Democracy 3 Review

Hooray for the democratic process; this simple concept ensures that the will of the people is represented in the running of nations across the world, resulting in peace, stability and equality. Okay, so it might not quite work out like that in the real world, but who would turn down the opportunity to show those slimy career politicians how it should be done?

Democracy 3 puts the player in the shoes of a newly elected President or Prime Minister with one simple goal; to get re-elected at the end of their current term. Obviously the easiest way to achieve this is by keeping the electorate happy; but as in real life, voters are a varied and fickle bunch!

These voters can be represented as one of a number of groups, based on political ideology (Socialist, Liberal, etc.), income level and employment status, amongst others. Each individual can belong to multiple groups and feel a stronger allegiance to one more than other. The approval rating of each group is displayed in the centre of the game’s main screen, along with the relative group size. Try as you might, you’ll never keep all of your voters happy - the key to success is to focus on your largest demographics.

Favour is won, and lost, by implementing and adjusting policies - some policy changes will directly affect the opinion of one of the voter groups, whilst most will also be reflected by a change in one of the numerous country statistics, such as unemployment, car usage or education. Should one of these statistics climb above or fall below a particular value, there is a chance of it triggering a ‘situation’ which in turn will boost or decrease related stats.

Each of these policies, statistics and situations is represented by an icon surrounding the opinion pane; hovering over a particular icon will reveal an intricate web highlighting how each element affects its corresponding attributes. First time out, this main screen (and the metric ton of icons contained on it) can seem rather daunting, however, following through the tutorial and experimenting for a little while results in the setup becoming actually quite intuitive. The main issue that can take some adjusting to, is that effects are always displayed with green denoting an increase and red to signify a decrease, which can initially seem counter-intuitive in situations when decreasing a statistic is a positive outcome.

Political life would be infinitely easier if a leader was able to implement solely popular policies without any other considerations; however, the reality is not that simple, and neither is Democracy 3. The biggest elephant in the room in both instances is obviously balancing your budget - taxes are rarely popular, but are vital to generate the income used to find the services and benefits that will win you votes.

It's one thing to have the money to enact a policy, but the more controversial the subject, the more of Democracy's secondary resource, Political Capital, you'll need. Political Capital is generated per turn based on the skill and loyalty of your cabinet; find your policies working against the ideologies of your cabinet members and you'll soon find your supply of Capital drying up.

Strangely, beyond the general opinion of the population, it's only really your own party that will question the overall direction of your governance. There are a number of special interest groups that will voice their displeasure if things aren't going their way - even potentially going as far as assassinating you - but the opposition party is completely silent. Gone is the back and forth sabre-rattling and point scoring inherent in modern politics; in its place, nothing. The Political Capital concept performs a good approximation to suggest the difficulty in pushing through or changing policies, but it's no substitute for the threat of the opposition vetoing your efforts.

Similarly, the international political landscape is just as barren as the domestic one. Whilst the game acknowledges the existence of countries beyond your borders with concepts such as immigration, foreign opinion and the ever fluctuating (mostly downwards) state of the global economy, they seem to consist as a single uniform mass. This isn't to say that Democracy knows nothing of the real world; players can choose from 6 countries to play as, each with its own characteristics. It might have been nice to play as a poorer or less politically stable country, rather than as merely First World economic powerhouses, but those available are individual enough in their demographics that it doesn't simply feel that one is playing as the same country under a different coloured banner.

For some people, the words “political management simulator” are unlikely to get pulses racing with excitement, especially given the general apathy common at the younger end of the potential target audience. One of Democracy 3’s greatest strengths is the way that the interface shows the ebbs and flows of approval from your voters; anyone finding themselves put off due to the political nature of the game may want to consider it as more like a traditional management game where the only commodity in your intertwined supply chain is opinion.

Hardened fans of the management genre may ultimately find the game lacking for their tastes, but the streamlining does look set to win over a wider audience.

Will you find yourself sacrificing your own personal political beliefs for the sake of keeping the budget healthy and the voters happy? More than likely. Are you likely to change your outlook as a result or start to feel sympathy for politicians? Probably not. Can you still enjoy the game without regularly reading a broadsheet from cover to cover? Absolutely.