Realpolitiks
I have owned Realpolitks for a week now, so far I love it. It is a very good Grand Strategy Game, many people don’t like it and I see why, however here are the pros and cons in my opinion.
PROS
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You can play as every country in the world, minus a few very small countries (e.g Figi).
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You can start in the years 2020, 2050 and 2222, which all have different countries and starting points.
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Very good starter game for anyone wishing to get into the Grand Strategy Genre, not to many aspects to learn, quite minimal.
– Real player with 215.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Diplomacy Strategy Games.
Realpolitiks Review
Nostalgia Goggles Factor: None
Crash Factor: Crashless
Bug Factor: High
A Polish-made Grand Strategy game set in our Information age. Starting in 2020.
The Good
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3 starting dates; 2020, being similar to our world today, 2050, a post-apocalyptic setting and 2222, where nearly every province is it’s own country.
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Play as any country.
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Every start date has it’s own time limit, 2020 ends in 2100, for example. When the end date is reached, the country with the highest score will be the winner. However, it can be much more fun to simply ignore the score game and just play it like a sandbox, setting your own goals. You can play past the end date.
– Real player with 152.9 hrs in game
Intelligence Trader
I’ve been playing this for about 4 hours and I like it so far. It definitely feels like the game is unfinished and there’s more to come, but the basic premise of the game is clear.
Pros:
Fun concept
Interesting story lines and missions
Nice graphics (I like the look of the agent photos)
Clear interface/map
Lots of potential for expansion by tying in the missions completed with the news headlines
Cons:
A little unorganized. You can’t click on an agent placed in country and get information about them. When intel comes in to sell, you have to scroll around to figure out the highest bidder. (easily remedied with an icon indicating high and low price, or maybe highlighting with certain colors to shoe high or low)
– Real player with 6.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Diplomacy Strategy Games.
Bought it hoping find something similar to Kremlingames products. Unfortunately realised that it’s too early to buy it. Started the game and understand nothing. Russian translation is not finished, in some places in place of words I saw just black strips… Surprise… Cannot return an agent back from a country to base. News are very interesting, but I’d like to see it in a new window. Time moves too slow. There is no explanation what is specialization of agents.
Perhaps it’s only in Russian version, didn’t play English one. Hope to see something remarkable and interesting in future)
– Real player with 5.9 hrs in game
Imperium BCE
Be a leader of one of the greatest civilizations in the world. Bring glory to Rome, in our upcoming title, Imperium BCE.
Would you expand Rome’s borders through war? Or would you use spies to sabotage other kingdoms, divide tribes? In Imperium BCE, you can use many different strategies, to bring about the inevitable Roman dominion.
Surrounded by so many different kingdoms, cultures and leaders, you will need to maintain balance and spread your influence slowly, so as not to alarm your neighbors. Your spies will have to work in secret, act on your orders, to strengthen your culture and religion, making your enemies weaker. Your diplomats might work on improving relations with other kingdoms or might provide you with valid justification for war.
Events
Being in control of a sprawling empire comes at a cost. Unexpected things happen. Events take place which are outside of the control of even the most powerful people. In Imperium BCE, there are events that can hold you back or propel you forward.
An unforeseen rain might ruin the crops. This can lead to food shortages, citizen dissatisfaction, anger with the Gods for letting it happen, or maybe anger with you, for not doing enough for your people. Will you find a way to appease them?
Will you follow the advice of your priests, and have rituals conducted, to celebrate your Gods, at a great cost of the coin, in order to make your citizens happy?
Your choices could have dire consequences. Thread carefully.
Spies
Weaken your enemies. Soften the battlefield. Some of your greatest assets in Imperium BCE will be your spies.
Well trained to operate in secret, your spies will sabotage, assassinate, and do whatever it takes to make Roman take-over easier. Give your spies time and resources, and they will steal essential supplies, spread your culture far and wide, and even disperse diseases, which can devastate entire populations.
Just hope that they never get caught…
War
Train some of the mighties warriors that ever walked the Earth.
