Culdcept Begins Review

Culdcept Begins blends Monopoly and Magic: The Gathering in the latest entry of the cult franchise. It mixes systems well, highlighting the strengths of the old board game while reducing many of its purposefully built-in design flaws. Read on as Cubed3 brings the deck box to purchase some real estate!

Monopoly has long been one of the go-to family board games. Many nights have been spent trying to outbid one another in intense auctions, or trying to get the best deal imaginable to achieve a monopoly and start building houses. However, when played by the rules, the classic board game has a lot of flaws. The biggest is tempo. It can take a very long time for the game to take off, depending on how stingy opponents are with their estates, and the late game often feels like an inevitable wait for the already decided winner to seal the deal. To add to this, luck elements can make many turns feel meaningless, as if the player rolls a die to see what happens.

This is something Culdcept Begins solves in a very elegant manner. It brings in elements from fantasy TCGs like Magic: The Gathering to make for a truly interesting experience. Instead of having to spend money to buy estates, the player places monsters from their hand there as gatekeepers that opponents can either fight or pay if they land on the space. Simple yet elegant, and it ensures that the game moves forward. Additionally, monopolies are not required to develop estates, meaning that the game reaches the intensive midgame quite quickly compared to the classic. As the final icing on the cake, to win, the player has to reach a certain fortune level rather than eliminating everyone else, so the game ends while it still feels like a contest. Still, this approach can feel less familiar for players who want the classic Monopoly structure.

What is more interesting, though, is how it solves the fact that Monopoly has one winning strategy. By making each player build separate decks, each player might have a separate line of optimal plays and tools available to them. There are strategies based on just defending areas, strategies about demolishing them, or even just strategies based around going around the table as quickly as possible to get extra income.

All of these are strong details that take a classic and breathe new life into it, making it an impressive experience. If anyone asked to spend an evening playing Monopoly, the suggestion would be to play Culdcept Begins instead. However, this is where the one massive flaw of the game appears.

There is no such thing as multiplayer from a single device. This seems like a very odd choice given that Culdcept Begins has nearly zero hidden information and is turn-based. There is no logical reason not to allow up to four players to play on one system. Instead, it relies on the GameShare system to play multiplayer, which is fine, but requires multiple Nintendo Switch consoles. It almost feels like a decision made to encourage players to own Nintendo Switch systems, and it is really annoying because, like other console board games like Mario Party Superstars, Culdcept Begins is a game best enjoyed with four human players. Even so, the multiplayer is amazing for those who can use it.

While there is a story mode that is actually quite fun, the AI is very poor at making long-term decisions and will quickly stop providing any challenge to a player with even a somewhat decent card collection. The most common error is that it is too stingy with its money to the point that it will never develop any competitive income nor achieve the required points to win promptly. It also has online multiplayer, but as is often the case with board games, they are best enjoyed in person. That said, if one looks for single-player TCG experiences, Culdcept Begins is one of the best in class.

This is a shame, as Culdcept Begins in many regards is the ultimate Monopoly killer, and would even give Mario Party a run for its money as the digital board game night game. The card balancing and the varied amount of strategies available even make modern Magic: The Gathering blush at times for those looking for a TCG experience. Culdcept Begins aims to do so much, and does so spectacularly. There is just so much polish that has gone into the game in both a micro and macro sense to ensure it is the best version of the games it is inspired by as it could be. It is just a shame that it stumbles on the finish line by not allowing multiple players to play from one system.

The story mode is a phenomenal tutorial, while the online play offers a most beautiful TCG and digital board game experience thanks to Culdcept Begins taking the best of both Monopoly and Magic: The Gathering. However, it stumbles at the finish line of becoming a strong competitor to Mario Party as the quintessential digital board game night title. For households with four Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch 2 systems this is a must-buy. Otherwise, one really has to consider if playing board games with strangers online and the tutorial-esque story mode are appealing in themselves.

Formats: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC

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