Risk Factions is a downloadable game on the PSN. I only played the free demo which unlocks one campaign and limited time in classic. The gameboard and interface graphics are nicely done and worth looking at if you are building a board game. The Objectives in the campaigns were an interesting game play twist – potentially for the better. I love Risk and play against the computer on my iPhone frequently. Could this version get me to use the PS3 for something other than netflix?
Classic played very slowly. It didn’t seem like there was a way to fast forward though the computer player’s moves. And I didn’t look to see if there were options to change other game play settings. The map and user interface was nicely done. Moving between countries felt natural. However, I wish Alaska and Russia were connected in the UI; you had to scroll across to the other side. I doubt I’d play more than one game though – speed of play. If I’m playing a board game against the computer… I want fast gameplay.
The Campaign mode is a clever twist. Instead of conquest, your objectives are Objectives. You need three objectives to win and the objectives had rewards attached such as an extra maneuver at the start of the turn, or an extra attack dice. With only 2 players in the only free level, it played much faster than the classic version.
I still fall back on Dice Wars when I want a quick game of Risk. And I paid for an iPhone version of Risk that gives me lots of options and multiple maps (single player). Would I pay $1.99 for a mobile version of Tactics: probably. Would I pay $9.99 for the PSN version? No. Would I pay $1.99 for “Risk with Friends”? I hope EA follows Zynga’s lead.
I think the value is most likely in the multiplayer (local or online). Board games without the scoring and setup and minutia is something I think computers should be good at. Risk Factions delivers that.
