Play Risk Multiplayer Online
As a board game, Risk has become an institution in the strategy war gaming genre ever since it first got published in 1959 by Parker Brothers. Over six decades later, it’s still going strong and has long moved beyond the tabletop and into other media. The transition from board game to computer game has been one of the biggest things that has affected the growth of Risk in recent years.
Nowadays, you can play a game of Risk with friends without having to own the board game as long as you have it installed in your computer. For “traditionalists” who are loyal to the board game, it may seem like a preposterous idea to replace the classic Risk game with a digital version that doesn’t have the same look and feel. However, let us be open to options and see how the computer game can help us enjoy Risk more.
Play Risk Game Against Computer
One of the good things about the computer game is that it makes learning and playing Risk much easier. Tutorials do well in teaching the basic mechanics, and tedious processes are automated to make the game go faster. A game that usually goes for 3-4 hours can be played in as short as an hour or two because of the automation, making it less tedious to play compared to the board game.
After a few games of Risk against computer opponents, you may want to move on to actual multiplayer with other human players, which then takes the gameplay experience to the next level. The primary way of playing multiplayer is to taking turns on one computer as if you’re playing the board game but on a computer, also known as Hotseat multiplayer. It’s a simple enough system and does facilitate fun gaming sessions with friends.
If you can’t finish a board game, the best you can do to continue it is to leave the board undisturbed until the next session or somehow record all the last positions on paper or with a photo then set it up again when you play again. But with the computer game, you can just save it and continue later on; each player just has to remember which color they controlled. Having this convenience does make the game stick better as a fun way to pass the time with friends.
However, fans of the board game may miss having the board there, along with the feel of the pieces and rolling the dice. Perhaps this is the only real disadvantage with the Risk computer game, especially if there’s a power outage that may make playing on the computer more difficult. But on the other hand, board games can get old and damaged over time, and pieces can go missing if you’re not careful. Also, Risk has become available on mobile devices as well, so you can play Risk multiplayer with friends with your iPad wherever you may be.
Play Risk Multiplayer With Friends – Benefits
Of course, the best way to play Risk is still with friends in the same room as you, which gives way to banter and conversation before, during, and after the game. Another good thing about it is that you can play mind games against other players during the game and talk about strategy after it, which makes the gameplay and learning experience even more interesting. Board game or computer game, there really is nothing that compares to playing with friends in the same room.
As good as tutorials may be, nothing is better than another person showing you how the game is played. Soon enough, you should be able to get it and hang with the other players. Since the principles of Risk are simple enough to understand, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem. However, the subtleties and small details like how each continent on the map behaves during the game isn’t easily communicated through tutorials and even online guides, but that’s where playing with friends can help figure things out.
With the random element in Risk due to the attack and defense dice rolls required to determine battles, this makes for some really fun times when playing with friends, similar to the board game. But since the dice are rolled by the computer, there are fewer accusations of cheating and other unsportsmanlike conduct and more shouting at the dice to roll good for you or bad for your opponents.
That kind of fun from wanting to have other players get a streak of bad luck and having to contend with the fact that you may experience the same is what gives Risk its very name. As you can see, playing Risk on the computer or mobile device does not take away from that element; it even adds to it in some way.
Conclusion
All of this doesn’t take away from the quality of the board game at all. On the contrary, it even encourages some people to pick up the board game and its variations since the experience of playing a tabletop game with other people beside you is still different from playing a computer game in front of a screen. Despite that, the experience of being able to play with friends is still what makes Risk such a compelling game through all these years, and it should be no different in multiplayer.