RISK: Factions (XBLA, 2010)

RISK: Factions
Developed by Stainless Games
Published by Electronic Arts
Released for Xbox Live Arcade (6/2010)
Also on PC/PS3

RISK: Factions is, of course, based on the classic board game. It's a turn-based strategy game where your objective is to capture as many territories as possible. RISK is one of those board games that I'd often see in peoples stacks of board games, but rarely got the opportunity to play it due to the fact it takes many hours to complete a game. It's fun, just very time consuming. RISK: Factions contains much of what made the board game fun, while adding some new touches and speeding the whole process up quite a bit, allowing you to complete a game in a fraction of the time it would take on the board version. The game was developed by Stainless Games, who have done numerous games but are most notable for their Carmageddon and Magic: The Gathering titles.

In addition to having the standard RISK game rules, the game introduces the Factions mode which aims to speed things up a bit in addition to some new features. There are five factions: the humans, cats, yetis, robots and zombies. You can setup the game to randomize the starting territories or have the players select them at the beginning. After this each player will choose which territory to place their capital and then the proper game begins. At the start of each turn, players are granted troops and are allowed to place them on whichever territory they wish. The amount of troops given depends on how many territories that player holds among other bonuses, such as controlling an entire continent. The more troops you have on a territory, the greater your chance of victory will be. Once an attack is initiated, if you choose to watch the battle you'll see the dice roll out with some animated versions of your armies attacking each other. It's amusing for a while, but before long you'll find yourself using the fast-attack option to speed things up.

RISK: Factions does have a few new additions to the gameplay as well. Certain maps have special features, such as a missile silo or a dam, that when corresponding territories are controlled give that player a nice advantage. There are bonuses you can earn for meeting certain objectives, such as capturing a certain number of territories in a turn or controlling a certain continent. Completing these objectives can earn bonus perks such as additional troops at the start of each turn. In quick game mode the winner is determined by who can accomplish a certain amount of objectives first.

The biggest difference between the ruleset of the original game and this console port is that the player has quite a few opportunities to gain a distinct advantage over the opposition. The gameplay in RISK: Factions is good for what it is, so if you're a fan of turn-based strategy games or the original board game, it's a game that's worth a look. Unfortunately, the game would be removed from the Xbox Live Arcade store in 2014, making this a tough one to check out these days. This is considered by many to be superior to the RISK game that would come out for the Xbox One, though I haven't had the opportunity to check that one out so I can't say for myself.

Final Verdict: RISK: Factions is a fun port of the turn-based strategy board game. It has quite a few new additions while maintaining much of what made the original good to begin with.

Related Links:
Electronic Arts - Official Website
Stainless Games - Official Website
RISK: Factions - Metacritic
RISK: Factions - GameFAQs
RISK: Factions Achievement Guide
RISK: Factions - True Achievements

Walking Dead: The Complete Telltale Series (XBLA, 2012/Xbox One, 2014)

The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series
Developed by Telltale Games
Released for XBLA (4/2012) Xbox One (10/2014)
Also on Android/iOS/Mac/Ouya/PC/PS3/PS4/Switch/Vita

The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series is based on the hit television/comic series of the same name. While I definitely feel that the horror genre has been over-saturated with zombies in general, I'm always willing to spend some time on one that does something to set itself apart. In the case of the Walking Dead, the thing that got most of us really invested into the game was the character Clementine. You'll stumble across Clementine, a young girl, at the very beginning of the game. She's hiding out in her treehouse, hoping for her parents to come back home. You end up taking her along with you as your companion and honestly, unless you've got a cold heart, you'll end up caring very much for her as the story progresses. I'm not very familiar with the source material, having only seen the first season of the series and never read any of the comics, so I came into this title with a neutral stance and it doesn't matter as these characters were created originally for the game.

When the Walking Dead was originally released, it was done so in episodic format, with an episode releasing every other month. Personally, I don't like that big of a gap between gaming sessions, especially in a game so story driven. Being the kind of gamer who rarely pays full price for games anymore,  I waited for the entire game to be released and go on sale before playing it. At the beginning of each episode you receive a refresher on previous events though so it really wasn't a big deal if you played them as they came out. The X-Box One release contains the entire game from the get-go while you'll have to individually download the episodes if you're playing on the 360.

