If you play the computer, which most times you will do, unfortunately you can't set the difficulty and the AI is surprisingly good. So you can expect to constantly get beaten until you really get a handle on the advanced strategy of the game.
The aim is incredibly simple, you need to cover 50% of the board with your captured pieces before your opponent does. The board is made up of many small squares of 7 different colors (hence the name) and as the game progresses you capture neighbouring squares and make them yours. This is done by selecting a new color on each turn, then all neighbouring pieces of the new color immediately become yours. Essentially you grow your captured area little by little with each
turn.
Although it may sound simple (and in fact it is) playing well requires some very deep thinking and strategies. You can expand your captured area out in all directions, or carry it in one direction to hem in your opponent, surround or block your opponent, and all while he is trying to do the same to you. It has a feeling of being a very simple but accurate simulation of war. I would even go so far as to compare it to chess, at least as far as strategy and thinking ahead.
When I first discovered this game 12 months ago, I couldn't stop playing it, every time I had a spare half hour, I would fire it up. Eventually I reached the stage where I could beat the computer more than half the time. By that stage my 6 year old son had also discovered the game and become hooked on it, so we started to play against each other.
My only critisim is that the PC version doesn't allow a joystick, only 1 mouse and keyboard. So if you have a 2 player game, 1 person gets a mouse while the other has to press keys. It is a disadvantage for the keyboard player as there is a time limit for each move and pressing keys to select a color is slower than making a single click.
This game is simple, addictive, multiplayer and very attractive to look at.
If you don't have it already, get it. If you never played it, try it. The only risk, is do you have enough time in your day once you get hooked?
An undiscovered gem, and best of all it runs on DosBox.
