Lux Review
- Product:
- Sillysoft Lux (Product Site)
- What’s Good:
- Classic Risk, Fun and Addictive, Lots of Maps, Active Player Community, Available for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows
- What’s Bad:
- Addictive, Online Games can be slow, Relatively Pricey at $24.95 US
I’ve long had a soft spot for strategy games, from the board-game Risk, to the Civilization game series. Far too many hours have been spent taking over the world. When I read a (rather wordy) review of Lux that promised the fun of Risk plus more, I had to check it out. I downloaded the demo, played one game, and then bought it outright. As promised, this is the best Risk game for your computer - great for a quick bit of fun, dangerous for its addictive nature.
The game comes with the classic risk map, as well as a few other variations to start you off. As in the board game Risk, the concept is simple enough, and easy to get into, but the level of strategy gets deeper the more you play.
As well, there is an in-game browser for user created maps (for some reason hidden under the name "Plugin Manager"). Now, usually I don’t spend a lot of time on user-created content in games, but some of these maps are incredible, and add a of depth to the game. Want to play Risk in the setting of WW1? WWII Europe? WWII Pacific? Vietnam? The American Civil War? These conflicts, and many more maps from the real to fantasy based are available. There is a user feedback system built in to the map browser, which helps in avoiding the stinkers. The best of these maps are well thought out, with choke points, continents that you want to battle for, and look great. The downside of some of these maps are that they are so detailed that on anything but a large computer monitor you can lose a lot of the detail that is actually there.
The games AI is challenging, and has a good range of skill levels. But still, the best computer players are no match for the random actions of human opponents. Thankfully, the games online abilities are good, and while there seems to be lots of games going on at any one time, prepare to commit a few hours to gaming if you’re going to be playing online. Through no fault of its own (the turn based game-play demands it), you can be waiting a while for your turn to come around again. Also be prepared to have your ass handed to you for a while, as the people who play online appear to be pretty well versed, and it takes a while to get used to playing real human players as opposed the computer. Games are also ranked, with a comprehensive set of statistics on the rankings page
In the end, it really is the best version of Risk I’ve ever seen for your computer. But that isn’t what makes it worth your money. The online play, beautiful, well thought out maps, and Just watch out for the addiction that comes with wanting to play one more round. So go check out the screenshots, get the demo, and decide if its worth the money for you.
