Aggression Review

You know that feeling when you win a board game? That feeling that you are better than everyone else, nothing can harm you and you’re on top of the world. Well, every time you play Aggression and conquer the world, you get that euphoric feeling and it’s hard to come down from it.

Aggression is a strategy game that feels like an infinitely more refined version of the board game Risk. Building armies, deploying men and attacking neighboring territories is what this game is all about.

The ‘board’ is divided into 42 territories and six continents. If a player is successful in taking over at least one neighboring territory he is rewarded with an aggression point, a maximum of one AP is rewarded per turn. When a player has over 3 AP’s he randomly will redeem them for men at the beginning of his turn. This is where the strategy really comes into play.

If every player is averaging 100 men in all the continents and Player A is rewarded with 40 men by returning his APs, he is seemingly unstoppable, but it just may lead to his demise. Many times I was rewarded my men and put them all on one territory and started attacking everyone in sight. But, because of this my army was spread too thin and my enemies just took over all of my weaker territories when I was busy starting a war elsewhere.

When a player conquers the entire world the game is over and that player wins. Games of Risk can take hours, but an entire game of Aggression can be completed in the time it takes your music professor to babble on about Schubert’s broken hand. I know from experience.

The game can be customized in a number of ways. The maximum number of men in a territory can be adjusted. The number of men rewarded when redeeming your Aggression Points can be rewarded. Also, the number of opponents and their skills can be set with the options in the beginning of the game. My favorite way to play is against five opponents (4 advanced, 1 neutral) with a low number of men allowed in one territory and almost no men rewarded with the redemption of AP’s. I feel as if this allows skill to become more of a factor rather than just luck.

The graphics in this game are very clear and crisp. The only thing that is displayed is a map of the Earth but it is presented perfectly. There are three different ways to view the map. Opaque view is the best looking but the hardest to play on. The solid color view is the easiest to play on as it is functional and is also good looking, but it takes away from the topographical features of the map. Finally, continental view shows which territories are adjacent to others and shows the bonus men rewarded when a player holds an entire continent for one turn.

There is no sound in this game but I’ve grown to like that. I don’t have to worry about turning the game on in a quiet setting and watching everyone’s head turn when they hear constant ‘blips’ and ‘beeps’.

This game is very good and I have literally played it for hours and hours. The only game I’ve invested more time in is Plant Tycoon (and that’s saying a lot). If you’re into strategy games at all, definitely give this puppy a chance. Don’t pay attention to the ratings either, since the game was largely penalized, wrongfully, for not having sound.