Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Grows on you"

Catan is a Turn-based strategy and is one of those games that to just look at the screen shots or pics and you would say well this looks very boring and slow...In a way that is sort of true...It is slow at the start just like any other game of its type. It is only when you take the time to dig in and master the art of Catan when you see what a fun game it can become. When i first started playing it i would get beat realy fast and had no clue as to what i was doing. Over time i would gain insight and my control over the game would grow to the point where i could beat the AI down and become top dog near enough everytime.

Catan is based of a traditional board game. It uses a game board composed of 19 randomly arranged hexagonal tiles, each representing a different type of terrain or resource. As you play the game it is your goal through strategy, luck, and skillful negotiation to be the first to earn 10 victory points. To do this you must build and enlarge settlements or establishing the largest army or building the longest road, or through the use of certain development cards as you get them.

The AI in which you will be fighting in Catan, feature thirteen unique AI personalities for single player play and multiplayer games. These range from the weak willed to the strong minded and have differant ways in whick they like to play out the game...That means you must be on your toes the entire time. Catan features two different looks for the game board. The first is a traditional flat view of the board, while the second is a living world, showing the board as a 3D environment. The board can be rotated during gameplay to provide the desired view.

The gameplay for Catan is simply it is a turn-based game but turn timers are used to prevent individual players from halting the progression of the game. Which to be honest with you nobody likes it when people do that during any game. While not accessible in ranked matches, custom matches can make use of user-defined House Rules. Items which can be tweaked include the turn timer, how resource production works, rules for the thief/robber, and several others.

Also in Catan players can use graphical ticklers to communicate thoughts or feelings, including love or hatred of the dice and/or other players. Similar devices, referred to as Fooms, were previously available in the Hardwood series of Xbox Live Arcade games. These can be used as an alternative to voice chat in order to, for example, encourage opponents to sweeten a deal or warn that they're too close to winning. The ticklers are used by AI players to indicate their mood in response to a player's actions; pleasing AIs will influence them to treat the player as an ally, while angering them will serve to focus their negative attention. AI players will react to player-directed emotes towards them as well.

Catan came out for the Xbox 360/Xbox Live on May 2, 2007.

If you have a spare hour or so you might want to look into this game. I know its not going to be everyones cup of tea but you never know untill you atleast give it a go.