Others say...

"excellent pc game but don't believe the claim it can be played online"
I bought this game as a birthday gift to my brother because we loved to play the board game, and he now lives out of state. The box claims it can be played online. I was extremely disappointed to find out that was not the case!! The link provided is for Zone.com which now appears to be games.msn.com, and the latter no longer supports online play of this game.

I spent hours sending emails to amazon.com, the manufacturer's of the game, the support folks listed in the documentation, etc. -- trying to find out who they could guide me to that supports it. No response from anyone except amazon.com, who washed their hands of it.

I spent many more hours scouring gaming web sites and found many that offered it for download...but most were not clear if it could be played there or just downloaded. So here comes many more hours sending emails to them. In the end I still have not found anywhere to play it.

Of course, there are sites that offer the original Risk game...but read on.

Besides the above issue, the game itself is AWESOME!! I'll never go back to the original Risk now that I've played it.

It includes capabilities to play against the computer or with someone else (in the room). There are options to change the point values of each continent, to randomly place armies at the start of the game (instead of each player manually placing them), or to hold an "election" which will decide the deployment. You may choose to have two additional points awarded when you own a territory shown on a set of cards you turn in, and the table for turning in sets adds a "12" level. You can play "same time" instead of "turn-based" if you want to add another monkey wrench, play "tournament" style, or opt for a version called "capital risk".

You decide which generals to play against, instead of, or in addition to, other live opponents - and each general is ranked so you can determine how tough an enemy you want to tackle (I took an easy one and won my first and only game so far so other reviewers might be right about the challenge in this).

There are a couple of new territories that can be added beyond those on the board game, and you can switch the "mid-east" link between continents on or off. There are provisions for making alliances with other players, including the AI (artificial intelligence...the PC). And lastly, you can play a shorter 80% or 60% world domination game.

By the way, I had to set my compatibility mode for Winblows '95 or '98 for use on my Vista machine because the PC would lock up part way through one of the tutorials (and who knows what else wouldn't have worked). After that no problemo.


"Excellent game to pass the time..."
This is a very good, although somewhat dated, strategy game. Since it is a little older, the AI (artificial intelligence, i.e., the computer) is very good but probably not up to par with more modern strategy games. However, because I played this game when I was a kid (so many times I lost track) I still enjoy it. In addition, the game music (Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture) is quite appropriate! The game has the Classic version of Risk and a Simultaneous version where all players attack at the same time; I haven't tried this version yet. My computer is running Microsoft XP with Service Pack 2 and the game runs fine with no glitches. If you are a die-hard Risk fan I believe you will enjoy the game for quite a while.

"Solid Game"
If you like playing the board game you will love this game. It does the work of counting your armies for you and you won't have to "make change" any more! You have the pleasure of being able to play a game against computer opponents and can easily save a game and resume it later. I like Tournament mode where you try to accomplish specific missions and progress to higher levels doing so.

"Not near as good as the former Risk I had for Win 95..."
I wish I knew what the JC in the title stood for. I thought this was an improvement on the Win 95 version of Risk I had years ago. This one isn't nearly as user friendly or fun.

"Just as cool as the boardgame and better."
Excellent price for the great game. Amazon does it again.
This game is great fun, especially if you have played and love the board game. It has many added features as well as the Basic game, only now you don't have to worry about losing all those tiny little figures!

The computer version allows you to reveal parts of the map that weren't available in the original, which really changes the whole playing field. I like that they added these options without sacrificing the original. I love choices with games.
There are also other levels and features that are cool to explore.

Check out some online game reviews for more details of all the expandable ways to play the game.