Review: Risk II
Developer: MacSoft (product page)
Price: $29.99 (MRSP)
Requirements: 132 MHz PowerPC-based Mac with Mac OS 8.1, 800 by 600 display with thousands of colors.
Recommended: 200 MB of hard disk space.
Trial: None
Many of us are familiar with Risk, either as the popular board game or as the black-and-white computer game we used to play on our old Macs years ago. So it is probably not surprising that I was somewhat hesitant to spend $29.99 on what seemed to be a mere color version of the same old game. But quickly I realized that I was wrong, and Risk II is more than just plain old Risk on your color screen.
Installation
Installing the program on your Mac is relatively painless. If you are very short on disk space, you can run Risk II straight off the CD. If you prefer to have the game on your hard disk, the installer lets you choose between just the game files (about 200 MB) or the game files plus movie files (for a total of about 340 MB) for better performance. No matter which installation option you choose, you will need to have the Risk II CD in your drive to run the program. I found that somewhat bothersome since I prefer to have other CDs/DVDs in my computer, but fortunately creating a disk image on your hard drive and keeping it mounted gets you around that—provided you are willing to sacrifice the 422 MB.
Game Play
The basic idea of Risk is simple: you control territories on the world map and use your armies to invade new territories until you are the ruler of the planet. Your existing territories help raise new reinforcements and you receive extra bonuses for controlling entire continents or owning “Risk cards,” which you acquire through certain attacks. Your wise choices in troop deployment and attack strategies will determine the fate of your empire. For newbies who are not familiar with the game or the interface, the manual offers an extensive introduction of the rules. Beyond that, Risk II offers an in-game tutorial that explains everything in a movie-like fashion. Lastly, it offers explanatory messages throughout the game that you can turn off once you are more familiar with the concepts.
Those messages are quite helpful for beginners, although they can get in the way of more experienced players and it is somewhat of a hassle to turn them off individually.
So far, that’s not really new to old Risk veterans. Beyond the classic game play, with many options like different reinforcement rules and dozens of computer players of different strengths to choose from, as well as the “mission play” that is somewhat similar to the board game’s, Risk II offers many new additions that will keep even seasoned players interested and challenged. For one, the board is somewhat customizable, allowing up to six new countries to be added to the board for variation.
More profoundly, Risk II adds a completely new game mode called “SameTime” play. SameTime play fundamentally changes the dynamics of the game because everybody issues orders at the same time, which are then all executed in one turn. This adds many new strategic challenges to the game. The new rule set also allows for “mass invasions,” in which armies from several countries attack the same territory at once. SameTime mode is very difficult to describe, but once you have played your first few games of it, you will realize that this is no longer the Risk you have known. It makes the games much more interesting and dynamic. It also gives Risk II a big advantage over the board game version, since SameTime play simply is not possible on a board. Last but not least, Risk II contains a variation called “Capital Risk” under both the Classic and SameTime rules. In Capital Risk, your objective is to capture several enemy capitals while defending your own.
For those seeking the ultimate challenge, Risk II offers a tournament mode. The tournament consists of 16 different Classic and SameTime games that increase in difficulty and that are scored based on your performance. The goal is to finish them with the highest score. Beware though, losing a tournament game means that you lose the entire tournament and have to start over. Since many players get frustrated with this, here’s a little cheat:
Copy the “tourn.cfg” file in your Risk folder after you complete a game. It contains the current state of the tournament. If you lose the next game, simply replace the tourn.cfg file with your copy to get back to where you where before.
Graphics
You may have been wondering: why do you need 400 MB of disk space for a game of Risk? The reason is the amazing graphics that the game uses. It looks stunning. The in-game movies also add a lot to the atmosphere (and disk usage). Lastly, the well-done tutorials eat up their portion of your drive. Risk II offers several ways to observe the game play. The most elaborate mode offers a fly-by movie into the beleaguered territory and animated resolution of the battle:
Alternatively, you can choose to forgo the extensive graphics and just watch a quick battle outcome on screen (here shown on the optional 3D globe).
While the movies and animations are awesome, they do tend to get very repetitive and boring over time. And they are quite time-consuming since there will be many fights in every game. As I progressed in the game, I ended up turning off more and more options to speed up the game, until I finally ended up with the barest minimum of graphics. Even then, fights tended to be somewhat sluggish, even on a 400 MHz G4 (although you can speed up a computer battle even more by pressing the space bar).
