“Let's play Monopoly!” If you're a gamer, there are few sentences that can instill more fear in you than that sentence. Monopoly is generally reviled as a never-ending snooze fest. We've all played Monopoly at one point in our lives and most of us have played a game that just wouldn't end. Of course, nobody plays by the right rules, but that’s beside the point. The point is that gamers look at Monopoly with hatred and disdain. But what if there was a Monopoly game that was quick to play and didn't drag on endlessly? What is there was a Monopoly game that provided fun without taking itself too seriously? Enter Monopoly Express, a dice game based around the basic pretenses of Monopoly. This game promises to play in about 20 minutes with easy rules and a finite ending. So does Monopoly Express deliver on its promises, or is this just another member of a long hated game family?


Rules

The complete rules are online for you to read at your leisure. The game works by having players roll dice to try to complete sets which represent the property groups on a normal Monopoly board. Players score points by completing these groups, by rolling Go, or by getting houses. The houses can only be gotten once the rolling player owns a Monopoly. In the group of dice are three Police dice. If a player rolls 3 Policemen, his turn is over and he loses any points he might have scored.

There are a few rules ambiguities which are not addressed in the rulebook. This should not happen for such a simple game so it leads me to believe that the simple rulebook is poorly written. For instance, there's almost no mention of what to do with houses at the end of a turn. Luckily, all of these questions have been answered on BGG so you will be able to find all the help you need right here.


Components

Like all the games in the Express series, Monopoly Express is light on components. The game comes in a plastic cylindrical container which has a snap-on lid. This is the same container as all the Express games come in.

Monopoly Express has a nice plastic board for setting the dice. As you can see below, the board is a round tray that displays all the different color properties along with the railroads, utilities, and Police spaces. Each space on this board is recessed so that the dice stay put when placed on the board. While this little board is unnecessary, it’s really nice. They could have gone with a cheaper route and used cards, but instead they gave us a nice plastic tray.



The main component to the game is of course the dice. Each die is made of good sturdy plastic that has good weight for its size. My favorite feature of the dice is that they are stamped instead of just printed or stickered. I think this is a really nice touch and makes the dice look great. If you'd like to see a breakdown of the dice as far as the sides of each die, there's a great file here on BGG.

Also in the container is a small rulebook as well as a score pad.

Probably the biggest thing to note is that ME captures the look and feel of the original game perfectly. The property spaces match the colors from the original. The look of the railroads is also very similar. The Chance icon and Go arrow are also present. This helps bring an air of familiarity to the game which will make it easy to introduce to people familiar with the original.


Gameplay

How does it compare to Monopoly?

The only things common between Monopoly and ME is that both games revolve around rolling dice. Other than that, they are completely different. Monopoly revolves around moving around a board and managing your money to purchase property and improve it. In ME, you're rolling dice to collect sets. Whereas Monopoly is an economic roll-and-move game, ME is a press-your-luck dice game. Please don't be put off by the name Monopoly. There's nothing similar in the gameplay.

It’s a dice fest

That’s right. This is a dice game, pure and simple. There's no negotiation or trading. It’s all about the dice. If you don't like dice games, then stay away from this one. There's nothing to it other than rolling dice. With dice rolling comes luck. This is not the kind of game that is won by the better player. This is the kind of game that is won by the luckiest player.

So there's no strategy?

That’s not entirely true. There's some decision making in the game as there is with any press-your-luck game. The basic decision is which dice to set and how far to press your luck with the second being the most important. You do have some control over your fate as you can choose to stop rolling at any time. However, making wise decisions about when to stop rolling is probably not as important as getting lucky and rolling well.

Number of players and downtime

ME is listed as being for 2-4 players although I can't see any reason why you couldn't stretch the game to have more players. Also, I can't see why you couldn't play solitaire, trying to get a high score in the least number of rolls possible. The only problem with adding more players would be that you would be adding downtime. There is absolutely no player interaction in this game, so other players have nothing to do when it’s not their turn. In a 2, 3, or 4 player game, players shouldn't be waiting too long between turns so the downtime will be minimal. Also, there's no real decision making, so you won't have any AP slowing down your game.

Multiplayer solitaire

This game is most definitely a multiplayer solitaire game. There is no player interaction at all. One player rolls the dice and makes decisions while everyone else waits. The game is a press-your-luck race to $15000 with no way to affect each other in any way. If you’re looking for interaction, please look at some of the other Express games.


Compare it to…

The obvious thought would be Monopoly. That is not quite right however. This game is actually really similar to another Express title which is widely sought after: Risk Express. That’s right, there is a lot in common between these 2 games. The one major difference is that you will have a finite number of dice rolls on each turn in Risk. However that main idea of each game is to roll sets of dice. In Risk you take countries while in Monopoly you score points. Risk is basically the player interaction version of Monopoly.


Theme

The theme is classic Monopoly. All the colors and icons you’re already familiar with are here.


Overall

ME does a great job of creating a Monopoly game that I actually want to play. This game is base almost completely on luck, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that it’s fun to play. The playtime on the game is about perfect for the type of game that it is. Any longer and it would feel random to a point of being boring and tedious. But as it stands, they’ve designed a fun dice game that captures the feel of Monopoly while removing all the things that make it strongly disliked in the gaming community. Heck, they could have dropped the Monopoly name altogether on this one and it would still stand on its own as a fun dice game.

I rate Monopoly Express a solid 7. It’s a good game and I’m usually willing to play it. Its fast and easy enough to play that I can’t see myself turning this down. The game is fast and fun and for me that’s enough to get some regular table time. I probably won’t suggest it very often, but I might on occasion.

If you’re looking for a simple dice game to use as filler or a time killer, this is a great choice. The game can be had for about $11 in most stores and its certainly worth the price. It’s not a classic, but it will definitely find its way to your table. This could also be a great game to play with your kids as the rules are very simple. Even young kids can grasp the concept of completing sets. Overall, this is a great choice for most game collections and a wonderful way to get your Monopoly-loving friends started towards the dark side of the gaming hobby.