Catan Classic

I would absolutely rate this app 5 stars it’s so good. There is 1 bug on online games that bothers me enough and happens enough to be very annoying and happen very often so brings my review to 3. It’s SO annoying when it happens. Also super fixable i think so I’m hoping this review can help patch the bug, make it better. If you are in the game and it crashes or if an opponent crashes, it sometimes is not a big deal. Everyone loads back in to a screen that says “match recovered” And if everyone selects yes to reconnect, you just reload in and continue where you left off. Awesome. Sometimes one person doesn’t reconnect and or leaves for whatever reason maybe on accident / unable to or maybe on purpose if they have a bad start for example. Well if they don’t load in, the remaining players just sit at that screen and can’t load in to finish the game, don’t even know if the player that is gone is going to reconnect or if they left. And there isn’t anyway for the remaining players to remove that person even if they’ve waited on that reconnecting screen for that person to come back. So eventually, you just get tired of waiting and players will leave and can’t finish their game. Aside from that, game is very easy to use, fun and enjoyable!

I only play this because there are no better alternatives, and I love Catan, but it’s still bad. The CPU initial settlement placement is so bad that if you pick 3rd or 4th, you’re guaranteed to get two elite production spots while 1st and 2nd are terrible. Then, the CPU will constantly target you with the robber the entire game even if you’re not winning. It’s ridiculous. The CPU will constantly trade each other exactly what they need to build a settlement, road, development card, or city to screw over the user. They ALWAYS seem to have knight cards when the robber gets placed on their territory but also ALWAYS have monopoly, year of plenty, etc. when the robber is on your space. Also, the CPU definitely spends resources they don’t have. In a recent game I played, the CPU built a settlement and bought a dev card despite having only 6 resources and never producing or trading for ore. I’ve had the CPU build a city on its first turn despite neither their ore or wheat hex being rolled (you can only start with 3 resources from your second placement, so they would’ve needed two rolls to get a city). Don’t even get me started on how your numbers always get rolled after the robber gets placed on that number. Finally, the game crashes constantly, like at least 3-5 times a game. Overall, the game IS Catan, but it’s brutally stacked against the user since the CPU can’t outsmart a semi-decent player. IF the game works, it’s a 3.5 star game, but the crashes bring it down.

I usually never think about writing reviews, however, I feel it’s necessary. I LOVE the board game, and I thought having this as an option to play would be fun. It isn’t, the game is really buggy, it kicks you from games and sometimes pressing a button doesn’t register and you’re stuck there waiting for the game to respond. I would simply be playing the game and I’d get kicked or a player would be disconnected — it’s super frustrating. Speaking of players, I would have a full 3-4 player game with all online players and even with a mix of AI — it feels like the game is rigged sometimes or a player is cheating (even if they’re not) in favor of certain players for the probability of some of the spaces on the board are low and when a player (most of the time AI) roles the dice — it favors those low probability spots of opponents multiple times in a row and you’re left there thinking “How?” — like the chances of those dice rolling that low probability of a number on their settlements multiple times in a row is extremely low. Also, it’s may be the game disconnecting other players, but when playing and you make a strategic move against your opponent, they just up and leave and then you’re left just playing with AI taking over their spot or exiting and restarting another lengthy game. Just do yourself a solid and save your $6.00 for you to purchase the board game yourself and put the phone away to spend time with family and friends. The tech and this game doesn’t work well and I will be requesting my refund as soon as I get my receipt from Apple.