Man O' Kent

I think that Risk Legacy deserves more attention than it has received. Pandemic Legacy Season 1 claimed the BGG number one spot and started the fashion for attaching a legacy element to every game for the next 12 months. I would argue that so far the two most effective and satisfying games to employ the legacy format are Risk and Pandemic Season 1, and I wouldn’t swear to which is the most effective. Despite this every gaming shop I’ve been in for the last few years has copies of both Pandemic seasons, Seafall and Charterstone, while few or none of them have copies of Risk Legacy. 

I don’t know if this is due to childhood nightmares of never ending struggles over Europe, a dislike of modern gamers towards traditional family favourites or something more fundamental. I will say though that the game play in modern versions of Risk has been heavily overhauled. Unlike re-skins of Cluedo and Monopoly new versions of Risk are newer, better games worth looking at by any modern gamer. 

Risk as a game makes the most sense of almost any to have the legacy format applied, after all few events are more likely to permanently change the face of the world map than international war. Cities being founded and nuclear weapons dropped leading to fundamental changes makes absolute sense. Furthermore, in the excellent Pandemic Legacy series the scars and alterations effecting the map are largely caused by non-player directed actions, they mark more often than not the places where players failed. In Risk Legacy every change and mark is the direct result of a player action not reaction or inaction, every change is someone’s choice.

I know more people who own Pandemic Legacy Season 2 than Risk Legacy, which considering that Risk is cheaper and has been available for longer is peculiar to say the very least. If your hoping for Pandemic Season 3 or desperate to see Betrayal Legacy and don’t yet own Risk Legacy I strongly suggest you seek it out.