Democracy 2 Reviews

not the democracy is a bad game, it is just that it get boring fast. the replay ability is an illusion in this title. it is alright for a time killer. and compared to other games out there its not too bad. however their are better options. aswell as this newer games now. i'm a late reviewer

Overpriced, unbalanced, inflexible. This is a game that is over 4 years old now, and still costs 20 dollars. It's ridiculous! Second, many of the in-game options are unbalanced. I have been assassinated, by environmentalists, when I had a carbon tax and strong anti-pollution regulations. Most importantly, I find, the amount of actual changes you can make besides different degrees of neoliberal capitalism is very low. You can't have any kind of socialism(Social democracy is very attainable, but the closest thing to a leftist ideology in the game, and it's still capitalist.), you can't abolish the government, and limited government doesn't work great either. You can't really have fascism either. Even the sequel to this game(Democracy 3) is still plagued by many of these problems, but slighty less so. If you really want a game like this, just skip this one and get Democracy 3, but the entire series isn't the best, I find. There isn't a really high amount of replayability, either, it all gets to be the same pattern, for me. (Make some changes, keep budget balanced, some terrorist group gets angry, I get assassinated after about an hour of playing) Can't recommend.

Great game good to run simulators on but easily conquerable in a few hours of play.

My biggest complaint is that there is no way to win the different scenarios if you choose any other political path than "progressive liberalism."

This is a very simple and minimalistic government simulator type game. After playing about thrice, you learn all the mechanics inside out, and it becomes boringly easy to "win". It has a very linear type of policy making panel, with far left, or far right, and everything in between. Everything has a linear and predictable effect, and all-in-all, it becomes very tedious. It is fun for the first few hours however, I won't deny that. But it simply has no replayability. Games like Masters of the World have a much better and in-depth mechanic and policy implementation. But if that's too complicated for you, then this game is just fine. Grab it on sale since this is an old game, no point paying full price like I did for a game that's just about mediocre. Overall Rating: 6/10

A good concept, but poorly executed. If you want a political simulator, this is not the one to play. As for which one is... that I am less certain about. Either way, don't bother with this one. I wish I didn't. :(

Democracy 2 is a really lackluster game. It's rare that I play a game and feel like I've wasted my money, but D2 had me feeling that within half an hour. For me, the dealbreaker is the fact that when you aren't voted back in, the game ends. What's the point in that? I was actually looking forward to being opposition leader and laying the smackdown on the current government while I set my party on a road to recovery. It just made it a really one-dimensional and short-lived game for me.

I managed to create a socialist paradise by cranking up my GDP to the point where the bare minimum of taxes off of corporations paid for public education, transportation, healthcare, retirement pensions, the military, and basically everything else. I created a socalist utopia through the magic of the free market and laissez-faire capitalism.

Overall 5/10 Pros: - The idea behind it is good, you get to play a government and using different policies you try to get reelected while improving a country. - Some concepts behind it are solid, both in terms of ecomics and social policies. - It is easy to understand what each polciy does. Cons: - It is probably too easy to beat, just a bunch of algorithms to beat. - There's only one way to "win" and that is pretty much going full "social democrat", nothing else seem to work. - Very few scenarios. - The consequences of some actions are totally off, like raising VAT to 70% and seeing your opinion rating go up. I truly like the idea behind it, and I hope the author gets backing to develop it into 1) a real game, made by pros and 2) a more realistic simulation, but as it is now I cannot reccomend it.

Let me start out by saying that I have a degree focusing on Political Science and have worked in the sector.... The Socioeconomic policies do not reflect what happens in the real world, more what someone idealizes how they should work. The Human Element is not well represented, such as in situations where a positive outcome is seen, but the electorate is unhappy due to outlying political/social/etc beliefs (e.g. the goal is accomplished, but not HOW the populace wanted it accomplished, etc). The Political system is rather simplified and this makes a Democratic Socialist approach far too easy and ignores key psychological responses that have been observed in the real world when certain situations arise. After playing for a few hours, using demographic knowledge of game developers, and knowing the political beliefs behind certain policies, I easily beat the game with a Social Democracy....which appears to be the ultimate point of the developers. Comparatively, I attempted a few other forms of government approaches that have been historically stable in the real world, but those forms were not nearly as friendly in the game world. As this is intended to be a political sim attempting to replicate the real world, I cannot recommend this. However, if this were a model that honestly stated its intent to show HOW a Democratic Socialist contruct can best be made and why it is best for them, in their view, as compared to other options...Then I would say that it accomplished its intent.