Axis & Allies

"A few corners cut, a few quick dollars made."

I am disappointed in this game. I understand that it is old, but it is not that old. First, there are only a few playable factions (Germany, USSR, Britain, USA, and Japan) and if any faction is controlled by the game, it's moves are predictable and often they make no move at all. Game-play is also made annoying by the fact that other factions turns cannot be skipped, and the game has plenty of bugs.

The Game itself is pretty self explanatory, it is a World War II game where you can play as the major factions of the war. It does include a few features which are useful. A strategy guide for the first move of both Germany and Japan, and an in-depth tutorial that explains everything you need to know about controlling your units. It does have a multi-player (LAN/Internet) feature, although there can only be 5 players in any one game, as no new factions were added for multi-player.

The setup is like that of the game Risk. You have a set number of troop to start with and you attack other players to gain land, giving you more resources, with which you buy more troops. The attack system is simple, for every unit on a force, a six-sided dice is rolled. The units in the battle are randomly placed on a segment of their respective sides (attacker or defender). The segments are number 1, 2, 3, 4, and 0. If the numbers rolled match a segment where enemy troops are, they take a hit (5 and 6 are segment 0).

One reason I was disappointed in this game was because it did not include any diplomacy factor. It did not even allowing you to suggest peace or declare war with the four other factions. Also, while there is a research area, there are only 6 things to research and a computer controlled faction will not research anything.

Overall, I do not recommend this game to anyone. It may be cheap, but for the same price you can find a better strategy game.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/04/06