Even at the barest graphical minimum, however, the game remains esthetically pleasing and very entertaining. Unfortunately, it only runs at an 800x600 resolution and does not allow you to switch to other programs while it is running. Also, the non-standard interface, while perfectly adapted to the game and its appearance, can be quite confusing at times. The resolution switching causes the Finder and other application windows to be repositioned unintentionally, although this is less Risk II’s problem and more a problem of Apple’s DrawSprockets technology in general.
Risk II worked somewhat in OS X under Classic, although there were problems with the resolution switching and the fact that Risk II would be obscured by the dock and any open windows.
Playing With Others
As good as the computer opponents are, Risk is most fun when played against other human players. Risk II comes fully loaded in that regard. It supports every conceivable way of multi-playing, including hot-seating (people going back and forth on the same machine), playing via LAN (AppleTalk) or Internet (TCP/IP), and even GameRanger, the popular Mac gaming service. I-Com, Risk II’s diplomatic tool for forming short term alliances with computer players, does not work in multiplayer mode, but at least you are allowed to chat with the other players. For those lonely nights at home or when you are without a network connection, the variety of computer opponents offers something for everyone, from relatively weak opponents to ones that can keep even a Risk master sweating.
What’s the Deal?
Overall, Risk II is an extremely well done game. Not only does it capture the excitement of the original, but it manages to exceed it. Its shortcomings are big enough to barely withhold it from an Excellent rating, but only barely. At $29.99, it’s a little pricey for my taste. However, the only regret you will have with Risk II is that you don’t have more time to play it.
Strengths
- Exciting game play
- Excellent graphics
- Large replay value
Weaknesses
- Slightly pricey
- Sometimes sluggish
- Does not multitask well
Additional Screen Shots
Copyright © 2001 Daniel Chvatik,
dchvatik@atpm.com. Reviewing in ATPM is open to anyone. If you’re interested, write to us at reviews@atpm.com.
Reader Comments (93)
Need more words? Try searching with Google with keywords such as: rules for playing risk
Is there any way I can change this?
I can't find a way to add a computer player.
Looking into the two .cfg files using a text reader did not help any.
How can the options be brought out?
Thanks,
Craig Shelden
Shelden Studios
Thanks
The answer: "Risk 2 only supports computer players in single player and hotseat modes. They can not be added to network games."
I would not be....upset if they had disclosed this. I will not buy any more games from Atari or Deep Red or Microprose because of this!! On the other hand I bought it in a clearance basket for $1.99 so it has been by best entertainment value for the $$ so far!!
It's apparent to me that the program uses the time between mouse clicks during battles to help determine the "randomness" of the dice roll. (This was called the "Interarrival time" during my Simulation class while I was getting my Computer Science degree).
Clicking at practically the same time will generate practically the same results. Up to about 3X in a row--then the program seems to re-initialize itself again. But I've had solid success with my rolls by simply paying attention to the timing of the mouse clicks.
David,
The other (computer) players have goals, too--not just you! One of the computer player's goals was to eliminate player "x" from the game, and when that was accomplished, the computer player finished its mission before you finished yours. Simple as that--no "cheating" involved.
thanks very much, Mo
I have just 1 question:
In the option menu i have 3 diferent things for card trading.
Set Value
Ascending
Ascending by one
What are this 3 diferent options for??
Thx and have fun playing RiskII
Leyhira
Great game.
1)Hold europe for the first round.....after that I could never hold Europe.....forget about holding NA after you get past the first round
2) After the first round go gang busters forward into Africa.....that'how I won
3) If you take the approach of run and hide....go for Africa and rather than hide go for the minority of the troops...I came close this way but lost just before I conquered the other minority player before the 80% was reached.....good luck....BTW the next round states conquere NA/Africa and then you find out you need to conquere another foe....then it changes to another foe...frustrating
i can't believe i can't play a HotSeat or LAN game with a friend without having to have a stupid computer player!!!! what gives???
has anybody created a trainer or patch to get rid of the computer player?? that would make this game awesome tenfold!
eventually i have 6 soldiers in india and 1 in siam =]
but i can't pass this thing. you understand, i need to kill bonaparte, who is now controlling NA, SA, australia, and half africa O_O they've killed all the others...he and wellington...
Thanks for the notes on the restore (I have been just recovering the whole RiskII directory.)
