OWN THE CITY - Cash in on the rent! (Monopoly)

Member Name: Boonoiy

Product:	Monopoly
Date:	02/11/01 (410 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great fun, Long lasting

Disadvantages: Lasts too long sometimes

THE GAME WHERE YOU GET MEGA RICH.

Monopoly is such a great game it's unbelievable, the concept is simple and is great for all ages to play. You simplyu have to get control of property, develop it and get paid for being visited. All you need is a few players and a LOT of time and you have all the ingredients of a great game to be played.

The game:
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To begin with you must pick your playing piece, you get various little silver playing pieces depending on the version of the game you buy but as a standard you egt a choice between boot, hat, ship (always my choice), car and doggie.

Once you have your counter you go to the start square (GO) and roll to see whop goes first. Each player has a total of £1500 to begin with and can use this to purchase property as marked on the board. The properties range from £90 up to £400 and once you own the deeds to the property you get to charge rent on it. You cannot buy on your first go around the board and on passing GO again you get your first pay of £200.

The rules are really easy to understand, players follow the numbers on the dice (Use 2 dice to move around) and can buy property once they land on the square, there are 4 stations (Kings Cross, Marleybone, Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street) included and 2 uility squares (Electricity and Water boards) and you get a chance to earn extra once you land on one of the card squares - Chance and Community Chest. These squares allow you to turn over one of the cards and follow the directions on it, this can be either positive (win a cash sum, collect money from your opponants etc.) or negative (pay for repairs, go to jail etc).

Jail. A very important section of the board, in the top left hand corner is the jail square, you can be sent there from the chance or community chest cards or by landing on the square on the bottom left hand corner of the board which has a policeman. Once you get sent to jail you can
not collect any money for your rent, you cannot move around the board when it comes to your turn and so you cannot buy any more property. The ways to get out are simple, roll a double when it comes to your go or, after 3 failed attempts, pay a charge of £50 for freedom. You can also get lucky on a chance/community chest card and win a "Get out of jail free" card which you can then cash in once sent to jail.

Taxes come up with Super Tax on the top left (2 squares down) making you pay £100) and Income Tax on the top left (4 squares along) making you pay £200 - a real hassle when you've just got £200 for passing GO.

As you get full sets of property ( they're in colour co-ordinated sets of 2 or 3) you can begin to develop them. You get to buy houses and hotels which vary in cost from £50 to £200 per house. Once these are on the squares, anyone who lands on them must pay more, details are on the deed to trhe property as to the charges.

The game ends when there is one clear winner who has got all the property or you simply get sick of it as it can last about 4 hours with 4 players involved.

My overall opinion:
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Monopoly is a christmas game to me, the family's all together, they all fancy a game which is nice and simple and great fun, we get the monopoly board out. It always takes forever to get a game completed so Christmas is the time to play. I usually act as the "Banker" and have control of all the cash and property and we all have a great time.

The game is ideal for all ages, you pick up the rules really quickly and before long you get adicted to the power and glory of owning half of London.

Highly reccomended.

Summary: