Tacticolor
Tacticolor is a fast paced multiplayer strategy game that contains some highly addictive gameplay.
The game begins with a map made up of various territories of different shape and size.
Territories you own are filled in with the colour of your army, and you can attack any territory that is connected to you by a line.
You do this by creating extra armies and then sending them into battle.
Conflicts are resolved in the same way as in the board game Risk, so the more units you have the better the chance of you winning.
Armies take time to produce but the more territories you own the faster you'll be able to generate them.
Available units are shown on the left side of the screen and you can allocate them to your territories as you see fit.
The game is won by the first player to defeat all their enemies and take over the entire board.
The action all happens in real time, so you'll need to think and act quickly to succeed.
Tacticolor is a four player game, and is at its best when played against other humans via Local or Online Multiplayer. It can be played by less players (even single player) by allocating the other armies to the computer AI, which is surprisingly competent, especially when on the Hard setting (you can chose between Easy, Medium and Hard).
There are two main game modes, Land Rush and Filled.
Land Rush sees each player start with just one army on one territory, while Filled sees all territories divided equally among the players.
You can customize the map size, between Tiny, Small, Medium and Large.
There are also Awardments to unlock.
The graphics are sparse yet work well at keeping the action clear.
But don't let the simple visuals fool you, there is a lot of depth to the gameplay with matches soon becoming tense and frantic affairs.
I'd recommend first playing against the computer AI on the Easy difficulty setting, as it works well as an introduction to the rules and allows you to start devising your own strategies.
The Medium difficulty setting turns things up a notch with the computer playing quite competently, but once you move on to Hard be prepared for a real challenge, as the AI becomes fast and ruthless.
Winning a tough game proves immensely satisfying and as a result I've found Tacticolor to be highly addictive.
It's fast paced enough for games to be fairly quick yet smart enough for them to all be engaging.
If you're a fan of strategy games or love playing Risk, then I'd certainly recommend picking this title up.
Well worth the paltry asking price!