Unlike its cousin, WW2, the Great War was never much of a time period to make games about. The problem with the war was it was, in a game standpoint, very boring. You couldn’t make a shooter over it because WW1 was fought in the old European tradition – lining up two armies and rushing at each other. A WW1 shooter would be you sitting in a trench for a few hours then running across a barren field just to get cut down by a machine gun. A strategy game wouldn’t be all that fun either. Military technology was not a factor in the war as all sides were relatively equalized due to the trench warfare tactic. Air combat was the only interesting aspect, as played out by the old Red Baron games, but even they were limited as it was only at the very end of the war did the air power actually affect the ground war when a few plucky pilots dropped grenades out of their planes into the trenches. Ultimately, there is nothing that can be made fun out of WW1. But that didn’t stop Avalon Hill from putting out a board game on the subject. The game was more of an abstract of the Great War and involved only two units – naval and infantry. The object was to make deals with other players and form alliances, either for a few turns or for the duration of the game, and take over the European theater. It was a generally entertaining strategy game that could be played on family nights.
Then came a surprise when Paradox Entertainment took the challenge to translate the game into a PC title. While the idea of translating a board game to the PC was done before in the form of titles like Monopoly and Risk, the question is whether or not today’s gaming community would snap it up.
Diplomacy is set up exactly like the board game. You are given the board map, colored areas to represent your territory, and even the naval and infantry pieces to move around. Saying that, the visuals are only going to leave everything to the imagination. Sure, you can pitch the board and look at it from different angles and even zoom in, but I never figured out why I would want to make any real adjustments to the board other than to make moves to smaller areas easier. The only other visual flair is in the form of enemy leaders, which are animated and show up from time to time to help you identify who you are dealing or fighting with. Thing is, this is a PC game. I can understand the board game not having good “graphics” because it is an inanimate board game made of plastic and cardboard. I would expect a PC game to have some more substance behind it than board game pieces moving around a map. Even the newer Risk titles animate the battles and Monopoly shows the dog running around the board. It is not wise in the days where even budget PCs have 3D graphics processors to put out a simple, non-animated board game. Speaking of which, the requirement of a 32 meg card is quite entertaining as the game has no graphical splendor to speak of.
The gameplay is also just like the board game. The game’s flow is divided into phases, which are referred to as Spring and Fall. You start up with a movement/battle phase which is followed by a retreat phase. During this phase, of which there are two during any given turn, you can move your units around the board, one province at a time, and attack. You can also ask to enter into alliances with other nations during the movement turns. Battles are fairly simple. If you try to rush one-on-one with an equal unit, the battle usually ends up as a draw, so to counter this, you need to position your units next to the same province and have the second unit support the first. This will pretty much guarantee a victory and capture of the province. After the battle phase is the retreat phase. During this phase, you retreat your units back to friendly territory. If you don’t have any available friendly territory you then lose the unit. It is important to both cut off retreat paths as well as support your current unit’s move to succeed in the game. It is much like a nasty game of chess.
The next phase is another battle and retreat phase. After the second round of attack/retreat, you then get to the unit production or destruction phase. In Diplomacy, many of the provinces are designated as supply centers. Supply centers determine how many units you can have on the board at any given time. If you manage to capture a supply center during the game, you get to add a new naval or infantry unit. If you have a net loss, then you have to pick a piece to get rid of.
The sound is also a bit lacking. It is just music and a bunch of weird grunts when you are in the battle phase. The AI character voices are really annoying as during the mid part of the game where a lot of fighting is going on, the resolution of the battle phase is permeated by a ton of grunting, basically to the point where I turned off my speakers.
As a board game, Diplomacy is a very good strategy game. As a PC game, the title really has a lot lacking. There just isn’t much in the way of variety and focuses purely on unit placement. Especially when you compare it to other Paradox offerings like Crusader Kings and Hearts of Iron, which have expanded strategy types, logistic challenges, and more detailed diplomatic dealings.
A main problem is the AI. The AI is predictable in its movements and diplomatic dealings. You can easily feint an AI player into moving units away from key provinces as well as expect to be backstabbed on a regular basis in diplomatic dealings.
Basically, the game is just not that good when it comes to the single player experience.
Surprisingly, though, the multiplayer aspect is actually a better experience than the tabletop board game. The hotseat version is pretty much the same thing, but can avoid a lot of the cheating and rules arguments that may arise in the tabletop environment. The real fun comes from the multiplayer games through the servers. When dealing in multiplayer games, diplomatic dealings are done in complete secrecy. No one is around to look over your shoulder as you make deals as everything is player to player. Players are now able to make deals with one another without others being the wiser. Even better, you can make a deal with one player and get into a deal with another to backstab the first. The cloak and dagger aspect of Diplomacy was only enhanced in the PC version.
Ultimately, Diplomacy is no fun at all when you are playing by yourself, but a bit better when playing with others over a network. The AI isn’t very entertaining to interact with and many other PC games offer a much deeper and stronger sense of strategy and diplomatic relations while the added secrecy of multiplayer interactions makes the world of Diplomacy much better when playing with other humans. The dull visuals and sounds don’t do much to help in the matter either, especially when trying to reach a broader audience. Diplomacy is a good game for those who are not able to find a ready supply of opponents for the tabletop game or those who are looking for a strategy game and are intimidated by the deeper offerings like Hearts of Iron. The game was built for highly social gamers, but has nothing to offer graphics hogs or strategy nuts.
