Caesars Palace 2000: Millennium Gold Edition (PC)

CNET editors' rating: 2.0 stars Mediocre
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Overall score: 4.4 (2.0 stars)
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Gamespot editors' review

• Reviewed by: Stephen Poole
• Reviewed on: 07/12/2000
• Released on: 06/29/2000

With so many ways to play casino games on the Internet free of charge, does the world really need a game like Caesars Palace 2000? The answer is most definitely yes, followed by some very big ifs: if it has a great tutorial to teach the ins and outs of gaming odds and strategy; if it manages to create the sensation of gambling at one of the world's most famous and glamorous casino resorts; and if it offers an easy way to compete against fellow players in games like poker, blackjack, roulette, craps, and minibaccarat. Unfortunately, Caesars Palace 2000 doesn't provide any of these features - and what it does offer is spoiled by its lousy documentation, Spartan production values, and an interface that's so awkward and unintuitive that it'd make even a big winner think about joining Gamblers Anonymous.

One of the greatest casino simulations ever made, 1992's Beat the House, featured not only an extensive in-game tutor that explained what you should do and why you should do it, but also a thick handbook explaining the intricacies of winning at favorites like craps and blackjack. In the nine years since then, no other casino sim has come close to offering that level of tutelage - and Caesars Palace 2000 is no exception. The manual merely explains each game in the most rudimentary fashion, and in particular, it completely misses the boat in describing craps. For starters, it says that craps rolls are automatic losses for you, when in fact these numbers pay double on field bets (there are also other craps bets that are winners), and they aren't losers if you don't have a bet on the pass or come line. It also says that you need to keep rolling until the dice hit the point, seven, eleven, or a craps, at which point the dice are passed to the next shooter. But once a point's established, you need to keep rolling those bones until you hit a seven - end of story.

The lack of guidance in the manual could be overlooked if there were a great in-game tutorial, but all you get in the way of advice is terse verbiage such as "You should have put a bet on the pass line (conservative right bettor)" or "You picked the wrong hand - it won only 18 percent of the time." It's not the sort of thing to help you gain a full understanding of a complex game like craps or to help you grasp the reasoning behind why a particular two-card hand in Video Hold'em is better than another.

The tutorial has other problems. In craps, the tutor will gladly let you place ridiculously stupid wagers like place bets, hard-way bets, and any craps bets that give the house a major advantage (perhaps in hopes that you'll do so in real life at Caesars Palace). Most of the advice in blackjack is sound, but occasionally you'll see questionable tips that demand a little more explanation than is provided, such as split a pair of twos when the dealer shows a four, or double on an eleven when the dealer shows an ace. When you play roulette, the tutor will tell you not to make a top-line bet - without explaining what the heck that means. Of course in some games such as keno and slots, there's not much need for a tutorial because your only hope is sheer, blind luck. But experienced casino players know the two best chances of beating the house are at craps and blackjack, so Caesars Palace 2000 should have done a better job at delivering in-depth guidance on these two games; after all, you might use the game for practice before trying the real thing.

Caesars Palace 2000 doesn't even play well. The developers took the cheap way out by opting for a keyboard-only interface, thus displaying obeisance to the game's console roots, which is both aggravating and perplexing. Instead of being able to easily grab chips and click buttons to get the action rolling, you must use arrow keys (and the backspace key instead of the escape key to cancel functions), which results in slow-moving gameplay that's confusing and unwieldy.

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