Website: http://denizengames.com/grandstrategy/
Platform/Requirements: Browser based
Free online membership is available with certain restrictions.
Review: This Risk game is played inside a browser. The player needs to select the moves from a number of combo boxes and buttons. Turn times are typically 18 to 24 hours. However, if you have played at least once, you can also join games that have a 15 minutes turn time. As well as standard sequential turn, it also supports simultaneous play. Multiple languages are available. The game is free to play. You can get extra features with yearly paid subscription.
This is a well put together game-in-a-browser. The maps look stylish and are easily readable. The user interface is also intuitive and easy to follow. If you are used to real-time strategy games or games that you play in a dedicated application, this game may feel a bit clunky to use, however you will quickly get used to it. It works because you are not in a rush and usually can spend a fair amount of time formulating your best move. In a turn-based strategy game, this is an incredibly useful feature. You can even use a chat box to talk to other players and initiate diplomacy .
As a result of longer turn times (at least in 18 and 24 hour versions), the game encourages you to play more tactically than strategically. When I went back to make a move on a daily basis, I almost forgot how the game looked like in the previous turn. So when someone had made a major move, and I didn't witnessed it when it was played, I easily got surprised with the end result. This effect was even more pronounced when a few players played one after the other and I only got to see the end result. Of course, this is not an implementation problem . It is a feature due to turn times, which is a subjective matter. Personally, I like to see how the game develops over time. It helps me to understand other player's style of game play.
Longer turn times means that you need to make a move everyday or so. That quickly becomes a habit and I can tell you that it gets very addictive. You tend to wake up in the morning and want to make your move in several Risk games one after the other. The next day you will be eager to know what happened to your great idea, or in this case your grand strategy.
Another feature that I noticed is that you have the option of unlimited fortification in some games. This means you can move as much armies as you like from one country to another connected country as many times as you like. It makes the game much more flexible. However, while attacking, I was unable to carry on with the attack from the conquered country. This stopped any hope of a blitz strategy which I found surprising considering the quality of the game.
All in all, this is a good risk game implementation and I encourage you to try it. The graphics are very clear and eye-pleasing unlike other implementations such as Conquer Club. Some people may prefer browser-based style of Risk better than dedicated applications such as Lux, but you probably wont know unless you try it.
P.S. Thanks to Bryan Brunton for resolving technical issues I had during my review of the web site.