Overall Score 90%
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Lux
Put your hands up if you played board games when you were young... good, lots of you. Now keep your hand up if one of those board games was Risk. If like me, Risk was just a little bit too clever for your family to play, then rejoice as Lux brings the classic Risk game to your desktop, complete with clever opponents!
Risk, the board game, was tough to play. It involved you and the other players attempting to conquer the world using nothing more than a set number of armies, a little luck and a whole lot of strategic cunning. Like the best RTS games, played regularly by PC gamers, it was a thrill and challenge as long as the other players were capable of putting up a decent fight.
Lux, the desktop game is Risk re-invented and then some. Alongside a copy of the original Risk worldmap, Lux also provides you with country-based maps, historical maps and specially created custom maps. Furthermore, if you get bored of the standard maps, you can download newly created maps or create a new map yourself.
The opposition provided by Lux is a real treat. No longer will you have to watch as friends and family members deploy armies in stupid places, you can instead watch the AI as it defends and attacks based on the difficulty setting you set up at the start of a game. With more than 10 different AI difficulties, you're certain to find the right level of challenge.
Should you tire of the computer players, you can also take on network and internet players, though I found that the challenge of the AI was more than sufficient to keep me amused. You can even create your own AI routines so that the computer provides you with the perfect challenge - talk about covering all bases.
Graphically, Lux is fairly lightweight. That isn't too much of a critism in this genre though as the feel of the original board game is kept. Presentation is functional with all options easily available at the start of a new game. Once playing, its easy to keep track of everyone thanks to the vivid colours and the handy player info window. One thing I would say is that you need to play on a fairly large desktop as the maps seem to be fixed sizes.
Audio is good but seems largely redundant for some reason. Perhaps its because playing the board game usually has you listening to background noise such as TV or the radio. Most of my playtime on Lux was during lunchbreaks at work and the game was no worse with the sound turned completely off.
Another nice touch is that Lux is cross-platform, allowing Apple Mac and Linux players in addition to those who use Windows systems.
With the ability to create your own maps and AI, Lux has the edge over other Risk-based games and for that reason alone you should take a look. The developer, Sillysoft, has done a great job of bringing Risk to your desktop. If you liked the board game, you'll love this!
Keywords: lux review, sillysoft reviews, sillysoft games, lux scores, pc game reviews, indie game reviews, independent gaming.
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