Pro Philosopher 2: Governments & Grievances Steam Charts & Stats

great game!

I played the first Pro Philosopher game a few years ago (not on Steam) and had a blast, and the sequel did not disappoint. Both titles have incredible educational value, serving both as great introductions to complex philosophical works and to basic logic and rhetoric.

Witty and engaging. And very thoughtful questions. Awesome sequel to the original.

Captures you, finished the game in 1 setting, more than worth the price. Great improvement visually from the first game

This game was very fun! A great sequel to the first. I love the soundtrack and the effort behind the game is greatly appreciated. It was also fun getting all the achievements by throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. That is how I played, anyways. I learned some more philosophy, too. Productive!

Pro Philosopher 2 shifts away from the moral philosophy to political philosophy, but the frame story for why its political debates must happen and the debates themselves are slightly weaker than the first game's. Instead of Socrates Jones, his daughter Ariadne acts as the protagonist. Her mother Pythia, a politician, (and her organization CAPRA) has been secretly researching a way to access the Intelligible Realm—and succeeds—but then cannot leave the Realm until she professes a political philosophy that the gate—the way out of the realm—respects. Ariadne, who can access the Intelligible Realm at will when she is sleeping, must debate a series a political philosophers to help her mother form an opinion. As I said, the frame story for Pro Philosopher 2 is a bit worse than the first's. While the first game had life or death stakes for Socrates, the second just has Pythia's wacky idea that she may be able to get more votes by winning the endorsement of some philosophers. The ending is also a bit worse. [spoiler]Pythia and Ariadne are able to escape the Intelligible Realm, but it doesn't end there. It turns out that the head researcher of CAPRA was actually planning to overthrow the government with the help of his military general brother, and install philosophers as the leaders of a new system.[/spoiler] Then, Ariadne must have a final debate with him and convince him to back down, so that the story's final message can be that there should be stronger efforts to teach people critical thinking—which I don't think is wrong, but isn't strong given the weighty subject matter of the rest of the game. Speaking of that, the majority of the game is still debates about political philosophy. They start off nicely, going over the mandate of heaven, dictatorship, and democracy, but the middle couple debates are a bit weaker. While it seems like the plan was for Pythia to determine her ideal system of government, the middle debates shift the focus away from that. Frantz Fanon discusses the effects of colonization and rebellion against it more than a specific political system, and Marx is by far the weakest debate in the game. The characters even pay lip service to the idea that communism is an economic, not a political, system, but still debate Marx anyway. Even then, Marx is less of a representation of the real Marx's ideas alone, and more a stand-in for communism broadly. Only his first argument is based on Marx's ideas; the second and third are instead based on Lenin's and Kropotkin's ideas, respectively, which Marx the character outright admits. Additionally, Lenin and Kropotkin's ideal systems of government to achieve communism—Vanguardism and anarchism—are significantly different, further demonstrating how communism is not a political system, but an economic one. At least, the final philosopher debate—a double feature of John Rawls and Robert Nozick—is excellent, perhaps my favorite in the game. I actually knew about their ideals, but had no idea who was behind them, so I learned something new. Overall, while I definitely had some criticisms about Pro Philosopher 2's story and debates, especially in comparison to Pro Philosopher 1, I still enjoyed the game. The gameplay was just as fun, and it was nice to be able to think critically about different philosophers' ideas. If you have played and enjoyed Pro Philosopher 1, there's no reason not to try the sequel, and if you haven't, play that first to see whether you like it—if you do, give the sequel a try. 6/10

Okay my profile picture and username do NOT indicate any prejudices for the case of communism. But. The devs called Trostky valid and I can't let that stand 🙏 The analysis of the USSR is shallow and ignored many key aspects of it's successes. Calling it a failed state is just dumb. Good game still tho def play it. I can appreciate the gave Marx the bass in the music video, it fits him the best.