Catan 3D Review – IGN

Catan has been around for decades, spawning space-based sequels, Game of Thrones spinoffs, expansions, and more. If you consider yourself an avid board game player, chances are you’ve begged a friend in Catan to trade you some wool or wood. Catan 3D is the latest version of this board game and was apparently designed with mega fans in mind … although they will need some deep pockets to play it.

As for the game, the game is simply Catan: there are no changes in the rules or differences in the game compared to a standard game of the classic game. The difference is in the physical parts. Traditionally cardboard and plastic pieces have been turned into beautiful hand-painted 3D hexagons of terrain, roads, settlements, cities and more. However, its frankly absurd price of $ 300 makes it difficult to recommend to anyone who is not a super Catan enthusiast. And even then, a couple of odd design choices make the $ 300 price questionable.

The Catan 3D box feels like $ 300. It’s sturdy, clean, and well packaged, and all of the nearly 300 pieces and cards needed to play are safely secured. It takes time to unpack everything, and it takes almost as long to store everything properly once you’re done playing. But with such a high price tag, I’m thankful for the extra care that went into the game’s storage.

It comes with a standard game description and rules booklet, as well as a very well organized almanac, perfect for new players and returning players alike. The game board is still assembled in the same way as in a standard Catan game, except that the cardboard pieces are traditionally 3D now. The six sea frames are a beautiful blue, with a rough texture that simulates ocean waves. Terrain hexes look unsurprising: chunks of mountain stretch nearly two inches into the air, forest hexes are filled with individual tree canopies, and pastures feature flocks of sheep.

The port, road, settlement, and city pieces are also 3D, with the last three being hand-painted to look old and match each player’s color (whether red, white, blue, or orange) from properly. One disappointment is that the cards are essentially the same cards found in the standard $ 40 edition of the game. They’re great cards and they work well, but it’s a shame the other pieces get so much love just for the cards to remain physically and aesthetically the same.

Putting all the pieces together is pretty easy and, just like the traditional Catan, the pieces are simply placed one on top of the other. There are no unique places for things to fall into place and while that was not necessarily expected considering that this is not how Catan design normally works, with such high quality 3D parts, I would have liked to see a shape for it. board. to fit into one piece that always flows.

Roads, settlements and cities still just sit on the hexagons of the terrain and in this version of Catan, which is easily the most immersive version yet due to the 3D design, the fact that these pieces still slide, they change. and they move when someone’s finger accidentally touches them is a bit of a disappointment.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the Catan 3D design is that the number tiles and the thief figure don’t actually sit on the terrain hexagons evenly and flat as they would in a standard game of Catan. Number tokens are placed on top of terrain hexes at the start of the game and essentially dictate every move in a game of Catan. In the standard Catan edition, the flat tiles are placed on top of the flat hexagons in harmony.

In Catan 3D, that is not the case. Instead, they sit somewhat randomly on the terrain hexes. The number tokens sit quite well on top of the mountain pieces, almost as if those terrain hexes were designed with the tokens in mind, but in others, like the field hexes, the tokens don’t fit as well. Instead, they wobble with every movement of the table or board.

Then there is the figure of the thief, which is traditionally a tall figure similar to a bowling alley that sits on the hexagon of the terrain to which it has moved. The thief figure here is a piece sculpted with three humans, and while their feet allow the piece to sit flat, there is no good place to sit on the 3D terrain hexagons. Sure, the figurine will be placed on top of the hexagons, but it was never felt for a purpose, instead it was bent one way or another instead of standing over the hexagon as if it was designed to fit there.

Design issues aside, the actual act of playing Catan 3D is as fun as ever, but that’s because it’s still just Catan. Players still select their initial paths and settlements, making the start of a match exciting due to the variety, and resource cards are dealt as a result. During each turn, one player rolls a die, everyone collects the appropriate resource cards, and Catan’s fun and reserved nature shines as expected. What are they trying to build and what am I trying to build? How desperately do I need the resource they offer me to trade? If I accept this exchange, will I help them more than myself?

These questions and the strategies that accompany them are still present in Catan 3D and when the board is filled with unique 3D pieces from the game, it looks amazing. I just wish that placing these beautiful pieces was easier and more purposeful in design.

Where to buy it