The options menu doesn’t save your preferences, forcing you to change them every time you fire up the game. It’s tedious and leads to annoying mistakes. The idea of an X meaning cancel is fundamentally ingrained in computer users, but in Democracy 3 (or D3mocracy, as I’m tempted to call it) if you want to undo a potential change you have to hit the “Revert Changes” button and then cancel out. The UI has other issues, too-Xing out of a screen sometimes takes you back further than you’d like to go and, more bizarrely, it counts as a confirmation. As for the situation icons, I was unable to find a way to view a nice, simple summary of them. I did stumble across a more intuitive way to view policies and statistics, but they were hidden in menus that the barebones tutorial didn’t show me. The layout is stylish, but largely useless. Not pictured: The rest of the freaking game. Pictured: What affects and is affected by health. Hovering over an icon does tell you what it is… but it also hides the rest of the screen. If it looks confusing, that’s because it is none of the icons are labelled, leaving you to guess at what they represent. If you can think of something a government does, measures or causes, you’ll probably find it here. Working to eliminate red ones and create green ones will be one of your main goals.Īll the icons are split into six quadrants representing aspects of government-law and order, social policy, tax, and so on. The red and green circles represent “situations,” or the effects of your policies- a drug addiction epidemic, a technological boom, etc. Going into one lets you fiddle with it (for example, you could increase funding to a food stamps program, or lower the drinking age from 21 to 18) or cancel it altogether.Ĭountries start with policies more or less representing what they have in reality today, but from there it’s up to you. The white circles represent government policies-handgun laws, inheritance taxes, after school programs… pretty much anything you can think of.
The blue circles are statistics-they give you information on everything from CO2 emissions to how many people drive to work. I’ll do my best to explain this UI nightmare. On only the second screen of the game you’ll learn that Democracy 3 is not screwing around. Regardless, once you’ve selected your country and fiddled with a few settings you’re plunked into the seat of power. The game is more about managing the country than getting elected, so perhaps the goal was to keep things simple, but it’s an odd omission in a game that otherwise strives for accuracy. You can fiddle with the term limits and lengths if you don’t like the country’s system, although for some reason even multi-party countries only have a single group in opposition. You begin by picking one of six Western democracies to helm. This is what fun looks like to a very select group of people. If you’d rather blow stuff up, fair enough.
If your idea of fun is analyzing countless graphs and trying to balance a budget, this is the game for you. I’m talking “sleeps with a John Nash doll” here. Democracy 3 is a niche game for people who like numbers. Let’s get one thing clear right off the bat. But is running it any fun? “Democracy is a Numbers Game” You’ll soon learn the art of compromise…unless you decide to go all megalomaniacal and ram your policies down the throats of upset voters. It’s enough to drive you up the wall.ĭemocracy 3 -by Positech games, creators of Gratuitous Space Battles and Gratuitous Tank Battles ( links to our reviews) – lets you step into the role of a country’s leader and experience these frustrations for yourself. You’re trying to satisfy people who don’t understand the bonds of reality, half of whom will hate you no matter what because you’re not a member of their party.Īnd then, just when you think you’re finally starting to get things sorted out, a natural disaster strikes, or terrorists attack, or the global economy crashes. Everyone wants freedom and low taxes, but they also want to feel safe and have first rate social programs. I’m pretty sure “getting kicked in the genitals” has a higher approval rating than Congress.īut put yourself in their shoes for a minute: The average voter knows little about politics and even less about the realities of government. I know, I know – they’re all a bunch of corrupt blowhards who would sell their own mothers if it would win votes. It is written with the consent of the developers. Editor’s Note: The following review is of a game still listed as Under Development and may not reflect the final product.