Become your own millionaire with Monopoly Go
View(s):By Mahesh de Andrado
We’ve all had a family game night. While most of these games have a relatively short span of completion, some take a bit more time to complete. Monopoly is one such game.
If you’re not familiar with it, Monopoly is a multi-player board game where each player rolls two dice to move around the game board, buying and trading properties. These properties can then be developed into houses and hotels. Players also collect rent from their opponents, with the intention of driving said opponents into bankruptcy. Money can also be gained or lost through Chance and Community Chest cards and tax squares.
Imagine my surprise when I found a mobile version of Monopoly available for both iOS and Android. It’s a rethinking of the traditional game, but also sticks to its core values and principles. For starters, the board is the same with the same placings of elements such as community chests, land deeds, and chance cards. You can pick from a limited pool of tokens and unlock more as you progress in the game. As with the standard board game, you roll two dice and your token will move according to the number you rolled.
You start off with 60 dice rolls which gradually refill over time and can be increased as you level up in the game. The dice also have a multiplier based on how many dice rolls you have in total. The higher the number of dice rolls you have, the higher the multiplier, which in turn means higher the rewards (for example the amount of rent you collect). You can link your Facebook account to the game and add your friends who can build properties on your board (while you build on theirs), and the Community Chest mini-games let you work with your friends to earn money and rewards. There’s even a dedicated Facebook group for trading the game’s collectible stickers with other players. Once a certain set of stickers is completed, the sticker books can be redeemed for in-game cash or dice rolls.
Buying and renting properties take on a somewhat different form in Monopoly Go. The game has multiple levels or worlds, based on various scenes such as a haunted house, the moon, Atlantis etc. In each world, you can build a total of 5 buildings, each with 6 upgrades. Once you have upgraded all 5 buildings, you can move on to the next world. In order to upgrade the buildings or “properties”, you need money. You earn money by collecting rent on properties that have buildings on them, and you lose money if you land on utilities, tax or Jail tiles.
Landing on either railroad tile will give you a chance to take down an opponent’s building by shutting it down. Players (and you) can safeguard themselves by using shields, but bear in mind these shields will only protect your properties for a limited number of times. Once your shields are completely used up, the property will take damage and even level down, meaning you will have to spend your cash to do them up again (just like managing rented properties in the real world). The same tiles also have a chance to perform heists where you attempt to rob your opponents of their money (scaling on your current multiplier) and if you’re lucky, you can perform a mega heist where your current multiplier is once again multiplied. Pull off a successful heist and you can send your opponents into bankruptcy.
Monopoly Go also has a number of events that take place where players can compete to unlock levels in each event. Unlocking a new level in the event rewards you with cash and dice rolls, moving you up on that event’s leaderboard. Secure the top spot for the duration of the event and you’ll be rewarded with massive payoffs in terms of dice rolls and money. This is perhaps where temptation kicks in. Monopoly Go offers a number of in-app purchases ranging from dice rolls to in-game currency, both of which can be used to either level up your properties and build higher multipliers for your game.
The urge to spend on a few extra dice rolls is strong, especially when the game prompts you with said purchases when you’re out of dice rolls. So if you have a habit of spending on games and you have a somewhat overpowering competitive spirit, be warned. That being said, I’ve been playing Monopoly Go for about 4 weeks now and have not spent a cent on the game, and it is insanely fun.
The gameplay mechanics take a bit of time to get used to, but even if you’re a novice at Monopoly, you can catch up quite fast and make your way to becoming a millionaire. You can check out Monopoly Go on both the Apple App Store as well as the Google Play Store.
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