World Domination is an online, multi-player game for your Windows Phone that is designed in the tradition of the classic board game Risk. Your mission is to march your armies across the globe, wiping the floor up with your opponent.
The menu pages for World Domination covers your gaming status. The menu pages include pages that will list the active games you have in progress, game requests waiting to be filled, your completed game stats, and a global high score list. Along the bottom of the menu pages you will find three button controls. One to start a new game, your settings access, and access to the help/how to section.
World Domination was recently updated which really improved the game performance. Before the update things were a bit laggy but after the version 1.8 update things moved along a lot nicer. Overall, World Domination isn't a bad online multi-player game.
To get started with World Domination, you'll need to create a screen name and from there all you need to do is tap the "+" button on the menu pages to create a new game. Games can be public or private (invite only) and can have 2-5 players.
As you wait for a game to fill up with enough players it will be listed on your Waiting Page. Once filled, the game shifts to your Active Page with toast notifications available to alert you when it's your turn to play.
The game screen is a world map that is divided by countries (or regions). Movement lines are present to show which country can attack which or what direction you can make troop reinforcements. The number circle on each country represents the number of troops or armies present. The global map is touch zoomable, supports landscape orientation and a statistics and chat box is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (about where Hawaii should be).
Game play follows along the same line as the board game Risk does except your initial placement of troops (armies) to the various countries is random. First you go through a replay of the moves prior to yours. Luckily there is a fast forward button to zip through the replay. A "skip" button would be a nice touch but for now the fast forward button will do.
After the replay is over, game play is very similar to Risk. You deploy new troops, attack your opponents and then re-enforce your positions with troop movements. To attack a country just tap your troop indicator and drag your finger to your target. Instead of dice, combat is accomplished by spinning wheels and troop movements at the end of your turn is limited to one country. As with Risk, you earn new troops based on the number of countries you occupy and bonus troops are awarded for players who occupy an entire continent.
You continue playing until one player dominates the world by occupying all the countries.
As with any online multi-player game, World Domination's game play is dependent on how promptly your opponents make their moves. World Domination does set a 24 hour limit on taking a turn. If you fail to take your turn within 24 hours, your turn is skipped and any troops ready to deploy are carried over. If you get a group of players that stay on top of their turns, World Domination is a very entertaining game. However, and I'm as guilty as the next, sometimes you get a player that drags things out and the entertainment value drops just a tad.
Risk is a personal favorite and World Domination does a decent job of representing the game concept. I would have liked to have seen a local gaming option against a computer opponent or maybe even a pass and play option. Since being updated to version 1.8, the game moves along nicely and while animations are simple, they get the job done. In a nutshell, World Domination is a Windows Phone game worth trying.
World Domination is a free, ad supported game that you can find here at the Windows Phone Marketplace. Oh... the update ads the ability to donate at least $1 to the developer to unlock an additional four game slots and remove the ads. Just look under the three dot menu on the Menu Pages of the game.
