Monopoly Lifesized review

As this is a Monopoly branded product, it is as you’d expect themed perfectly to the board game. From the entrance to the bar, everything ties back to the classic game. I recommend you visit the bar before your slot so you can have a cocktail linked to a property on the board.

When it reached our time slot, all players congregated in a small room where it was decided what the teams would be and which pieces we would be playing as. We got the duck and a host was designated to guide us around the Monopoly board. A nice highlight was Mr Monopoly arriving with an entourage to wish us well in the challenge. We were then moved to the board to start the game. It was great to see the design, which included everything from the stations, to the water company, to the jail.

When it was our turn, we threw the dice and moved to a place on the board. We then had to complete mini challenges to either win the property or to build. I loved how the mini games linked to the property. It was also fun to build the hotels. Like the real game, it’s all down to the luck of the dice. We were unfortunate to keep landing on properties already owned so sadly we were low on cash and didn’t win the game. Despite not winning, we had a great time with the team we were joined up with. We had a lot of laughs and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

This London branch is the world’s first Monopoly Lifesized. It’s the most premium immersive gaming experience I’ve encountered. It even comes with The Top Hat, a fancy restaurant and bar, and a gift shop. You can tell they’ve wiped out the banker to bring this to life!

The walls are Monopoly red and there’s related paraphernalia everywhere. There’s a simplified version of the famous board, staff are dressed up and in character as the playing pieces, and Mr Monopoly himself even makes an appearance. You’ll encounter the usual suspects like free parking, jail, chance cards and houses. There’s a high tech scoring system with the hosts totting up scores on tablets that sync up to a large circular 360 degree scrolling leaderboard on the ceiling.

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As this experience is more about the collecting of properties, don’t expect full on escape room type puzzles. That being said, the mini games were good. It was just a bit frustrating that the host sometimes told us the answer to make sure we could win the square, which we as puzzlers found annoying. I still enjoyed the games though, they were all varied, created team play and got the brain working.

Gameplay:
You compete against 3 other teams to collect the most money, property and houses in 70 minutes, with all counting towards your final score. Each team is allotted a playing piece host (e.g. car, duck, dog or T-Rex) who explains the rules, guides you around the board and keeps score. Although life-sized, the board’s been slimmed down to just 8 property spaces, 2 stations and 2 utilities. For each turn, you can either roll the dice and try and get property, or play a community chest game to win money. When landing on an unowned property, you have to successfully complete an escape room style puzzle or skill game to claim it and be able to charge rent and build hotels.

Puzzles:
The games we got to play were a mixture of logic, memory and skill. None of them were particularly innovative, but they were well designed and nicely themed to the corresponding board space. They had varying difficulty levels but remained approachable to cater for everyone. We only had what felt like 2 minutes to solve each challenge and if we didn’t immediately know the answer, our host would pretty much tell us what to do. It felt very rushed and unsatisfying at times, depriving me of the chance to work things out by myself. It seemed like we could only potentially fail the skill-based tasks.

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As a massive Monopoly fan, I loved this game. I didn’t get to steal from the banker or turn the board upside down when I lost though! Monopoly Lifesized is all about the immersive experience and I’m sure everyone who plays it will have a great time. As a reviewer, I was frustrated about the game host giving answers to the mini games. But I can forgive that as without it we may not have got where we were (if one team landed on our square, we would’ve won!).

The actor hosts were friendly, fun and animated. The creative and tactical parts of the game were taken over by our host meaning we didn’t get to make many decisions which frustrated me. So too was how rushed and crowded the challenges were, meaning solutions were spoon-fed to us and some people were left standing around.

Only one team member was given the job of rolling the die. This should have been rotated so everyone gets a turn. Plus we were paired with a random couple which isn’t ideal. Saying all that, I still really enjoyed Monopoly Lifesized. It’s a fun, memorable, highly immersive experience with a fantastic premise, it just needs tweaking to bring the best out of it.

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Due to the branding and the fact this game is 70 minutes, it is a lot higher priced than most rooms we review. If you’re not a Monopoly fan then there is no point playing this as I feel you’d be disappointed with the price. However if you can find five friends so you can have a team to yourselves, I think you’ll have the best fun. Is it worth the money? I say yes as being sent to jail in real life without collecting money for passing ‘go’ was a highlight!

It cost us £69 each for this 70 minute extravaganza. It’s a premium price for a luxury experience in a prime location. This is a lot of money, but it’s a multifaceted game with heaps going on. Although they excelled with the concept and the theming, the gameplay suffered due to squeezing so much into a short timeframe. As teams are up to 6, you need 5-6 people to guarantee playing by yourselves.

We paid for the classic board, but I noticed the spaces were different. It turned out we got moved to the city board as they had an issue. No one informed us or offered a discount as an apology. Like with the real game, there’s no prize for winning. The victors just get a round of applause. The drinks at the bar were also quite pricey.

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