Richman Online

Overview

"Richman Online" is a 2D board game styled MMO similar to Monopoly that sees players taking turns to roll dice to move around the board.

Features

• Short informative tutorial
• Dozens of cards to keep game interesting
• Fast paced rounds
• Multiple maps and game modes
• Casual board game

Review

Richman Online is a casual MMO board game that went into Open Beta on July 2008. Richman looks and plays like an anime version of the classic board game Monopoly. Each game of Richman is played by 2-4 players but takes far less time than an average Monopoly game. The main objective in Richman Online is to deplete your opponents cash. To do this, players buy property, build hotels on them and collect rent from opponents who land on them.

Luckily Richman has many features to keep the game exciting. The card system in Richman is very similar to the items in the popular Mario Party series by Nintendo. Cards can be purchased or acquired at random by landing on certain spots on the board. There are dozens of cards, each with a different function. Some cards launch missiles at your opponent, taking away a chunk of their cash. Other cards leave behind traps while others let you control how many spaces your character will move. Though the cards keep the game exciting and moving at a brisk pace, they do ruin a lot of the game'€™s strategy. A single item can turn the game around which may frustrate a player who is about to win.

Before playing Richman Online, players will need to complete a short tutorial stage explaining the basic game play. Afterward players are free to complete five other tutorial stages, each explaining a different aspect of the game, or move right into the main channel. I would recommend playing all 6 tutorial stages to avoid confusion later on. Some features like the Stock Market are not easy to learn on your own. There are five avatars available to new players and more can be unlocked later. Players can switch avatars any time and they do not effect game play at all. Richman Online has a total of three game modes. Regular Play is main Monopoly style mode, Battle Mode is a fast paced mode that doesn'€™t deal with property but with just items. In Battle mode players simply move around the board using cards against each other. The final mode is a cooperative Boss Battle mode. Here, players work together to defeat a NPC '€˜boss'€™ with a large HP total.

Richman Online is a very unique game, as it is the only MMO board game that I know of. What'€™s more, its simple enough to be enjoyed by casual players. If you'€™re looking for a way to introduce a your hobby to a non gamer, Richman Online is a good place to start. Unfortunately, there is a 4 player limit per game but even with that low limit it is difficult to find a game since the community is very small at this time. To add to the frustration, Richman Online seems to crash from time to time. Hopefully these bugs will be fixed and new content will be added towards the final release. Richman Online is not a game to be played for hours at a time but if you'€™re looking for something lighthearted to play for 20 minutes at a time, be sure to check this one out.