The Walking Dead features a graphic style similar to cel-shading, giving a comic book style to the visuals that works quite well. There are a few instances where the characters move a bit robotic, and it's a bit cheesy how the tears from a character look painted on, but for the most part the graphics look good. The zombies look pretty horrifying with lots of decay and there's a good variety in their designs. Of course, the zombies are just a sub-plot to the living who usually end up being their own worst enemy, as how it usually works out in zombie stories ever since Night of the Living Dead came out back in the late '60's. There's a good diversity of characters throughout the game, and there are several different outcomes depending on how you interact with them. The dialogue and voice acting is very well executed and the game does a good job of making it seem like your decisions hold real weight to them, which is important considering some of them are life and death scenarios. While the game does a good job making it seem like your choices are impactful, most of the major events in the game are fixed. There are some ways your choices will affect the story, it's just not as drastic as Telltale would like you to believe.

The first episode starts off with a bang, which is a must as this was the one that would draw you in. The introduction of Clementine is very well done and when the chapter ends you'll be anxious to see where the story goes from there. There are of course dips and dives throughout, with the middle section of the game dragging on a bit with some forgettable parts, but for the most part the story is well done and often to the point. The finale in chapter five is quite tragic and will stir some emotions in players who got invested in the game. I won't provide much for details because if you somehow haven't played the Walking Dead I'm not going to be the one to spoil it for you. There was also a bonus episode, 400 Days, that tells five different stories of survivors and then connects the dots at the end. It's not bad and is worth a look, but the stories are too short to accomplish much.

There's not a whole lot of gameplay involved in the Walking Dead, and when there is it usually involves walking around a small area and using the cursor to highlight/interact with people/objects. It's really one of those games you need to be in the mood to do a lot of observing, as the game will frequently take control away from the player for a dialogue or action scene. The developers did a good job of giving the player control at key spots, and it is possible to die if you don't react fast enough, though none of it is really difficult and you'll come back from a recent checkpoint. It's definitely a game that will be appreciated by those who like some good storytelling, but players requiring constant interaction in their video games may be put off.

In the X-Box 360 version of The Walking Dead I was able to complete the game without any glitches, which is bit surprising in retrospect considering how much trouble I've had with certain Telltale Games products in the past. It should be noted that I downloaded the game so all my experience is based on the digital version. I've read there are some issues with retail disc copy of the game, so that's something to consider if you're intending to play the game on your 360, particularly if you have one of the systems with a 4 GB hard drive. The X-Box One version contains much more acceptable load times and some slightly improved visuals. I only ran into one glitch on the One, where I would suddenly die for no reason at a certain point even upon restart, but using the game's rewind feature I was able to start the chapter over and finish it out.

Overall, the Walking Dead tells a gripping story of survival and is definitely worth visiting at least once for a playthrough. The game allows you to make some heavy decisions and there are some variations on the story based on your choices, which can provide a little replay incentive to go back and try some other options. Telltale Games did a great job creating their own story based on the source material and the game would be a smash hit for the company, and of course they would eventually follow up with a sequel...

Final Verdict: The Walking Dead: A Telltale Game Series is an excellent story-driven game, which has various outcomes based on your decisions. If you've somehow managed to not play this game, it's definitely worth a look.

Purchase Links:
Buy Walking Dead (Xbox One Digital) - Microsoft Store
Buy Walking Dead (Xbox 360 Digital) - Xbox Marketplace
Search Walking Dead (Xbox One Disc) - eBay
Search Walking Dead (Xbox 360 Disc) - eBay

Related Links:
Point & Click Adventures - Xbox Overview
The Walking Dead - Metacritic
The Walking Dead on Xbox 360 - GameFAQs
The Walking Dead on Xbox One - GameFAQs
The Walking Dead Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
The Walking Dead - True Achievements

Article | X-Box One = One Big Letdown?

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One look at the comments section of any YouTube video featuring modern gaming consoles would have you think the common consensus is that the X-Box One flat-out sucks. While I don't think the system is near as bad as people make it out to be, it's definitely not without its share of flaws. Let's delve into what it is about the X-Box One that's so disappointing (much of this applies to this console generation as a whole and are not all exclusive issues to the One).