Board Games that are also Video Games?

It may just be me, but board games have had somewhat of a resurgence in the last three to five years. Gone are those titles like Connect Four, Monopoly, and other childhood classics, and in come complex, deep and strategic titles that have been translated into video games. Here's a look at a few I've owned (and played) both the tabletop, and computerised versions.

Catan

Catan is a very famous board game, possibly, in fact, the most famous of the board games. If you think Monopoly ruins friendships, then you need introduce your friends to Catan. Imagine Catan as a cross between Sim City and Age of Empires, with a thematic dash of Civilization thrown into the mix.

You are attempting to settle new lands, and do so by placing settlements, upgrading them to cities, and collecting resources in order to do so, lumber, stone, sheep, brick, and wheat. You can only settle in two places, and often the tile out leads to you requiring multiple trading partners. You obtain resources by rolling the dice, and whatever number is associated to a resource, that you have a settlement or city next to, you get.

There's two dice, however, and the most common number you can roll is a seven. Seven means the robber is coming to someone's town, which lets you steal one of their resources, and block any additional production from that game tile until the robber is moved once more.

The video game version of Catan takes about the same amount of time to play as the board game version, if not a little quicker, on the basis that the AI doesn't take as long to think about things to do as humans do. It is well produced, and gets the game mechanics into a video game adequately, but it lacks the look of horror, disgust, and betrayal which is conjured by playing this board game as an actual board game.

Ticket to Ride

This is one that I've played quite a bit. Ticket to Ride sees you take on the role of a engineer of sorts, competing in a capitalist way against other players. Your goal? Obtain the most routes possible. But there's a catch - you get some route cards and if you don't complete these routes before you (or your competitors) run out of carriages to place, you'll lose points.

The video game version of Ticket To Ride plays significantly faster than the board game version, and is more difficult to play; on account of not being able to as actively read the moves of other players. It is still a faithful reproduction of the board game; but it isn't as much fun.

Playing with trains was always fun, and the digital version of Ticket to Ride is fun, even without friends - it works well as a single player game against the AI. You do tend to miss the company, however; as the meandering nature of the physical board game isn't captured as well in the digital title.

Small World

Small World is a great board game - full of random, incredible combinations of troops. The premise is such - there's a bunch of land, a bunch of creature types, and a bunch of "modifiers". At the start of each round, you can either elect a combo as yours, or choose to send them into decline, which means that they slowly fade from the land.

You can also attack neighbouring races and lands, and at the end of each of your turns, you get gold / victory tokens for your efforts. It is a game of strategy, knowing exactly what your opponent is capable of; and knowing what they're planning.

There is incredible, incredible depth in Small World, and the art style from the board game to the digital game translates well, and again, it is a title that flows a lot faster on a digital screen instead of with hundreds of tiny cardboard tokens. (And the board game version, does indeed have hundreds of tiny cardboard tokens)

The digital version is fun, but full of lots of text that you need to read if you are not familiar with the tabletop version of the title.

Every single Dungeons and Dragons PCRPG

The most successful transition from board game to video game, undoubtedly, is the Dungeons and Dragons formula - translating into classics like Baldur's Gate, Planscape: Torment, and Icewind Dale. There are many hundreds more titles that have spawned as a result of this universe, and they're arguably the most well-established and developed.

I won't go into each of these as that would warrant an article of its own. It is however, important to remember the pen and paper (or pencil, in most people's cases) heritage, and resulting influence that Dungeons and Dragons has had on the video game.