Catan – the Video Game Debut of “Settlers of Catan” on Android!

by Jonathan Lonczak Aug 29, 2011 10:46 AM – 3 Comments

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“Catan“, the legendary strategy game provides gaming fun anytime, anywhere – now also for Android. Become a Conqueror, Explorer and Merchant! Rule the Island of Catan! True to the original game, you can compete with up to four players for the most settlements, the longest roads and the largest army. You can trade with each other and claim the precious land with all its resources.

If there are no other players available, various Catanians, each with their own individual characteristics, will prove themselves worthy competitors: the pirate Jean, who knows no compromise, Vincent the merchant, who never allows himself to be cheated, Sean the knight, who takes what is rightfully his…

The complete Seafarers expansion includes more than 10 additional scenarios with an extensive campaign and is available as an In App-Purchase. Become Harbormaster, discover new islands and extra game elements like ships, gold fields, treasures and pirates. Ahoy!

Find out if you really are a secret colonialist, confront your rivals and become Lord of Catan!

Price: $3.99

Tested on: Sony Xperia Play, Samsung Galaxy Tablet 7″, HTC Droid Incredible 2
Content Rating: Everyone

AndroidTapp.com Android Game Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

Incredibly accurate video game port of the popular board game Settlers of Catan!
Many different personalities for computer players in custom games!
In depth tutorials!
Comes with preview of Seafarers expansion!
Allows for multiple game scenarios and win conditions!

Cons

Only expansion available is Seafarer’s currently no support for other popular expansions like Cities & Knights.
Expansion only available after in-app purchase.
No online multi-player.

Features:

Catan for Android is an excellent video game simulation of the award winning “Settlers of Catan” board game! Catan allows you to compete against other computer players or human players locally in the classic board game. Catan features an excellent and visually stunning interface, offline tutorials and help files, in-app purchases of expansion packs, and multiple variations of game play to suit all of your Settlers desires!

The object of Settlers of Catan is to have more victory points than other players. In the board game as well as in the Android application you do this by building settlements, cities, and development cards. The basic premise of the game would be that you are a settler on an island trying to grow your colonies faster than the other players. In order to build the things that produce victory points for you (e.g. settlements, cities, development cards) you need to collect resources. There are five resources in the game: brick, ore, wheat, sheep, and wood. You trade in these resources in order to build each of the structures in the game.

In Catan you are also allowed to trade with other players. The trading system was initially a little difficult to understand, but after experimenting with it for a bit I was able to figure it out and use it easily. My favorite thing about trading in the video game for Android is that the application automatically distributed the correct amount of resources 4:1 trades with the bank. Unfortunately, the computer players could be difficult to trade with at times; and like many human players stopped trading entirely once the end of the game was in sight.

The tutorial section was excellent. It had every possible question that I could think of for the game, and gave interactive demos in order to demonstrate each of the various options in the game. I used it in order to see how trading works and it was able to demonstrate quickly and easily how to make a trade with another player in a way that I could understand and remember.

The basic interaction with the game was excellent as well. The application knew to zoom in on the game board for important interactions like resource collection and robber placement. It also zoomed in on the board when I selected a place to create a settlement, this made it easier for me to see where I was placing the object and allowed me to be confident in my placements. My only complaint with the game play is that the Yellow player’s roads look almost identical to the empty road slots and can be confusing to see where his roads are placed. This ended up having me lose my first game against the computer.

There are multiple game modes included with Catan for Android. I prefer the standard First Island objective which is the same as the original board game. The Android app also comes with Ore for Wool, The Harbormaster, Heading for New Shores, Drought, The Treasure Islands, The Four Islands, The Fog Islands, and more. Each of these variants include different conditions to the gameplay that change win condition, trading conditions, or basic game objectives. This allows you to mix up the game play and prevents you from getting bored with it because you only have one variant to play.

Catan for Android does include multi-player, but unfortunately it is only local multi-player. What this means is that you can only play the game with other human beings sharing the same phone in the same location. You cannot play this game via online multi-player or local Wi-Fi, and currently I have heard no talk of the developers pursuing this in the future.

Lastly, Catan also has a Seafarer’s Expansion Pack which can be purchased via an in-app purchase. Seafarer’s unlocks a campaign mode for the game as well as new game variants and conditions. However, I would not purchase the Seafarer’s add-on because it is not given to each of my devices through a single purchase. Instead I would need to purchase the add-on for each device I plan to play Catan on. If this was changed to a Market purchase in the future I would consider making the purchase in order to unlock the additional features.

