skip the niceties if you want, but I really appreciate these little details which make playing this digital game as close to the real thing as it can be. There’s even an option to “flip the board” to show your displeasure at having to pay rent or tax. All without having to pick up the mess afterwards.

Unfortunately, Monopoly has more than its fair share of bugs, which lets down the experience somewhat. There’s the unreliable online play for one, but even locally I’ve had issues. In a two-player game, where we both had our own controllers, I couldn’t shake my own dice — instead, the other player had control. I’ve also had cards randomly float in mid-air rather than stay on the table like they should.

They’re not game-breaking issues by any means, but they go to show that Monopoly could do with another touch of polish here and there. Hopefully it’ll receive a patch or two in the coming weeks just to neaten those edges. Because, random issue aside, there’s plenty of fun to be had here, particularly if you’re a lover of the board game. It looks great, and most importantly, it feels fun to play thanks to those tactile little touches.