Diplomacy – PC – Review

The game Diplomacy has been around
since the early 50’s, and it has been one of the most well-known board games
around. Players assume control of one of the seven Great Powers during the early
20th century in Europe. The object of this game is to get complete domination of
the map. There are only two types of units (armies and fleets), and only one
unit can occupy a space on the board at a time. Pieces can support each other
when they make an attack on a space, and whenever there’s a conflict, the side
with the majority of pieces involved in the battle wins. Players liked this game
and saw it as a cross between chess and poker. If you had to put it another way,
think of this game similar to Risk since it is also turned based. If you want to
win this game you will have to make sure all of your thinking facilities are top
notch, or else you will find yourself out of the game quickly.

The developers of this game tried to
make sure that this PC game is as faithful a representation of the board game as
much as they could. Since I have never played the original board game I cannot
vouch for the accurate representation but I can say that this is a fun game that
will occupy your time for a while.

There are four different modes of
play available in Diplomacy. The first is the single-player game. You will pit
your skills against six computer controlled opponents. Unless you have a lot of
friends that can jump into playing a game for several hours, then this is one of
the modes that will take the majority of your time. The AI for the game will be
tough, but not so hard that you will want to throw your mouse against a wall.

Another mode you can play with is
the Sandbox mode. This mode really allows for players to get to know how to play
the game, because it will allow you to test out various strategies. That means
that you can setup all of your forces as well as the enemy forces and see what
happens. You can do this because the computer AI for this mode is not present.
This is a great way to really set up some interesting battle tactics that you
can use against a friend later on.

The next two modes are both
multiplayer. First there is the LAN, which means that you and up to six buddies
can connect and play to your heart’s content against each other to find out who
is the best at this game. If you can’t manage to find enough people to play with
you then all you will have to do is login to the Metasever, which is Paradox’s
online matchmaking system, and get your game on in there.

There are seven nations that can be
played in this game and each has their own special properties. The nations are:
England, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. Each of
them can use their land advantage for or against the other players. For
instance, Germany is in the middle of the map, so they will have to be tactful
to other players in order to survive in the beginning. On the other hand Turkey
is in the corner of the map. They are very good at defense but they will have a
harder time expanding their borders. So we see that each nation will have its
pros and cons; it is up to the player to exploit them to their fullest extent.

One of the things that I really
liked about this game is the avatars features. When you are playing though the
single-player mode the avatars will make different faces depending on what move
is going on the field. The faces are something similar you might face if you
were playing against a real human. It is a great addition and something that
helps break the tension you might be facing while you are playing the game.

Diplomacy is rated E for Everyone.

System Requirements:
Pentium 3 – 800 MHz
256 MB of RAM
Windows XP or 2000
8X CD-ROM
DirectX 9.0
32 MB of Video RAM
Keyboard and Mouse.

Gameplay:
8.8
If you love playing
tabletop-strategy board games, or strategy games in general then you will love
Diplomacy. It offers hours upon hours of gameplay that will keep you entertained
for months to come.

Graphics: 7.5
The graphics for Diplomacy are really plain looking, but that also goes
hand-in-hand with how the board game looks.

Sound: 8.5
The sound really fits the game as well as the time period that the game
is put in.

Difficulty: Medium
This game can be pretty overwhelming when you first turn it on and see
everything that you will have to do in order to get your main goals
accomplished. In time it gets a little easier but you will always have those
players out to get you so you will always have to watch your back.

Concept: 8.0
I really liked the avatars that the developers included in this game
because it made the game seem much more alive and more fun to play.

Multiplayer: N/A
At the time of this review I did not have a chance to test out the
multiplayer features of this game.

Overall: 8.5
I have to say that I really enjoyed playing Diplomacy, and that this
game can only get better if I was playing against humans rather then the
computer-controlled AI. If you are a big strategy buff then this is a game you
should check out.