Absolute Risk

How do you feel about global domination? Answer 1: "Ick." Answer 2: "I'm fine with that, as long as it's me doing the dominating." If you chose Answer 2, you'll probably enjoy Absolute Risk, a classic Word Domination Risk game from Developersland. Chances are good you're already familiar with the basics of this free strategy game, which involves moving armies to conquer territories and continents: We have a clue that it's based on a classic board game with something of a monopoly on the Risk market. But while you need to round up a few friends or siblings to play the board game, you can play Absolute Risk against multiple artificial intelligence players. It keeps stats much more accurately than your little brother, too.

Absolute Risk's interface is dominated by a flat world map with continents linked by dotted lines that allow intercontinental troop movements. The menu bar lists Game, Options, Statistics, and Help. The only options involve Rules and Styles, and there's one of each: To assign the starting number armies and Gold Territories, and to change the color of the ocean on the map. Under Statistics, we could Show or Hide game stats as well as Show History in the right-side panel, which depicts a Spartan warrior when the stats are off.

We clicked New Game, which opened up a player list with Player 1 designated as Human and the rest as Computer opponents, including Hitler and six instances of Genghis Khan, though we could change any of the names and settings as well as select our opponents using checkboxes. Clicking Start activated the map's colored territories and army counters. We placed our armies by clicking territories. To initiate an attack, you can click an enemy territory or use the space bar. Your computer takes the part of rolling dice, and you can choose Attack, Retreat, or Do or Die, which involves transferring all or part of your available forces, resulting in costly gains that leave you vulnerable to attack. Absolute Risk is fun and challenging, whether you're conquering friends or going toe-to-toe with Hitler or Genghis Khan.