Bring your enemies to their knees with advanced battle strategies, reward your soldiers with land, besiege cities, and expand your territory. Attack when your enemies are vulnerable, be able to defend your citizens against anyone who dares to make a move against you. Fight sea battles and maintain control of the sea.
When the dust settles, Rome should have prevailed!
Diplomacy
Win hearts and minds, improve relations, give gifts. Hide your true intentions.
Your diplomats will repair the damage in reputation, caused by your conquests. A good diplomat will make an agitated king feel at ease as if the Roman invasion is not just around the corner. When the time is right, they will provoke and insult, leading kings and their people, into your well-prepared trap.
Wars can be prevented or set in motion by a crafty diplomat. Use them well.
Building
Provide your architects with the resources needed to build the unimaginable!
Develop your cities, turn villages into towns, have your citizens witness Rome growing beyond their wildest imagining. Build structures that will stand the test of time. Different buildings will provide you with different benefits but will take time to construct. Plan your expansion carefully.
Your enemies will be envious of your achievements!
Discoveries
Encourage bright minds to work on inventions, for the benefit of all.
With more than 50 technological discoveries available to research, or even steal from other kingdoms, gain the upper hand and crush your enemies. As some discoveries can take years to be put into use, you will have to choose carefully which discovery to pour limited resources into.
Have patience. Good things take time.
Laws
Legislation was of great importance to the Roman public.
Choose between different governing political systems, and enact laws that will help shape your society. Organize your people, bring about needed changes, make improvements for your citizens, and reap the benefits of well-structured communities with clear rules and responsibilities.
Watch Rome prosper before your eyes!
Read More: Best Diplomacy Strategy Games.
Star Dynasties
Infinite potential, incredible progress.
I started playing this game during the indiecade demo mid-2020, and the evolution this game has been through in just one year is massive.
Pros:
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Dev very responsive to Player Feedback
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Lots of Character Drama
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Interesting Events (Expeditions specially)
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Interesting Systems (Secrets, Justice, Gatherings, Favors and Negotiation)
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Powerful Modding Tool (Seriously, one could create a full DLC-worthy experience with it)
– Real player with 996.3 hrs in game
Addendum
Have changed review to - Would recommend.*
Only about a third of my gamer friends are big head enough to truly enjoy this game, but I know they will enjoy it immensely. I can see this one sinking hundreds if not thousands of hours into, and I’m already hopeful they go series with it.
I have a great deal of hope, if only because of how quickly the developers are acting on feedback and making solid changes. Meaningful save files now exist. There’s still a lot going on, so I’m not yet done with this review, but the nature and flow of the game are starting to make more sense.
– Real player with 122.9 hrs in game
Democracy 4
Solid 7/10 overall. Just don’t base your own politics on it. I’d say this game shines in its core mechanics and falls down in the accuracy of the policies/objectivity of the developer.
The only mechanical issue is that GDP is not generated by population but is in stead seemingly separate. So growing the population of a prosperous country does not correspondingly grow GDP.
Certain policies (cough college tuition cough) are way off in terms of cost versus performance and seem more like a policy ad from the dev than balanced game elements.
– Real player with 174.0 hrs in game
Good game, more polished than the predecessor. Don’t be afraid of early access. It would be suitable as a finished game.
Would be nice to have some scenarios or what not to spice it up.
– Real player with 16.9 hrs in game
Gerrymander Madness
What?!? The land of the free? Whoever told you that is your enemy.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Gerrymander Madness is a free VR experience. It worked on my system, looked ok, played ok, sounded ok. This software was designed for a museum environment. The rooms looked nice. Needs more time on the clock. I didn’t see how to subtract or shrink a district’s borders. The controller scheme needs work.
I live in North Carolina and i am well aware of all the Gerrymandering that has been done to all the Voting districts in the state. This program might help educate others of what political dirty tricks have been done to the state citizens. Both parties have been and still are guilty of this.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Lawgivers
A simple political simulator focusing on a gameplay element that was missing in Democracy 3 and not well developed in Urban Empire.
To keep it short: The game is fun, but somewhat lacking in depth and can be rather random at times. Better to watch gameplay videos to see if it is for you, unless you really love politics and want a parliament simulator badly.
