Democracy
January 7,2008 - For a one-man company, Positech Games doesn’t do too badly for itself. In fact, publisher Ascaron is bringing their political sim, Democracy, over to the states this February because of its success in the UK. In Democracy you take the seat as President, Prime Minister, Big Cheese, Leader of a variety of global countries and then try to coerce voters into re-electing you through political stratagem.

The story behind Democracy is exceedingly simple: you are thrown into office to lead a major country, from the USA to Japan. You’re job is only to get re-elected, but that is easier than it sounds. There are scores of different demographics you need to please to get their votes. Environmentalists, Liberals, Conservatives, Motorists, and Parents are just a few of the groups you’ll have to sway over to your side. As you can see, people in these groups overlap and some groups are inherently conflicted with each other. It’s a nearly impossible task to please all groups, and therein lies the strategy. You must choose which groups you wish to please and set policies and taxes, and invest in different technologies to attain that goal.

Figuring your way through the menu-based game is a rather short learning curve, which is nice because Democracy will only last you a few short hours of fun before you grow tired. The entire game is menu-based, so you will never actually see people, buildings, or events happen; consequently, all stories, events, institutions, people, and policies exist only as letters and numbers. The game progresses in 3 month steps, until re-election in 4 year’s time. After each step, you are given an allowance of moves to make. You can use these moves to alter monetary investments, lower/raise taxes, or implement new policies to address issues facing your country. As a governing body, people expect you to control the cleanliness of their air while at the same time cutting down on carbon emissions and keeping crime under control. It seems, though, that every country is plagued by the exact same problems. We didn’t notice a difference in ruling one country over another except that they start with different debts, use different currency, and use a different flag for the menu background. As a leader, it is also your job to elect certain officials and settle some disputes. Mostly, though, you will get the same exact issues and appointment opportunities in every reign; there’s just no variety.

Luckily, though, Democracy is very mod-friendly, and is one of the easiest games to mod for thanks to unencrypted files on the game disk. So if things get too repetitive, you can always open up a file and add something to it or go online and pick up another user’s creation.

Graphics in Democracy are…nonexistent. Outside of some simple menus and graphs, there’s not much to look at. The interface is thankfully clean despite its initial cluttered appearance. All your policies are easily accessible from individual buttons divided into categories like Environment, Taxes, Law Enforcement, etc. and a simple right click allows you to access most in-game functions. Gauging the effects of one policy on a demographic is shown through both a menu tab and a green or red line, so there’s no guesswork involved. It’s understandable that if one guy is doing 80% of the graphics like Positech claims, then there is a lack of graphics, but if they ever hope to hit mainstream, there needs to be a little more to look at to keep users playing. Playing Democracy is akin to reading a “Create your own ending!” book.

Audio is equally scant. Outside of some soothing background music and a couple sound clips, there’s really nothing to hear except the clicking of your mouse. You get a simple introduction at the start of your term, and then nothing except an “Ooh” or “Ah” from the audience when a bad or good situation has occurred.

Democracy will cost users $30 when it hits stores in February, but what that money is paying for we don’t know. There are some flash-based games available for free on the net, or even demos of other videogames that are better worth your time than Democracy. Even if you like strategy games, you’ll find yourself playing seriously for an hour or two and then just experimenting with extreme policies for another hour before you put it away forever. If Ascaron wants to justify bringing this to the states, then a little more work should’ve been put into fleshing out a sound idea.

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