I think the strategy to win every round is the same....don't go for the game objective initially. In round 15 for example don't go for NA or Bonaparte. Wellington and Bony will go head-to-head. Let 'em do it. Bony will even sign treaties not to attack you so he can focus on Wellington. Focus on SA initially, try and build up some troops, if you outnumber them they don't like to attack. Conquer the rest of the world at your leisure and then finally come back to NA.
btw...to get a high score you need to kill every other opponent on every level through level 15.
I have just been focusing on a high score in the tourney mode and have gotten it to 4,440. I think this is the highest score possible. Can anyone beat that ?
(btw...to try for THE high score you need to kill every other opponent on every level through level 15.)
Thanks
I have played this game over and over for the past couple of years, and it drives me nuts lol
(Editor's Note: Some users may find that all the videos on the page linked in this comment will play simultaneously. The site owner states this does not happen on Windows IE and doesn't know about Macintosh Safari. ATPM is leaving this comment available because the information about strategies for playing the game are not platform-specific.)
Such a great game, but no way you can play 2 players plus 1 computerplayer.
It cant be true?
Please create a way out of this.
For those commenting on the "loaded" nature of the dice, I both agree and dissagree. If i can explain.
If any of you have taken statististics, you can figure out that the probability of 3 dice vs. 2 dice, with ties going in favor of the 2 dice, should result in the 3 dice winning about 55% of the time. So I think anyone who feels that when they are being attacked, the computer is advantaged - you're right, it is, but so are you, and I think you'll find the same win percentage holds true for human vs. computer.
HOWEVER I'll offer two circumstances that have happened, I'm sure, to all of us.
The first, is when a human player is attaching with many troops against a single computer troop, and the computer troop is able to kill 4, 5, or even 6 of your troops before finally going down. I have this happen often. In a 15 round game, as many as once per turn. Again, if you look at probability, the odds of this happen four times in a row are minute - 6%!
The second, is more subjective. Often while playing the game, I will notice my kills vs. casualties are out of proportion - far more losses than kills - at the begining of the game, compared to the final results at the end of the game. Here's the stats from a game I recently played, with kills vs. casualties at turn 7, 11, and final (turn 14). Turn 7 - (k)44,(c)58. Turn 11 - (k)81,(c)110. Final - (k)152,(c)157. It seems to show that the dice are weighted more towards the computer at the begining of the game, than at the end. That if loss for the computer is inevitable, it "gives up."
Overall, I like the game, but as a few hae said, the challenge of the loaded dice doesn't make up for developing a more challenging AI.
(and no, I don't record the stats of every game, the hair-puller bang-my-head-on-the-desk game above is what prompted this post)
The game used to be so addictive when dices stood in a 50-50 prob. range but seemingly isnt for some reasons. Frustration is unbearable when you defend rolling 6 1's in a row and lose a continent for that.
Thanks for hearing my complain ! :(
At this point in the game there is definitely a correlation to how high you roll to the length of time you wait. I use the "banana" system. 1 banana, 2 banana, 3 banana, etc. I have found that a count to 10 banana works well when attacking, especially when you are outnumbered. On level 12 you are given 5 troops in Siam and the AI always puts 11 in Indonesia after the reinforcement phase. I attack with 4 against 10 in a 'Border Clash' and using the "10 banana" system I can kick their ass every time! I don't always win and take Indonesia but I always at least take them down to nearly nothing!
I'm looking on here because it has been so long since I've beat it I can't remember exactally how?
There are alot of good tips on here about how to "survive" this level but I want to remember how to beat it! I have become so frustrated with my inability to remember how to beat level 12 I have started writing a walkthrough specifically for level 12. And if anyone wishes to contribute you can send your tips to...
"[email protected]"
If you wish to be recognized for you contributions leave your "tag" or else you will just be known as "anonymous"
Really, 4400 was your highest score? That is weak! Thanks for bragging! 3620 is as high as I got!
He brings up a very valid point which I didnt think needed explaining but after seeing people asking about the low levels of Tournament Risk like 5, 6, 8, and even level 1!!!! (BTW, if you can't get past level 1 of the tourney you are a plague upon society and we would be better off without you in the gene pool, I am amazed you can even use a computer!)
Anyway, as he said, whatever the level you're playing "DON'T GO FOR THE GAME OBJECTIVE INITIALLY"
I thought that was common sense?
Build up your strength! The best thing you can do is to control a Continent, that gives you extra reinforcements! DUH! If you haven't figured this out on your own then you should give up and go back to "tic tac toe"
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