Virtual Conquest - Great Idea, Needs Refining

Virtual Conquest is a Risk knock-off for the iPhone, the first of its kind. The concept is good; the execution needs work.

The basics of the game are similar to Risk. The game is played on a board representing the world, with the various continents divided into territories. Each of the territories is occupied by a number of armies controlled by one of the gameplayers. Players take turns building armies and attacking adjacent centers with the objective of ultimately taking over the entire game board. By conquering entire continents, players obtain additional bonus army builds.

The game features the ability to play both against computer and human opponents. It seems that the game lacks support for play over wireless - multiplayer games can be played by passing a phone around to multiple players.

The good:

1. The map is nicely done.
2. The gameplay is fairly seamless.
3. It's moderately fun.

The bad:

1. There's no way to set up a standard game for use every time you play, or to start a game quickly. Every time you play, you're forced to enter the entire player list. If you're going to play the computer, it's pretty safe to say that you don't care what the computer players' names are and do not want to be forced to type them in. It's also safe to say that you're going to want to play with the standard six players. So why not just have this as a standard option?

2. There's no sound.

3. When it's the computer's move, there's no way to focus in on what the computer is doing. You have to scan the screen to see where he's attacking or building. Though, since the computer never attacks, this is somewhat of a moot point.