Absorbing board game-style strategy
Fans of board games like Risk or computerised counterparts like Empire Deluxe or even Civilization are sure to enjoy this neat little game of global domination. As is common with such games, the idea is simply to create and maintain your empire through military force, but of course in practice this is highly challenging. Gameplay is largely fairly standard, with players taking control of a country and its armies and who must then choose to invade other countries, with the outcome depending on various factors including the number of armies involved plus a random aspect of invisible dice rolling. The key difference between say Risk and World Empire is that one of the first choices players make is that of their ideology. Each country has one of four such ideologies, so if you invade one which shares your values, they are more welcoming and require a smaller garrison in order to control them. If the country doesn't agree with your views, then they require more armies to hold them, which obviously leaves you with fewer resources to continue your expansion and which adds a nice twist to the otherwise pretty traditional gameplay. No one is going to play a game like World Empire for its visuals, and they are as generally unattractive as you might expect. However, this doesn't detract from the absorbing and challenging gameplay which is the main drawing point and World Empire has all the appeal of a classic board game. The game is straightforward enough to pick up, thanks to an accessible interface, but provides plenty of opportunities for some tactical thinking and as such is recommended for Risk fans.