To be more elaborate: The game offers a variety of policies that are unlocked through research. Policy effects are very clearcut and not as complicated and multi-layered as in Democracy 3. Also they tend to be rather simple. For instance there is a policy to establish a pension system, but it is not explained what kind of system it is, nor is it possible to have different types of systems (Democracy 3 at least distinguished between private and public pension schemes).
– Real player with 27.1 hrs in game
Mixed leaning negative, with lots of caveats
Firstly, I love the presentation, the UI design, the idea of the sim. It is nice to see so many countries represented, with an actual democratic method of passing or repealing laws and legislation, via voting done by members of the chamber. It is a solid base for the game to (hopefully) improve with in time.
But, sadly, I feel the overtly positive points halt here.
While many countries are represented each one works exactly the same, even if their constitutions and ideology differs. Each will start with the same rules and a empty parliamentary chamber. It is like establishing the very first government. And then the system does not emulate the country you are supposed to be. Every country gets the chamber filled, and then the “lawgivers” themselves pick a PM/President. Not the majority holder. Not public vote. Not the popular vote or the most weighted votes as seen in real systems across the world. Only through pushing new rules and laws can you actually get around to emulating your chosen countries real system.
– Real player with 14.3 hrs in game
POWER
I recommend this game but there are some major things missing from it.
Missing from international diplomacy:
-Sanctions
-Illegal annexations
-Proxy-wars (non-declared wars)
-Any international punishment system VIA the UN at all (that has been demonstrated)
-International court/UN positions that manage world politics
-smaller countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland, Korea(s)) that don’t necessarily play a roll in world politics as heavily as the current nations
-secession (though that may be hard to do)
– Real player with 3095.3 hrs in game
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying my time with this game so far. But I would NOT recommend it to anyone. Unless you have very specific interests in you game mostly involving chatting on Discord apparently. I’m having fun bumbling through and clicking around and being sort of a maverick. But honestly the community seems REALLY toxic (as you might expect) and overall this game is just not what I thought it would be. I’m just playing every free game I can get my hands on right now until Cyberpunk 2077 comes out, cause I’m SOOO bored of everything else I own right now. If you’re in a similar boat, or feel like toxic discord servers are where you thrive, give the game a try then.
– Real player with 20.8 hrs in game
Precipice
Its a pretty good 6/10 game that could be great but it can be extreamely frustrating to play. The concepts are behind it are strong and it does provide you with a sense of fighting the cold war, as you fund rebellions, rigs elections, strategically station your troops and try to come out on top of various nuclear confrontations. The art style and aesthetic are also gorgeous and i’d love to see more animalised takes on famous cold war imagery within the game itself.
That being said there are also alot of issues with the game that are also really frustating. The major issue that needs fixing is the lack of infomation giving to the player, especially in regards to how many turns you have left on a crisis or on how many troops an another nation has before you invade (maybe you should see the military strength of a nation when you deploy a spy.
– Real player with 21.0 hrs in game
now that it has updated to a playable state, i can now approve.
08/22/20
I see that this review is one of the first to be read, so allow me to elaborate on some things that could be improved…:
1. Add and/or improve some perks. Example being some perks involve Warsaw/NATO regions that are utterly useless given that these regions have been nerfed to non-existence. Overall more unique perks to choose from would be nice.
2. (kinda 1-B.) Give an option to have Warsaw/NATO regions worth a lot more. If I recall correctly this is how it was originally designed, them removed in the update. I’d say compromise by giving a toggle option.
– Real player with 20.5 hrs in game
Socialism Simulator
At first I loved this game. What a fun and cheeky way to go though some of history’s greatest failed states ;-)
Either other people got the GOOD VERSION, as in the code in their game works, or the achievement system is somewhat broken in it’s link to steam.
Where the hell are these “multiple endings” they were talking about? There seems to really be only three. Either you die of old age, your people betray and overthrow you, or they goal of your State is fulfilled. To be fair, the NK knock off actually did offer more than three endings.
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
Okey… finally won on each of the four campaigns… this game is fucking amazing, thats all that im going to say.
– Real player with 8.3 hrs in game