Customer Reviews

Diplomacy

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

It'd be wonderful to have a computer game version of the board game Diplomacy, but this game is unplayably buggy.

Even with the latest patch (v1.1), the tutorial messages have spelling mistakes and odd characters in them. The rotation and scrolling of the game board are choppy and doesn't work properly. The avatar animations are silly and repetitive, but disabling them makes it impossible to do negotiations. At startup, the entire screen goes black for about 60 seconds before coming back up to the entry menu. And there's many, many other bugs.

I own several Paradox Interactive games and often find them to be buggy, but this one is unplayable. I give it two stars instead of one only because I desperately hope the next patch gets this game to the point that it is usable.

It really would be fun to have a computer version of Diplomacy, but this attempt by Paradox is too buggy to play.

If I could give this PC game a lower rating, I would. Paradox Interactive has dropped the ball and is selling a catastrophe for $40. This isn't just a bad game, it's bad software outright. The poor user interface renders this PC adaptation simply unuseable - failure at almost every turn. But don't let these reviews fool you, the board game is wonderful (buy it instead or search the internet for a free Diplomacy software).

For a review I mostly agree with, go here:
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/diplomacy-2005/665958p1.html

it had great promise... but, alas alak, after spending a few hrs learning the tutorials and reading the manual, and having a few minutes of winning....it started showing what the other reveiwers c/o...multiple bugs, screw ups, frustratingly getting frozen, not allowing the player to make his moves during a turn, not alowing a easily readable playing interface....not letting you see what a fellow's treaty proposal is/was....i finally got so upset, i broke the CD and tore the box and manual into smll peices! i may not buy another avaon hill comp game in a long while!

Yet another game apparently written without any concept of how do build a stable, reliable application. You'll do better to download just about any free game from the Web. Avoid!

The premise is set in Europe pre WWI. There are 7 countries, each with 3 "armies" all are equal. From there it's played similar to chess, but since all pieces are of equal strength the only way to conquer is to gang up on a "square". One way to gang up is to get a rival to help you. But what you agree to and what you (or he) does may be two different things. Like chess the rules are simple but the execution is at any level.

The original game of Diplomacy was always intriguing to me and my friends, but the mechanics of submitting orders and resolving things and finding 7 friends at once made it somewhat unplayable.

This electronic version makes the execution of the commands much more straightforward. It allows for many types of pacts / treaties, either for a single move or a longer term general agreement. The AI allows you to play without requiring a group of committed people.

The sound and graphics are definitely basic. It's a real time game with no way to pause for a potty break. There is no review at the end of the game (like civilization) for you to see how things played out or what trechery happened. No stats.

It works, it's AI is good, but not great, but there are no perks normally associated with computer games, just the basic execution of the board game.

What a crappy game. All the other reviews have pretty much spelled out the plethora of problems with it. If you're looking for a good strategy game (what I was hoping for) try Rome: Total War. Don't make my mistake--don't get this game!

I received this game as a Christmas gift last year and because of all the negative reviews I didn't install it for some time. There were a few positive reviews about the multi-player session, however I was looking mainly to play this by myself. I haven't played Diplomacy in years because I haven't had anyone to play with.

I've only played a few games, but I really have only seen one error. Reloading the game from before the error happened fixed the problem and no other issues occurred with that game.

The AI is a bit simplistic and the animations are a bit annoying after a while, especially when they seem to get "stuck" and take a little while longer than normal. But it's still fun to be able to strategize and play.

I think at a discounted rate this game is worth it, but don't expect anything more than basic gameplay and be prepared for a few bugs.

Diplomacy, as a board game is a niche game that appeals to the people who enjoy wargames like Risk, but prefer the more realistic interactions one would see in actual politics as a determining factor in winning rather than rolling dice or drawing cards. To that end, Diplomacy is not a game for everyone. The nature of the board game makes it very difficult to translate over into a marketable game for the general public and this game is no exception. While Paradox does make a decent effort to create a quality reproduction of the board game, the effort was simply too limited to excel to the level expected by both the casual gamer and the Diplomacy veteran.

The game itself presents a brightly colored map with equally vivid pieces complying with the American color scheme of the board game. Each of the nations are represented by animated avatars, whose expressions change depending on the turn of events at each season. Unlike many other Diplomacy games and utilities for the computer, orders are not written, but a drag-and-drop interface is used, instead. While this appears much more refined on the surface than the complexity of writing out orders, the interface is surprisingly uncooperative at times, which may frustrate novices. The interface is also not very intuitive, which contributes to an unexpected learning curve in playing the game. The interface also removes a tactical aspect of the game as writing orders manually offers many opportunities for a Diplomacy player.

The AI bots for the single-player modes are competent, but are extremely limited. The nation a bot plays holds more weight than the actual AI routine and the AI has a habit of stabbing nations in situations where two nations should cooperate and vice versa. The AI is simply not sophisticated enough to handle the intricacies of the game beyond simple tactics and movement adjudication. Since this game came out five years ago, this is more a limitation of the time than anything else.

To address further limitations, the game's multiplayer mode, known as "metaserver" lacks an in-game chat feature. This is the greatest flaw of this game. The whole concept of the game Diplomacy REQUIRES players to talk to one another. This obviously cannot happen without a chat function. Players are limited to a contextual menu in-game for proposals. None of these menus serve the true nature of the game's social interaction. The wheeling, dealing, scheming and waylaying that are part of the Diplomacy experience cannot be expressed in this game, severely detracting from the product.

The music for this game is surprisingly good. In fact, the music is too good. The fully orchestrated soundtrack certainly conveys the grandeur and sensation of being the head of a Great Power power-brokering with six other peers for domination. However, given the inability to truly interact with other players, the quality of the music is wasted on the experience of simply manipulating menus when you want to manipulate your fellow players, instead.

The original release of this game is notoriously bugged and the latest patch, v 1.3, is a virtual requirement. There are still minor bugs present in the game, but the age of the product makes any further support non-existent.

Overall, this version of the game is not as bad as many people make out. However, twitchy interfaces, idiotic AIs, necessity of patching and the inability to actually chat with human players spoil what could have been an excellent experience. If one is a dedicated player of the board game, this title is worth exploring. However, for novices or the general gamer, I would recommend seeking another avenue of gaming.

Very buggy, very slow, poor graphics, the list goes on...

By far the worst game I have ever purchased. Paradox should be ashamed of selling this garbage.

Thank god I only spent $10 (including shipping).

Buying fast food would have been a better investment!

It's a good game, hours of fun. There are a couple of bugs in it though, but it for the most part is a fun and challenging game. I paid less than $5 for it, well worth the money.