I probably would have missed this game if it wasn't for Haven's [thread=7824]thread on reasons for piracy[/thread]...
Democracy 2 is a turn-based game of politics and government. I've only played the demo so I can't speak to the game's longevity but the demo was certainly worth my time (around two hours, all told).
At its most basic, the game consists of four major components: policies, statistics, situations and voters. The first three are broken up across seven major areas of government, such as Law & Order, Welfare, Economy and so on. Each of the elements link to other elements, but the only thing you can change are the policies.
Policies are fairly broad, from investing in community policing to instituting an airline tax to passing a clean air directive. Policies affect statistics, which are just a measure of particular things in your country, such as GNP, unemployment, productivity and so on. These statistics can then give rise to situations, some positive but mostly negative. In the demo, the country you get to govern has some serious crime and health issues while running up a national debt due to a government deficit. Don't know what that means? Neither did I before I started! This game made it very straight forward to get hold of this information.
Each policy affects many other things, sometimes directly and other things in ways that take more consideration. Extending working hours, for example, boosts GNP but may lead to a situation of workplace stress, which in turn leads to a reduction in productivity and a strain on the health system. And, of course, extending those working hours pisses off some of your voters (and pleases others, such as the capitalists).
Policies require "political capital" to implement or change. This is built up with your ministers and can be saved from turn-to-turn in order to make bigger changes. So, passing a recycling bill is pretty easy, as is extending it to support a greater range of recycling (which costs you more money, of course). However, passing or repealing the death penalty requires a LOT of political capital and may end up being the only thing you do over three or four turns.
Voters aren't just in one camp or another; they have split loyalties with some being socialist alcoholics and others being commuting parents. It's not a simple matter of looking for the most voters and making policies to please them.
And, all the while, you're trying to balance the budget and not run up so much debt that they'll kick you out of office.
The game cuts out just at the point where it's really getting interesting... around eight to ten turns in. I'd managed to almost completely solve the crime issues and the end was in sight for the health problems. Unfortunately, everybody hated me (well, approval polls in at around 27%) and so I was going to have to do some serious work to actually get re-elected at the end of my term of office. Workplace stress had become an issue and terrorists were blowing up stuff in my country. I think legalising euthanasia probably didn't go down well, nor did implementing the minimum wage or all the other clean air and recycling directives I put in place. Ungrateful bastards.
It's an interesting game where you realise you have to make a choice between improving schools to improve the workforce to reduce poverty... or invest in the intelligence services to combat terrorism.
The graphics are basic but pleasant enough; after all, it's a game about statistics and relationships between things, not about blowing stuff up. The music was a bit irritating but I turned that off and listened to my own stuff instead.
All in all, I'm quite impressed; who would have thought that a game about politics could actually be quite so much fun?
I'm only a step away from buying the full game. If I'm still feeling enthusiastic about it a bit later today then I probably will. £13 for the full thing isn't much at all.
Democracy 2 is a turn-based game of politics and government. I've only played the demo so I can't speak to the game's longevity but the demo was certainly worth my time (around two hours, all told).
At its most basic, the game consists of four major components: policies, statistics, situations and voters. The first three are broken up across seven major areas of government, such as Law & Order, Welfare, Economy and so on. Each of the elements link to other elements, but the only thing you can change are the policies.
Policies are fairly broad, from investing in community policing to instituting an airline tax to passing a clean air directive. Policies affect statistics, which are just a measure of particular things in your country, such as GNP, unemployment, productivity and so on. These statistics can then give rise to situations, some positive but mostly negative. In the demo, the country you get to govern has some serious crime and health issues while running up a national debt due to a government deficit. Don't know what that means? Neither did I before I started! This game made it very straight forward to get hold of this information.
Each policy affects many other things, sometimes directly and other things in ways that take more consideration. Extending working hours, for example, boosts GNP but may lead to a situation of workplace stress, which in turn leads to a reduction in productivity and a strain on the health system. And, of course, extending those working hours pisses off some of your voters (and pleases others, such as the capitalists).
Policies require "political capital" to implement or change. This is built up with your ministers and can be saved from turn-to-turn in order to make bigger changes. So, passing a recycling bill is pretty easy, as is extending it to support a greater range of recycling (which costs you more money, of course). However, passing or repealing the death penalty requires a LOT of political capital and may end up being the only thing you do over three or four turns.
Voters aren't just in one camp or another; they have split loyalties with some being socialist alcoholics and others being commuting parents. It's not a simple matter of looking for the most voters and making policies to please them.
And, all the while, you're trying to balance the budget and not run up so much debt that they'll kick you out of office.
The game cuts out just at the point where it's really getting interesting... around eight to ten turns in. I'd managed to almost completely solve the crime issues and the end was in sight for the health problems. Unfortunately, everybody hated me (well, approval polls in at around 27%) and so I was going to have to do some serious work to actually get re-elected at the end of my term of office. Workplace stress had become an issue and terrorists were blowing up stuff in my country. I think legalising euthanasia probably didn't go down well, nor did implementing the minimum wage or all the other clean air and recycling directives I put in place. Ungrateful bastards.
It's an interesting game where you realise you have to make a choice between improving schools to improve the workforce to reduce poverty... or invest in the intelligence services to combat terrorism.
The graphics are basic but pleasant enough; after all, it's a game about statistics and relationships between things, not about blowing stuff up. The music was a bit irritating but I turned that off and listened to my own stuff instead.
All in all, I'm quite impressed; who would have thought that a game about politics could actually be quite so much fun?
I'm only a step away from buying the full game. If I'm still feeling enthusiastic about it a bit later today then I probably will. £13 for the full thing isn't much at all.