Players: 2-7+
Age: 13+
Duration: No duration specified
Distributor: Hasbro
Monopoly Fortnite – Board Game Review
Fortnite is a game that took the world by storm, and while it has many people playing the game, it is also one of the most hated titles on the internet, as it is often referred to as childlike and stupid. While this argument will not be held in this review, it still made the way for many other similar titles to spawn, and also a lot of merchandise and new eSports tournaments were born because of this particular title. Like it or not, the Fortnite franchise has now made its way in the world of Monopoly, albeit with its own very unique quirks making the property trading game a bit flashier, faster and of course, a whole lot deadlier.
Contents
- Rules
- Game board
- 27 cardboard outfits
- 15 storm cards
- 16 location cards
- 16 loot chest cards
- 8 wall cards
- Numbered dice
- Action dice with labels
- 110 Health Point Chips
While the board looks good, and the overall prints do too, the materials used are so crappy you’d actually forget this was made by Hasbro, who has an impressive amount of beautiful Monopoly editions under its belt. The plethora of characters is fun, but some of the layers on the cardboard pawns already tear off when you remove them from their initial print holder. You actually have to put on the stickers on the special dice yourself and the walls, which have to resemble the walls from the videogame are printed on something flimsy and paper-thin making them feel like utter rubbish. The property cards and other cards you have to use, as well as the hit point tokens do look okay, and are ready for the task. The game could have had a more qualitative look, if the walls were done in the same fashion as the characters, namely thick cardboard pieces that can be placed on a tiny stand. While we gave a comment about the characters being a bit on the cheap side, we understand the need to press production costs when adding this many different characters to the game. One thing we don’t understand however is the exclusion of a couple of zip bags in which you could have stored the cards, the HP tokens, the characters and the stands/two dice. After playing the game once, storing the box and reopening said box, everything looks like someone threw up in your box and simply left it there to rot.
Mechanics
Instead of trying the steal your opponents’ hard-earned cash, you’ll be trying to reduce your opponents’ HP to zero in this alternative version of Monopoly. You’ll be choosing yourself a warrior, out of a cast of more than twenty, and you’ll be off to go. The main mechanics are somewhat similar to the original game, as you’ll be able to acquire property. Nonetheless, in this game you won’t be buying the property, you’ll simply claim it when you end up on it first. After ending up on your property again, you’ll simply heal a hit point, if you don’t have 15 HP already. When other people land on your property, they’ll have to pay the amount of HP mentioned on the card/spot on the board. If a player dies, all his property gets lost and every owned property card will be placed on their respective board tiles, with the bottom side up, which has the Storm effect written on it (explained below). This makes the property system very easy and pleasant to work with.
The Chance and Community Chest cards are replaced on the board by Item cards and Campfires which respectively allow you to draw an Item card or heal up and draw a Storm card. The item cards are often self-explanatory as you’ll be able to use these items in combination with the action dice (explained below) or simply use them at will. More than often these cards dish out extra damage when shooting at another player, or even allow you to heal damage, or grant immunity against certain attacks. The storm effect from the campfire, which first allows you to heal one damage, is actually to make the game harder as well as allow it to finish quicker. When drawing a storm card, it will give you instructions on which spot on the board will have to be tainted with the Storm effect. This allows you to render one of your opponent’s properties useless until the end of the game, or any other tiles the card tells you to choose from. The Storm effect will not only render certain tiles useless, it also makes them hazards which, when landed upon, will cost you HP.
Last but not least, there’s the action dice. Of course, you’ll still play the game with two dice like the original, but only one will be numbered, the other will have actions you’ll have to execute. You can either heal, throw a bomb at all your enemies, fire at a player in the line of sight or build a wall. All actions can be performed before, or after your movement, except for the wall building. This means that when a player is in the same lane as you before you move, you can already shoot at him, and then move, or vice versa. Placing walls is a bit trickier, as you’ll first have to move, and then you’re able to place a wall within the range you walked (in front and behind you). With walls you can block players, forcing them to strand on a specific tile, or you can protect yourself against enemy fire.
Luck or Strategy?
Well, this one is not that easy to divide the actual percentage of luck and strategy involved. We can say it’s a healthy mix of both, but even then, the throw of the dice is whimsical and it can screw you over without a moment’s notice. Nonetheless, rolling the action dice can cause a few strategical advantages, especially with the option to shoot at an opponent within your line of sight, or when placing a wall. Sometimes it can also aid you in the long run to hold on to single-use item cards, which can cause you to go from a near death experience to the top of the list.
Conclusion
The Fornite version of Monopoly might stray away a lot from the original version(s), it does cling to the principles of the base game with a different lick of paint, and a smaller modified game board. It has to be said that the contents of the box are somewhat lacking in quality compared to other iterations of the famous board game, but you’ll have plenty of characters to choose from, and you can easily bend the rules a little bit to actually play with more than seven players if the situation calls for it. Nonetheless, the mechanics of the game prove to be extremely fun, the pacing is pretty much perfect and there’s much fun to be had during a round of Monopoly Fortnite. Even if you detest Fortnite because of how it’s slapped in your face in every direction you look, this board game holds a lot of value for its asking price, and it’s a game you’ll be playing in a matter of minutes, only to enjoy it until the last man (or woman) is standing.
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