The Game of Life

"Go through the motions and get instant gratification in this simple board game"

I'm a sucker for a good, festive board game. Monopoly is always a classic, and Risk and Sorry! are good alternatives. The Game of Life is up there in my favorites, and thanks to this PC game, anyone can play it over and over again with friends. The PC game allows you to get up to six players to gather around the computer and spin the famous spinner over and over again, and it's a fairly good experience of a simple board game.

When you start the game right up, you'll notice it has a real lively feel to it. All the characters are these big-headed CGI people that drive around in their little token cars. You can pick up to six human or computer players and have at it. The board is littered with various random objects and overall, this game has a nice feel from the get go. The announcer is a bit annoying but at least he's cordial and fills you in on all the information you need to know. You can save a game at any time and continue it later if you wish.

The concept of the Game of Life is up to six players go through everyday "American white-picket fence dream" life and make money, get jobs, buy houses, get married, have kids, pay the bills, and have mental breakdowns and mid-life crises. Okay, scratch that last one. This game is renowned for its use of a big spinner in the middle of the board which dictates how many spaces you move (one through ten). You do whatever the space says, then the turn passes to the next player. Rinse and repeat until the game ends when all players land on retirement, then the richest players is declared the winner.

Your occupation plays a large role on your success in the game. Jobs are handed out by drawing from one of ten job cards, and they include the athlete, doctor, salesperson, travel agent, accountant, teacher, artist, etc. You also get to draw a salary card from 20K to 100K (which is independent of your career choice) that pays you that much every time you pass a Pay Day space, and obviously, the higher your salary, the better off you are. On most spaces on the board, you end up having to pay money for something, and if any player has the specific job on the space, then you have to pay him instead of the bank. If you land on “Buy a Sailboat,” you pay the salesperson and if you land on “Break Leg in Ski Accident,” you pay the doctor. If you have that specific job, you don't pay anything. You can also go to college and/or take night school to increase your chances of getting a good job and salary, though most often, getting a good salary is about luck more than anything.

NOTE: This game does contain one glaring flaw that may not be noticeable--the Salesperson career is absolute garbage compared to the others. It pays out the least on average via other players landing on specific tiles around the board. A space labeled "Buy Sports Car for $80K" would be suitable for the Salesperson career, but instead, the money just goes to the bank. This isn't that huge of a flaw, but it does beg the question "What were they thinking when they were assigning job spaces?"

You are also obligated to get married, buy from a bunch of different houses, and possibly have kids. Some spaces give you Life Tiles when you land on a “good” space, such as “Learn Sign Language” or “Help the Homeless.” These tiles pay you out money at the end of the game, but the PC version doesn't tell you how much you get for each one or what exactly do they say. You can also buy insurance and stock numbers, which will cost you money in the short run but possibly earn you more in the future. Miscellaneous spaces allow you to trade salaries with another player or make you lose your job altogether. When you retire, you can pick from two places—one that will reward you if you are the richest player but at the risk of losing your Life Tiles.

While The Game of Life is a fun, wacky experience, it's just so dumbed-down for a board game. Aside from buying insurance and picking different jobs, there's no strategy to this game whatsoever, except for your job choice and whether or not to buy insurance (for the record, buy the house insurance, skip the car insurance, there, I just solved half your problems!). It really comes down to luck and you need to get better rolls than your opponent to win. Like Bingo, you need lots of friend to play this with; otherwise, it's just a drag.

The game attempts to add a little value by offering an alternate set of rules that differ from the classics. Basically, instead of Life Tiles, each one of those spaces will offer a mini The Price is Right game. One has you picking tiles and earning the money you've selected if you walk, but you'll lose it all if you pick the tile with the skunk under it. Another has tiles that either make you lose or gain money, or have you match money like a kid's memory game. Others have you dumping balls into baskets, which really makes no sense. If you land on a Pay Day, you can take your salary from another player. For crucial spaces such as Get Married, Buy a House, Have a Baby, and Retirement, you spin a wheel that lets you take a random money from every other player. The game mode is a little twist and offers a little room for strategy but it doesn't do much to break the monotony.

Likewise, the graphics aren't outstanding, but the game is laden with flair. Through the game, you'll progress through the decades (‘50s to the new millenium) and the car and music changes through the time period. Tons of miscellaneous items, such as a calculator, and art easel, and Mount Rushmore, are near spaces that have the same theme (i.e. “Paint a Picture” or "Visit Mount Rushmore"). The game's artwork is well-drawn. Also, this game has loads of cutscenes. Some of them are silly little 3-D animations of people hitting each other with tennis rackets or getting lost in the woods. It's your usual '90s crude 3-D animated videos. Others are short 2-D sketches of one-picture comics, like “I invented the proper ratio of a cake” or “I hate my in-laws” with hokey one-liners. They're kind of funny but if you are looking to burn through a game quickly, you can turn them off. Besides the cutscenes, the game keeps its appearance pithy and that's not a bad thing.

Overall, this isn't a bad game. The problems like with the actual board game itself. It's just so mindnumbingly simple that even if you pad it with a bunch of features like the minigames, it doesn't have a whole lot going for it besides its multiplayer appear. It's only $10 and is readily available at your store's discount game section, so if you want a PC game to kill some time with, check it out.

Presentation: 8/10 – A visually pleasing game from the menus on out.
Gameplay: 5/10 – Good replica of the board game, but it's a basic game with no real strategy at all. Also, the salesperson is a dead man walking.
Graphics: 7/10 – The board looks great. The CGI people look primitive especially with those big heads.
Sound: 7/10 – Cool music with some typical sound effects.
Replay Value: 7/10 – You can always play this with friends and have a good time.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/20/07, Updated 07/07/09

Game Release: The Game of Life (US, 09/30/98)