Fortnite Monopoly Review: Nothing Like Either Game, but Still a Lot of Fun

Fortnite Monopoly doesn’t play at all like the traditional board game you know and love hate, and, to be honest, it doesn’t have much of anything to do with Fortnite either. But by smashing the two games together, Hasbro has somehow created something new that’s actually pretty great.

Maybe it was the homemade alcoholic Slurp Juice, but playing Fortnite Monopoly with three of my coworkers was one of the best Monopoly experiences I’ve ever had. it certainly doesn’t hurt that this game is blissfully short (much closer to Fortnite’s 20-minute matches than Monopoly’s weekend-long slogs), but beyond that, there’s something interesting about this buzzy mashup that makes me think it might actually stand on its own as a decent board game.

To understand Fortnite Monopoly, first forget everything you’ve ever learned about Monopoly (and most of what you know about Fortnite). There’s no money. Instead, you start with 15 health and simply try to survive longer than your opponents.

The Rules

There are still properties (named after Fortnite locations like Tilted Towers and Tomato Town), but instead of buying them you simply acquire them by landing on that spot first. After that, it becomes a safe space for you (or a health boost if you get the monopoly) and deals damage to anyone else who lands there. So basically, the small amount of strategy in Monopoly (should you buy that property or not) is gone.

Fortnite Monopoly also replaces Community Chest with loot (overpowered power-ups you can use to attack your opponents or protect yourself), and the Storm (which, like in actual Fortnite, turns once-habitable areas into damage-dealing spots). With all these variables, you’re bound to run through that 15 allotted health pretty quick — even with a few different ways to heal yourself.

The board game’s biggest innovation may be the action die which replaces one of the regular six-sided Monopoly dice to activate different Fortnite-style actions on each player’s turn. That can include bandages (gain to health), bricks (build a wall to block other players or protect yourself from bullets), and crosshair (shoot another player for damage or destroy a nearby wall). There’s also a Boogie Bomb, which defies the item’s actual in-game purpose — making your opponents dance uncontrollably — by dealing one damage to all other players.

That may all sound like a confused jumble, but the overall experience is actually pretty smooth. There’s no agonizing over whether you should buy a property or how many houses to build (though trading is still on the table). Instead, Fortnite Monopoly moves forward as quickly as the in-game storm, distributing damage to everyone until the game comes to an (abrupt) end.

With that said, just like in regular Monopoly, this version may benefit from a few additional house rules. (My suggestion: shooting a player protected by the Bush power-up should destroy that item — just like it does in the actual video game.)

The Experience

Fortnite Monopoly might pit you against opposing players (there’s no option to squad up like in the video game), but at the end of the day, you’re really playing against the game itself. After all, there’s only so much damage you can really do to each other when the Storm can turn any spot into a death trap at a moment’s notice.

And that’s part of what makes Fortnite Monopoly so fun. Just like actual Fortnite, you can jump in for a quick match and lose without feeling like an idiot. On the flip side, that means you probably won’t get much satisfaction out of winning either.

Like any good board game, Fortnite Monopoly is all about bringing friends together. But unlike regular Monopoly, when the game is over you might actually be interested in playing again.