Suzerain Reviews

Really incredible genre defining game, I think this is one of those games that honestly should be way more popular than it is. The way the story pulls you in and totally engrosses you in this role is really incredible. I really felt like the fate of the nation was in my hands, and with the various ideological options and ways to handle each branching story, you can replay this game in several ways and still achieve a new ending. I also have to congratulate the dev team for making an outstanding DLC (which I somewhat preferred to the main game just because of the setting). Rizia is maybe the only DLC I can say has really impressed me more than the standalone game, and more than that, you can tell that the devs really poured so much work into it. That is to say, this is a game that will stand out to me as a masterclass in storytelling and engaging "decision and consequence" genre of games. Even after doing two playthroughs I keep thinking I'll come back for a third just to try a new kind of leader or aim for a different outcome. I have a fond appreciation for any game, regardless of genre, that can make you feel like a part of the world. This game does that incredibly, and for that I wish the dev team success in any future ventures.

Good politics sims, not meant to be min-maxed the first time around. Best played blind - if you want to be able to manage every single event perfectly for "perfect" runs, it can be annoying and frustrating.

One of the best Story games I've ever played! Vast amound of characters, choices and paths to go down. Works perfectly together with its dlc too. Don't sleep on this!!!

gave me a blue screen, i crashed the economy and made 1.6 mil ppl lose their jobs. fantastic game

Tfw I tried Suzerain again after years. Several hours in I think I've done things right because all the characters tell me I got the votes I got the support, then it turns out (after reading up on it) its basically like a VN with a single correct path you gotta follow or else you're fucked. So you basically have to spend your time reading a walkthrough the entire time you play it or else you will fail

A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style of politics I massively enjoyed. Everthing is tense and you are always second guessing your decisions. Though more game mechanics would be appreciated it is worth your time.

Amazing game. Best political/immersion game I've ever played and I got thousands hours on Paradox games. Love the decision making, the politics, the interactions. I'll also add I played the game before and after the 3.1 version, and having read some comments about how it made it worse, I launched it the second time with apprehension and could'nt find any issues presented, especially one about a limitation in decrees? Game still as great as before with additions to the reformed and theocratic path in the DLC so don't be afraid of that readers. I will focus on the differences between the basic game and the DLC as it marks for me a great change in the good direction and many comments already underlines the pros and cons of the initial game. The basic game can be seen as an equilibrium game where you're on a tightrope between two skyscrapers choosing which one you want to connect to trying to determine where and when the wind is going to blow and acting adequately to arrive where you wanted to. It's about reading, planning and reacting. The DLC is a MUST HAVE where you don't just react, but actively ACT to shape your country with decrees including constructions, investments, trades and so on. Want a centralized reformed liberal economy country? Done. Want a traditional noble based country with a monopoly on gold and energy withstanding time and change? Done. Or maybe you wish to have a more theocratic armed to the teeth country? You want it, you shape it, piece by piece. It also introduces a very good tactic battle system which made me want to declare war on everything I could :D I can only wish for another DLC based on the first one with new mechanics, new stories, new indepth politics and hard to make choices, new lore to read and cities to examine with maybe more small scales battles built upon the great combat system already present. Pretty please? All in all, buy it; and if you enjoyed the basic game even though it left you a bit frustrated about how you could have done more given more control, then look for the DLC!

Tried to become a communist but didn't know about the geopolitics enough to make the correct alliances. I ended up probably being like a redlib.

Phenomenal game, extremely well made with a dedicated development team that's consistently improving and expanding on their style of game. Currently getting hit with a large amount of negative reviews due to the unreleased work in progress Chinese translation not yet being a perfect high-level academic text. Which is the pinnacle of irony considering the state of translations into English for most Chinese projects. I have played quite a few games that are natively Chinese, and all but a handful use low-quality machine translation and call it a day for their translations. Obviously, the two languages are extremely different, and a high-quality professional translation takes a great deal of time and is a multi-step process because there is not an easy 1-1 translation method. It should not be a surprise that a predominantly text-based political game will be a herculean effort to translate, and proper localization cannot be done in a single step. It is not as easy as simply sitting down and retyping the game in a different language, which is why machine translation and these kinds of rough drafts are so common- they are necessary for creating a quality translation in the long run. Suzerain itself is a great game that spends a lot of time exploring different political systems and how they interact with each other. It's not perfect, but it's high above its peers in the genre in terms of quality. Torpor games has poured a gargantuan amount of time and effort into this game- just in this past year, the entirety of the DLC was rewritten to give it more depth and a ton of new content. Every time the devs have something new to bring to the table, it's even better than the last thing they introduced. Holsord wasn't built in a day, and neither was Suzerain.

TL;DR: If you look at this as a CYOA game first, you'll have an absolute blast, possibly the best if you look for something in any political setting especially considering the many branching paths and effects your decisions may have. If you think you get to do your own stuff and implement your own personal ideas like you'd do in a sandbox simulator, you better get something else. I really wish there was a "I recommend this, *buuuut*..." option. On one hand it is one of the best and most well-written worlds when it comes to worldbuilding, its characters, political landscape, as well as the incredibly complex web of issues it presents to you as the president of a fictional nation with chaos looming just over the horizon. On the other hand, I went with the simple initial premise of "How would I lead this country?" and tried to stay as true to my own values, which just led me to a disappointing end to my weekend. I won't go into details, as that would spoil parts of the game, but to say the least: the way that I played it, clashed quite a lot with what the game had in store for me. And that's the problem: You [b]must not[/b] look at Suzerain the same way you'd look at 4X titles for example. Suzerain is a CYOA first; it is a simulation second. It certainly simulates the stress that comes with the position of president and does an incredible job at what it would [i]feel[/i] like to be in such situations, culminating in me getting a literal headache at all of the decisions I was presented with. And I mean this in a positive way, no other game in the political sim genre has come even close to this sort of experience. But it is [b]not[/b] a simulation where there are emergent behaviors or mechanics in the world. It's a narrative and a story at heart. And boy does it do a great job at its narration, Suzerain is incredibly strong in giving you a sense of responsibility in this fictitious world. And that also means that its gut-punches hurt all the more. Being met with a bad ending, followed by all of the horrible consequences your decisions had, just didn't feel good. I enjoyed the story while it was presented and I loved the characters, but it still feels disappointing that my plans just didn't work out. And that's a bit where my gripe with this game comes in. I went in with personal expectations, thinking I can just do my own thing and somehow get that to work. But the game has a certain drive to it, certain decisions will lead to some predetermined events and there are only so many options you can choose from, due to this game being a well designed narrative experience. Don't get me wrong! There are a lot of decisions, but it still felt like a railroad at times. And I expected a lot more player agency, or at the very least get rewarded a lot more for how I wanted to genuinely play my character. Light Spoilers! [spoiler]Here's also a small personal part: I just didn't like the fact that the compromises that I went for had little to no benefit for my plathrough. It really seems like the game rewards more authoritarian playstyles overall. But that's just my guess, as I only did one run. My "reformist" playthrough went [b]absolutely horrible[/b] I really did not get a single thing done and had a constant crippling economy while also fighting of civil unrest and the small things that I [i]did[/i] improve had little to no advantageous effect on my playthrough (Or I guess I'd just make for a bad politician lol)[/spoiler] I definitely will continue playing it. But I have to change my mindset and my way of how I look at this game. Meta-gaming seems to be a bit necessary and I will have to throw out my initial expectations. I just hope that from my review, you can get yourself a bit a clearer picture on what to expect from this game and what it really entails. There is an absolutely great branching story here to explore, but definitely not a sandbox simulator experience.