Gaming review: Risk 2210 A.D.

Oh, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Risk 2210 was an unexpected Christmas gift, and it's one of the few games I'd appreciate stocked in "normal" stores, although Catan is becoming rapidly widely known in American households.

To find out what I mean by "normal" and what I play, I refer you to boardgamegeek.com, a website I barely know about, don't use, but nonetheless have respect for.

When first seeing the gift, I had mixed feelings, because of the handful of modern, alternative Risk games to emerge in the last decade this was not one that I had played nor had an intent to add to my collection. I had high opinions of Risk: Godstorm and Lord of the Rings Risk, and still do. But I ended up pleasantly surprised.

Well, to quickly compare and contrast this game (2210) with Risk: LOTR and Godstorm, I think this game falls somewhere in the middle, having some of the characteristics of both. Like LOTR (Lord of the Rings), there are leaders who grant you advantage and strongholds which give you greater defense. But in LOTR the cards don't really affect gameplay, as I recall, just endgame scoring and player strategy. In Godstorm, the cards effected gameplay which I really liked but I don't recall the "Gods" being as easy to get into play nor as useful in and of themselves. And 2210's Moon seemed much more useful and productive than the Afterworld of Godstorm. I haven't played eiher LOTR or Godstorm in over a year, so I might easily be misremembering some things. It could very well be that the players years ago just weren't using the Afterwolrd to good effect.

One bonus 2210 has that neither of the others do: it can be played according to the classic rules. The map is basically the same, just renamed. Players simply ignore changes to the board and to newer peices, ignore the ocean colonies and the moon. I think that's a great effeciency.

I need to do some googling on my subject matter, so I will put more here later. Time is running out on this computer. Sorry.