I am no stranger to thinking that I can run my country better than my current government, and it is not often that a game can prove you so badly wrong.
To start this off, let me say that I don't usually play these sorts of simulation games due to them often being very wordy and actually requiring you to think and spend a lot of time on them, which is hard for me as I get distracted easily.
A lot of what happens in the game you need to visualize in your own mind, which means that you need to have a good head on your shoulders to enjoy a game like this; it's not for the "must have big EXPLOSIONS" crowd.
There is very little animation in the game. It's all buttons, sliders, and reading/making decisions on how to not fail badly and have everyone turn against you.
When getting into the game I wasn't surprised by the amount I had to learn right away; it's quite a lot, but as I found out later it is worth it, so don't let the slow start put you off.
Right away you are thrown into the thick of it trying to sort out policies that, for example, can help fight crime and not piss off the rest of the country. For instance, I thought spot checks for police was a great idea, but my country however decided otherwise—oh hell!
There will be a lot of policies you implement that will be a trade-off between one thing or another, and you will always lose at least one groups support.
Game-play Video
Here you can see a short video of my playing the game under Manjaro Linux 64bit, from it you will get better idea of the game.
Direct Link
Funnily enough in this video as leader of Germany, I did really well. I managed to get crime down, get our income right up to where the debt line was and still be favoured in the voting!
Conclusion
I think it's a great game if you have some time to kill, and if you like me think you can do a better job than everyone else, you should prepare to fail and badly. Unless you have some sort of political gift of course, which I did in the game I took the video on!
I cannot fault the Linux port, everything worked flawlessly.
Game Information:
Name: Democracy 3
Released: October 14th, 2013
Developer: Positech Games
Rating: 7/10
Hardware Specifications:
Processor: AMD A10-5800K
Video Card: Nvidia 650ti
Memory: 8GB DDR3
System Specifications:
Distribution: Manjaro Linux
Graphics Driver: Nvidia 331.38
Desktop Environment: KDE
Mind you, a game about being a politician in a truly free market society would hardly be very engaging: what would the player do? Sit back and watch? CoD wouldn't be much fun if everyone put down their guns and talked it out over a nice cup of tea, and games about running big governments wouldn't be much fun if there was hardly any government to run.
So I suppose it's fair enough. Not for me, though.
Kitten, I heard the exact opposite, that it tended to force you into the Keynesian tax-and-spend model. In fact, that's why I didn't buy it.
Did you not think it possible that what Kitten was hoping for was far beyond the realm of plain Keynesian economics?
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Kitten, I heard the exact opposite, that it tended to force you into the Keynesian tax-and-spend model. In fact, that's why I didn't buy it.
Not to turn this into a politics or economics debate, but what I think you mean is a liberal tax-and-spend model. Keynesian demand management policy during a recession (which I assume is what you refer to) is to reduce taxes, not increase them.
anewson, we can argue about words, but you're right: this place is supposed to be about games, and I'm rather embarrassed that my first comment has veered so far off-topic. In fact, my intention wasn't to argue about exactly what philosophy the game seems to subscribe to, but simply to point out that as a game, there have to be rules and restrictions.
It is one rather complicated game, proving that anyone who wants to become President is a secret masochist. Not that its players are masochists:D...
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