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
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