Risk II
It’s a fast paced, ruthless quest for world domination. Play the Classic Game under the familiar rules, trading cards for armies and rolling the dice to outdo your opponent.The year is 1812. Napoleon’s army is on the march, and it’s every empire for itself. As Supreme Commander, you’ll seize territories, crush your enemies, and betray your allies in a fast-paced, ruthless quest for world domination. Play the Classic Game under the familiar rules, trading cards for armies and rolling the dice to outdo your opponent. Play the Simultaneous-Turn option for a whole new Risk experience that includes I-COM communication and negotiation features, territory-depth enhancements, and territory bidding. Risk 2 is the ultimate form of this world-domination game that people of all ages have enjoyed for 40 years.
Rating: 
(out of 19 reviews)
List Price: $ 39.95
Price: $ 12.95
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Review by Christina Pitman for Risk II
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Risk 2 offers new variations to a classic strategy game. It offers many different types of play. There are single and multi-player games, including hotseat play. Risk 2 includes the standard “take over the whole world” game but also has many options. You can lower the percentage of the world you must occupy to win, which is helpful if you are looking for a shorter game. The Mission risk option is interesting. Each player is given a mission to achieve to win. Single players can also play a tournament of 16 games. The games get proggesively more difficult and you may save tournaments after each game. Only one tournament at time can be played which can be inconvienent. The most interesting addition is same-time risk. Same time risk can be played by single or multi-players, world domination or mission, and by a variety of AI Generals. Each phase of your turn (reinforcements, battle orders, battles, surge attacks, tactical moves) is conducted at the same time as everyone elses. (All reinforcements are placed, then the game shows where everyone else went. Then everyone places battle orders, then you see them all at once. Etc.) This is a interesting and addictive variation to a classic. In comparison to Risk, this offers many similarites but I find the AI is better and the same time option is great. It does not include the ultimate risk option found on the original. If I were to only buy one of the two, I would purchase Risk 2. Great game that can be enjoyed by teens and adults.
Review by Paul Heinrich for Risk II
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The best part of Risk 1 was Ultimate Risk. Strategic attack and defense options, generals, terrain difficulties, and forts, made for ever changing and stimulating gameplay. The only problem was the computer AI which caused some opposing forces to make moves contrary to common and tactical sense. I was looking forward to playing Risk 2 against more intelligent opponents.Microprose, a quality game developer, decided not to include Ultimate Risk in Risk 2. It now has a variation called simultaneous Risk. All players make all attack decisions at once for a turn, then you press a button and the attacks are carried out. There is no flexibility to change tactics based on changing fortunes of war. This brings us back to playing only Classic Risk on a board that looks graphically like it was taken from a DOS game in 1993. The battle boxes are graphically state of the art. I watched the battles unfold a few times, said, “Cool,” and turned them off to speed up gameplay. I uninstalled Risk 2 from my computer and am back playing Risk 1, Ultimate Risk, one of the great games of the 90′s in my opinion.
Review by David Shapiro for Risk II
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Risk 2 is not an upgrade. It is a companion to the original game offering additional variations on the game. The interface is improved and the ‘bookkeeping’ phase moves quickly even with all of the options turned on. There are two additions to the classic version – the first is ‘same time’ Risk. All moves are entered and the computer resolves battles simultaneously (similar to Diplomacy). The second addition is the ‘tournament’. In the tournament there are 16 pre-determined starts and to win you must beat each of the 16 games. There are other smaller refinements. Both the original version and this version are first class.
Review by Jeffrey M. Tedford for Risk II
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Risk 2 is definitely worth the bargain price. The many different gameplay options allow for different challenges for one or more players. Some old high school buddies and I decided we would try getting together once a month to keep in touch, play a game, and chat. This game allows for intense gameplay while quality time with family or friends. The tournament is extremely challenging because it forces you to play the game in the different modes which does not allow you to develop a consistent strategy. This is a plus because games that allow you to form and follow a set strategy get boring and monotanous after a short time. The “Same Time” strategy takes a little while to get used to, but definitely is an addition that benefits the game. It allows for multiple attacks, both from two or more of your countries, but also from several of your countries and countries of other players. If you and a fellow player attack the computer at the same location, for instance, once the computer has been defeated, you and your buddy “go at it”. You also have to watch out for “surge attacks” where an opponent can attack you one place and then immediately go into the next country while you’re not even aware of it. If you’re into a challenge or want a game which allows for some competition and quality time with family and friends, get Risk 2.
Review by Christopher Thomas Champagne for Risk II
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People who haven’t played the original PC RISK think this “sequal” is fun, but people who have probably know better. Don’t be fooled by the pretty graphics or the neat-sounding simultaneous-moves game. Those are the only things this game has that the original doesn’t have, but they are both a big disappointment. Furthermore, the original had way more features which were way more fun and this game doesn’t have any of them. Let me explain:
RISK II:
GRAPHICS: Yes, it looks cool to see the little soldiers aiming their guns, shooting, and dying, but by the 20th or so battle it gets to be a real bore and only serves to slow the game down immensely (and there’s no way to skip through it.) It might be more fun if there were many more animated soldiers or if they stood in formation (like in the original.) The graphics are certainly better quality than the original but it’s really just an attempt to give the game a modern, 3D, RTS look. In short, it looks good at first but gets old and boring really fast.
SIMULTANEOUS-MOVES: The makers of RISK II did a good job of figuring out how to resolve all the many complex situations that can arise when you have multiple players who can split attacks, attack from two different directions, or surge attacks (two territories in a row.) But the disappointment was how the actual combat was resolved in these situations. The thing that really gets my goat is that when a territory is attacked from multiple enemy territories (called a mass-invasion), each attacking territory gets a separate die, regardless of the size of their force. The problem is that the defender has to beat ALL of the opposing dice to do any damage at all. In other words if six armies each attack the same territory from six different territories (one from each) they will have a HUGE advantage even if the defender has the same six armies all on the same territory. The attacker will get six dice and the defender only one, and the defender will have to beat all six opposing dice even if five of them rolled lower numbers. The catch is that if you do roll hihger than all six then you will kill all six, but with only one die your chances are slim and in my experience it just doesn’t weigh out. It lends itself to strategies that favor dividing your forces rather than massing them. In reality this would be strategic nonsense.
AI: On top of all these problems, the AI is rather unsophisticated. I’ve gotten to the point now where, if I play my cards right, I can almost always beat the computer, no matter how many opponents I play against. You learn to use the mass-invasion tactic to your best advantage but the AI never figures it out.
That’s about all there is to say. This game does not have many fun features.
THE ORIGINAL GAME:
*Several different maps! Europe (Huge!), Asia, Americas and more.
*Historical scenarios, some with TONS of armies.
*Short battle movies and unit animations (with soldiers in formation!)
*Tactical Cards like “Attack Right Flank,” “Defend Center,” “Ambush,” “Echelon Attack”
*Generals!
*Forts!
*Terrain effects!
*Many other features and options that I can’t remember.
See my point?