The game Diplomacy has been around since the early 50’s, and it has been one of the most well-known board games around. Players assume control of one of the seven Great Powers during the early 20th century in Europe. The object of this game is to get complete domination of the map. There are only two types of units (armies and fleets), and only one unit can occupy a space on the board at a time. Pieces can support each other when they make an attack on a space, and whenever there's a conflict, the side with the majority of pieces involved in the battle wins. Players liked this game and saw it as a cross between chess and poker. If you had to put it another way, think of this game similar to Risk since it is also turned based. If you want to win this game you will have to make sure all of your thinking facilities are top notch, or else you will find yourself out of the game quickly.

The developers of this game tried to make sure that this PC game is as faithful a representation of the board game as much as they could. Since I have never played the original board game I cannot vouch for the accurate representation but I can say that this is a fun game that will occupy your time for a while.

There are four different modes of play available in Diplomacy. The first is the single-player game. You will pit your skills against six computer controlled opponents. Unless you have a lot of friends that can jump into playing a game for several hours, then this is one of the modes that will take the majority of your time. The AI for the game will be tough, but not so hard that you will want to throw your mouse against a wall.

Another mode you can play with is the Sandbox mode. This mode really allows for players to get to know how to play the game, because it will allow you to test out various strategies. That means that you can setup all of your forces as well as the enemy forces and see what happens. You can do this because the computer AI for this mode is not present. This is a great way to really set up some interesting battle tactics that you can use against a friend later on.

The next two modes are both multiplayer. First there is the LAN, which means that you and up to six buddies can connect and play to your heart's content against each other to find out who is the best at this game. If you can’t manage to find enough people to play with you then all you will have to do is login to the Metasever, which is Paradox’s online matchmaking system, and get your game on in there.

There are seven nations that can be played in this game and each has their own special properties. The nations are: England, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. Each of them can use their land advantage for or against the other players. For instance, Germany is in the middle of the map, so they will have to be tactful to other players in order to survive in the beginning. On the other hand Turkey is in the corner of the map. They are very good at defense but they will have a harder time expanding their borders. So we see that each nation will have its pros and cons; it is up to the player to exploit them to their fullest extent.

One of the things that I really liked about this game is the avatars features. When you are playing though the single-player mode the avatars will make different faces depending on what move is going on the field. The faces are something similar you might face if you were playing against a real human. It is a great addition and something that helps break the tension you might be facing while you are playing the game.

Diplomacy is rated E for Everyone.

System Requirements:
Pentium 3 – 800 MHz
256 MB of RAM
Windows XP or 2000
8X CD-ROM
DirectX 9.0
32 MB of Video RAM
Keyboard and Mouse.

Gameplay: 8.8
If you love playing tabletop-strategy board games, or strategy games in general then you will love Diplomacy. It offers hours upon hours of gameplay that will keep you entertained for months to come.

Graphics: 7.5
The graphics for Diplomacy are really plain looking, but that also goes hand-in-hand with how the board game looks.

Sound: 8.5
The sound really fits the game as well as the time period that the game is put in.

Difficulty: Medium
This game can be pretty overwhelming when you first turn it on and see everything that you will have to do in order to get your main goals accomplished. In time it gets a little easier but you will always have those players out to get you so you will always have to watch your back.

Concept: 8.0
I really liked the avatars that the developers included in this game because it made the game seem much more alive and more fun to play.

Multiplayer: N/A
At the time of this review I did not have a chance to test out the multiplayer features of this game.

Overall: 8.5
I have to say that I really enjoyed playing Diplomacy, and that this game can only get better if I was playing against humans rather then the computer-controlled AI. If you are a big strategy buff then this is a game you should check out.