Quick Hit: Risk: Halo Wars: Fun with the Flood, Covenant, and UNSC
Yes, we’ve seen Halo Wars, and most recently Halo 3: ODST. But the series that made Master Chief a household name (well, at least in our household) has finally made the transition to the side of gaming that really matters- board gaming.
The RISK: Halo Wars board game features three armies- the UNSC, Flood, and Covenant- battling it out on a fairly Risk-looking board of 42 territories, with the same number of continents. Unlike some of the previous “Collector’s Edition” versions of Risk (Transformers, Star Wars), this one isn’t made by Hasbro themselves, but by USAopoly, makers of many, many different Monopoly editions among other things (including Trivial Pursuit: Family Guy Travel Edition, no kidding). Thus, we were a bit worried, and the pieces don’t exactly inspire confidence either- they are translucent, and feel a bit cheap).
All was well, though, once we started playing. The rules are pretty much exactly the same as Risk, and the variations are similar as well- a Basic Training game with command centers, the classic conquer the world version, and a Command Room version that adds some extra options, missions, and what they call achievements. They even created a nice teaser video that lays out some of the features. We ended up liking the game quite a bit- for Halo fans, it’s the best version of Risk yet. At $40, it’s also reasonably priced.
