Developer: SMG Studio
Publisher: SMG Studio
Platform: PC, Android, iOS
Tested on: PC
Risk: Global Domination – Review
It is a very strange time right now, game night with friends has been canceled due to COVID-19 and social distancing. Not handy when you want to play a board game. Luckily almost everything has a digital variant now. The game caught our eye thanks to its cross-platform features, enabling PC and mobile users to play together. What seemed like an original game of Risk, also threw some twists at our (board) game table.
Story
Considering Risk: Global Domination is based on a board game and developed mostly for its multiplayer cross-platform features, there is little no story found in this game. As the title suggests, it’s all about global domination but there is no story related to it. The characters you can play as might be colorful types, they also don’t have any backstory. They do resemble important figures from ages past but nothing is done with this. Some of the maps do hint at a certain conflict in history but again no story is added here.
Graphics
The game features a colorful cartoony style, this is somewhat in contrast with the original board game which went for a more realistic style. However, the colors do make it very easy to get a quick view of who is controlling the different territories, which is a big plus. The characters you play with are also very colorful in terms of personality. They have various 2D animations to lighten up the mood. There are no battles as everything is decided by a roll of the dice.
Sound
The background music follows the graphics, creating a light, yet upbeat mood. There are not a lot of sounds to speak of but the ones in place help to reinforce what just happened. It would have been nice to have a bit more feedback from the figures or the battles, but what’s present suffices for a game such as this.
Gameplay
RISK: Global Domination is a strategy game based on the classic Hasbro game title, Risk. It’s ok if you’re not familiar with the original board game. The digital version takes away some of the more difficult aspects like counting how many territories you control and whether or not you control a continent. This is all nicely calculated for you, so you can focus more on developing your strategy. The game is all about eliminating opponents and aiming for world domination. So the classic map you’ll play on is a world map divided into territories. Not all countries are represented and some bigger countries are divided into multiple territories. The digital version also has the advantage of being able to provide multiple maps. You can play on a smaller piece of the world map and just focus on a certain conflict. Another option is some of the special maps shaped in the form off a castle where the objective remains the same, control all territories but the layout of the territories is made to resemble a castle.
Just like the board game, this game is turn-based. Each turn consists of three phases. A deployment phase, an attack phase, and a fortification phase. At the start of your turn, you will receive reinforcements. The amount of troops you receive depends on how many territories you control plus extra troops if you control a fixed set of territories. On the world map, an example of a fixed set of territories is a continent. On other maps, this is harder to distinguish and therefore it is really handy that this is calculated for you, so there can be no discussion. You must deploy these troops on one or more of your territories. During the game, you may also collect cards, if you have collected three similar cards you can also trade them in for more troops during this phase.
Once you placed your new troops, you can attack as often as you want, as long as you have a territory with more than one troop on it adjacent to enemy territory. The combat is really easy as it just comes down to rolling the dice. If you outnumber the opponent two to one, or more, there is no doubt that you’ll win but you can still lose a lot of troops in the battle. But that is the name of the game, roll credits!
Once you’re done attacking, you can move to the reinforcement phase. During this phase, you can move troops from one territory to another. Just select a territory and decide how many of the troops present there should move to another territory. You can only do one transfer during this phase and doing so will automatically end your turn.
As you might have realized, the game is easy to learn but hard to master as it is a strategy game after all. The most challenging part lies in defending your borders as one weak territory might allow an opponent to push deep into your previously owned territories, which results in much fewer troops for you in the next round during the deployment phase.
Since it is a rather compact game, it is also available on mobile devices and considering it is turn-based you don’t get an advantage from keyboard or mouse on PC, besides maybe a bigger screen. So there is a cross-platform multiplayer. This greatly extends the reach of the game to connect players for multiplayer.
Conclusion
RISK: Global Domination is a decent game. It can keep you entertained in single-player for a while with its different maps and difficulties but most of its value will come from its multiplayer features. Since it’s also available on mobile devices there should be plenty of opponents. While this works perfectly as it is, we feel more could be done with the story or at least the characters could bring more to the table.
Risk: Global Domination - Review,
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