: Catan Settlement Placement

: Catan Settlement Placement 2

: Catan Robber Placement

: Catan Mid Game

: Catan Game Rankings

: Catan Dice Stats

: Catan Win Condition

: Catan Expansions

: Catan Game Set Up

: Catan Tutorial

: Catan Trading Tutorial

: Catan Title Screen

: Catan Options

: Catan Help

Fun Factor:

Catan for Android is extremely fun to play. The interface is excellent and complements the game play immensely making it very easy to interact with the application and to play the video game as easily as the board game.

The different game play variations add to the fun factor as well, giving the game an additional challenge to players already well versed in the board game. These new variations may even inspire Settlers of Catan aficionados to change the way they play the board game to match the video game.

The only big detractors in this category is the lack of online multi-player and the Cities and Knights Expansion. Without online multi-player this game does become boring over time, and the video game does not currently support all of the major expansions for the board game. Hopefully these two issues will be addressed in future versions.

Addictive:

Catan for Android is extremely addictive. There are many different styles of computer players that you can face off against and many different game settings that you can tweak with to completely change the game play.

I also find that the in game statistics add to the addictive factor because it allows you to get a better gauge at how best to play the game in the future. The biggest detractor for addictiveness is lack of online multi-player.

Graphics:

The graphics of Catan for Android are excellent. All of the game animations are fluid and designed to enhance the experience on an Android device. I especially love the way the game automatically zooms in on areas of the game board when performing specific actions, then zooms out when you need a more expansive view and all without you needing to do a thing.

Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:

Catan makes no use of either the phone’s accelerometer or haptic feedback. However, the game does have an excellent soundtrack. Catan has both a musical track and sound effects during game play. The music is great and creates a fun feeling of adventure and being either sailing or on an island. The effects are also perfectly appropriate for the game play and are an excellent addition to the game.

AndroidTapp.com Rating

AndroidTapp.com Rating! (4.5 out of 5)

Should you Download Catan? Yes! Catan is an great game for Android and does an excellent job simulating the experience of the award winning Settlers of Catan board game. The game has some new additions like new win conditions and modes of game play, adjustable victory point settings, and varied personalities for computer players. You can even play multi-player on the same device! Unfortunately, there is no multi-player and the only expansion supported is Seafarers through an in-app purchase, but if you are looking for an excellent board game to play on your phone to challenge you and waste time with… Catan is it!

Developer: USM

Tags: Android App, Android Apps, Android Game, AndroidTapp.com App Review, Board Games, Brain & Puzzle, Catan, Games, Settlers of Catan

Categorised in: Brain & Puzzle

3 Comments

By Abel on March 22, 2012 at 4:54 pm:

It’s Catan, so that’s cool, but the computer does not follow the rules. Some specific examples include the fact that the computer knows exactly what cards you have in your hand at all times – even if you just drew it (I like to play with the resource bonus).

There are some other irritating things about the game such as the fact that it will hardly ever trade with you if you’re ahead but it will make multiple trades with computer players that are ahead, the number rolls don’t appear to be random (some friends and I modeled out a lot of games and the sample should be much closer to what’s expected than what was experienced).

The game is still fun, but it’s really infuriating when you can call the next 3 rolls based on a move that you just made.

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By Bob on July 23, 2012 at 9:01 pm:

I agree 100% with Abel’s comments about the computer knowing your cards, trading without reservation with anyone but you AND the dice rolling is whatever number you do not have settled or any number you have that is blocked by the baron. (even if those numbers are 2 and 12)

It doesn’t matter how well you place your settlements. This game will not let you win consistently. It will beat you with dice rolls that defy probability. I guess the code writers couldn’t win without cheating. Too bad. They suck.

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By John on October 13, 2012 at 8:43 pm:

I think this app is great! I don’t know if I agree with all of the above comments. I’ve had this app for a while now. The overall dice roll distribution is exactly what is expected with 6,7,8s being the highest probabilities. It may seem like things go against you in game, but I’ve seen computer players get harassed by robbers as much as the player. I’ve managed to win about 50% of the time overall, so I don’t think anything really goes against you consistently.

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