Politics may be too fun to be left to the politicians but it still feels like business as usual to us.
As tired as some of us may be of the tedious and unbalanced political process, particularly during this election year, there are too few games that focus on its wonderful ins and outs. So when a game comes out that gives players a chance to run their own version of the 2008 US presidential campaign, we definitely sit up and take notice. And when that game just happens to come from one of our favorite strategy game developers, well, that's even more cause to celebrate.
While Stardock's The Political Machine 2008 is an enjoyable, and intentionally topical, game, the publisher has taken tremendous pains to point out that it is not a "simulation." The more cynical types among you may take this as a simple marketing maneuver to ensure that the game appeals to a wider base but basically all this distinction means is that the game tries to recreate the political landscape of America without getting too bogged down in primaries and vote count controversies. Along the way you'll have the chance to run against folks from the current crop of candidates along with some notables from our political past. Unfortunately, the current political setting means the overall experience is far too predictable to have much lasting appeal. Even though the twenty-dollar price tag is appealing, only the most committed armchair politicians will find much replayability here.
There's less of a sense of familiarity with the game's other campaigns. Our favorite focuses on the presidential election of 1860, and all the territories and issues are adjusted accordingly. It does require a little more research on the part of the player. We, for example, weren't sure whether or not Southern Democrats were supposed to support tariffs. Things are a little less obvious in the ersatz European Union campaign and sometimes incomprehensible (though undeniably hilarious) in the Drengin Empire campaign. Players of Stardock's Gal Civ 2 will definitely appreciate some of the in-jokes here.
No matter which election you play, your candidate starts off in their home state 41 weeks before the election. You can choose to play longer and shorter games but they're not as enjoyable. Each week you can spend your stamina points building infrastructure, giving speeches, and placing ads. Infrastructure can help you develop awareness in key states and gives you the resources to court national endorsements and hire political operatives. Speeches and ads give you the chance to promote your platform to the voters of a particular state or to the nation in general. Of course, a lot of these actions cost money, so you'll also need to save some stamina points for some good old fashioned fund-raising.
When we saw that you could make your own candidates, we instantly set about making ersatz versions of ourselves to launch into the political arena, certain that our moderate and sometimes complicated views could sway the American voters. But in designing candidates, you're limited to a mere hundred points to determine your stance on issues from abortion to the withdrawal from Iraq. A hundred points sounds like a lot, but since each issue is rated on a scale of 100 points either for or against, you can really only take a moderate stand on four or five issues. Goodbye, school voucher program!
We were a little disappointed by this limitation until we realized that you can actually adjust your position on all of these issues during the campaign. You can get a hefty boost towards traditional values, big government, or drilling in ANWR just by courting the endorsement of various religious, business or environmental groups. You can also shift your platform based on the ads that you run and on the answers you give during your TV appearances. In the end, we were actually happier that you couldn't just spec the platform you wanted by spending points, but actually had to earn it through your actions during the campaign. We've even found ourselves crossing over to court voters of the other party whenever we saw that our opponent wasn't responding to a clear preference among voters.
The types of issues you talk about in your TV appearances and political ads can even catapult lesser known issues into the national arena. While everyone's going to be talking about the economy, or health care or the war on terror, you can jump in and start hammering away at an issue your opponent is weak on, like social security reform or gun control. This tactic can be risky though because while you're busy building up marginal issues, your opponent is gaining more and more momentum on the issues that already speak to a wide range of voters.
Players looking for a bit of a challenge will be happy to see that the AI has been improved since the 2004 edition. Your opponents know seem more inclined to go for the bigger states and to use their operatives in response to your own actions. You'll still get the occasional inexplicable fund-raising trip to Wyoming, but the AI plays a much smarter game this time around, particularly in the latter stages of the campaign.
The presentation has been improved a bit as well. Though it won't win any graphics awards, the new 3D engine gives the game a slick, updated feel that puts it a step above most games in this price range. And whether it was intentional or not, the bobble head figures offer a great commentary on politicians in general. The music and sound effects are equally polished, which enhances the experience.
Okay, so there is a bit more subtlety and variety to be found. Sometimes the Republican candidate picks Giuliani as a running mate. Sometimes the Democrats can get lucky and find a million dollar donor and a director who's willing to shoot commercials for half price. Sometimes Texas is undecided right up until the night of the election. But these variations are really just small shifts in the current of this game.
There are a few other small problems here and there. The biggest annoyance is the inability to distinguish between all the ads and political operatives that are bunched together in the states. It's not as a big a deal in places like Texas or California, but when you've got ten or twelve folks in New York sharing space with half a dozen print and TV ads, it can be difficult to know just what's going on. The developers should also include a handy summary screen so you can see all your ads in one place, particularly those running at a national level. We've occasionally found ourselves paying to run duplicate ads just because we weren't sure if we had one running already.
We were also a little disappointed that there's no real use for political clout late in the game. It's an absolutely essential resource during the early part of the campaign in order to pick up those lucrative national endorsements. But once you and your opponent have divided up the handful of eligible organizations, your clout just keeps building and building for no real purpose. It would be nice if there were someway to leverage that once the endorsements are all claimed.
Closing Comments
For twenty bucks, The Political Machine 2008 isn't necessarily a bad deal, but it's a one-note affair that inhabits that misty gray region between comfortable familiarity and dull predictability. As a light-hearted treatment of American politics in 2008, The Political Machine definitely succeeds and we've had a bit of fun roleplaying our own values on the road to the White House. There's no doubt that it's an enjoyable experience, but the main campaign just has you playing out the same battle over and over again. The other campaigns are interesting and introduce some genuinely funny and thought provoking issues but they're not quite as comprehensible or recognizable as the 2008 US campaign.
©2008-06-18, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved