View All (43)

One part Risk, one part poker, and one part chess, Diplomacy puts you in the role of one of the seven world powers and is a strategy game that should not be missed!

If you’ve ever stepped into a fancy-schmancy game store (a place like the Game Keeper comes to mind) like you might find in a shopping mall, then you have probably seen a board game called Diplomacy nestled in there amongst the various Dungeons & Dragons campaigns and decks of Magic: The Gathering trading cards. The truth is that Diplomacy has been a favorite tabletop strategy game amongst those who take their games very seriously for quite some time.



One part Risk, one part poker, and one part chess, Diplomacy puts you in the role of one of the seven world powers who controlled most of Europe in the early twentieth century. Victory in Diplomacy comes not from a roll of the dice or the turn of a card, but by how well you “play” your opponent(s). This makes it a perfect game for translation to a PC title as long as the opposing AI is adequate enough to make for a worthy opponent when playing against the computer and as long as a viable multiplayer mode is offered.



Paradox Interactive has managed to succeed on both counts here. While the AI in Diplomacy is certainly not up to snuff when compared against a living, breathing opponent (a big part of the game involves negotiation, something that it is just not easy to make a computer understand), it is surprisingly on point enough to play a game against without becoming overly frustrated either by bonehead moves or an unattainable (for humans) skill level.



More important in a game of this type, of course, is multiplayer. Diplomacy supports two multiplayer modes; LAN and PI’s “Metaserver.” I did my multiplayer testing on a LAN as the Metaserver was not yet available (but should be up and running as you read this) and was pleased to see that the game runs smooth as silk in that mode. The internet Metaserver is probably not much different.



Of course this is not the kind of game that will be taxing your system’s graphical capabilities. The interface and overall presentation mimic the look and feel of the tabletop game pretty well, meaning that there isn’t a great need for fancy graphics. This brings up the only real complaint I have with the game – the fact that it requires at least 32MB video memory. Granted this is not a lot compared to what some high-end games want to run on these days, but the seemingly needless inflexibility will leave a number of players with lower-end machines out of the Diplomacy loop. A number of these probably fall into the game’s key demographic.



All in all, Diplomacy is a faithful representation of the classic board game which offers everything that fans of the classic game will be looking for and then some. In fact, probably the most ingenious inclusion on the part of the developers is the game’s “sandbox” mode. This allows players to dream up virtually any situation or scenario they care to just to see what might happen were it to come to pass. It’s a great way to come up with new strategies for use in actual games.

The learning curve on this one is a tad high for most folks, especially if you’re completely new to the game. Those who have played the tabletop version of Diplomacy before will find that they catch on to this new version fairly quickly. Expect to take an hour or so to fully understand the rules if you’ve never played and perhaps another thirty minutes to become familiar enough with the interface and controls.


Review by Michael Triggs.