Democracy 3: Electioneering Reviews

This DLC doesn't overhaul the game, but it does add on an element to the actual election process that, in hindsight, probably should have been a part of the base game. To that point, I do feel that you should probably only pick this up as part of the bundle that includes the base game and all the other DLC, and ideally when the items are on sale. As far as what this DLC does, it adds a few ways to move the needle regarding your character's chances of being re-elected...but that's about it. It's fairly RNG based, as sometimes things just don't go well and sometimes things go great, which can feel great or not so great depending on the situation...especially since all of this does cost some of your political capital. Still, while maybe not the most in-depth system there is, this does broaden the scope of the game in ways that feel like they belong in the base product. Again, this is worth picking up on sale as part of the bundle.

Electioneering is broken and makes the main game unplayable because it permanentely reduces party membership to 0. It is dissapointing that the developers have stayed silent for years on it. They know it is an issue because it is not included in the main game bundle but they won't remove it from the store. DO NOT BUY

Completly breaks the game. No matter what I do, I get to 0 popularity every game. Without this DLC the election went fine every time, but this make the game virtually unplayable.

There is a bug caused by the DLC which makes party membership 0 all the time. Opposition turnout is around 99-100% even at 55% approval rate. This makes the game impossible to win even at 0% taxes because half your voters never turn up but the other side 100% of their voters turnout.

this dlc was great idea, but currently it breaks game, you have no party members and almost nobody vote for you no matter what you do, develepers need to fix this dlc and then it will be great, but in this moment it sucks

Not very useful if you are not doing well. Either underpowered or just to be used in close elections. Problem with this game is you either lose badly in elections or win well. I've never lost a close election before this DLC. The DLC itself crashes when the election period starts to build up. You can still push the game forward but you don't know what the crash has done to the game. Probably should have been 99p as it brings so little. The trailer probably is worth more than the DLC itself.

DO NOT PURCHASE There is an unfixed game-breaking bug produced by this DLC which results in your party randomly have 0 members and activists, making elections completely unwinnable. See here: http://positech.co.uk/forums/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=15314

Ok, so...first and foremost. I enjoy the idea. Like most said, seemed a bit overpriced for how little it adds, but I paid attention to the youtube videos leading up to the game and knew exactly what I was getting, so I didn't really care about a 6 dollar price tag. I have so far only played one game with it (governing the United States), and I'm on a Macbook Pro, so I'm most likely in some kind of minority here, but this is what I noticed in my single play through. The addition definitely adds a new dimension to the game, which was very refreshing as I had stopped playing this game because it got a bit dry after 50 or so play throughs. It makes me want to play more to experience more. The speeches are a cool function. A 10% raise in Youth happiness? I can dig it. The campaign promises you can make (i.e. promise to raise GDP by 25%, etc.) are also a really interesting addition. I only made two, and succeeded in fulfilling both of them because I'm a bro president. Loved those, wish there were more. Also wish there were more Media Stunts, or at least the ability to use an individual one more than just once throughout the entire game. EDIT: All bugs associated with Electioneering seem to have been fixed. A thank you to the creators of the game for this.

A little bit overpriced for the features it adds, which really only come into play when things are really close concerning elections. Anyone who's played more than like an hour before will probably barely use the electioneering tools such as publicity stunts or speeches, although manifesto promises are bit fun as they set interesting goals. Maybe 2-3 dollars would be more reasonable; clones and drones and extremism added more noticable changes, this is in the same vein as social engineering in being borderline worth it. On the fence for this one, sales are good. Crash issues have improved since launch.

This DLC is a very mixed bag. On the one hand, it spruces up one of the most lackluster aspects about Democracy 3 - the actual "Democracy" part of it. On the other hand, that is literally all it does. There are no new policies, and the only changes made to the underlying simulation are the effects on perception that a few policies have. The good part is that - unlike the other DLCs made thus far - it's not simply a mod that costs money. It actually adds new features, not just a handful of policies you could have coded yourself in just a few hours. The unfortunate part is that these features don't come into play until a few months before the next election, meaning that unless your country has frequent elections you'll barely ever get to see what this DLC has to offer. But even though it claims to make the elections more realistic, the same problems still apply - if you're a well-established leader that has held office for a handful of terms, almost nothing can bring down an approval rating that's above 90%. I legitimately created a food crisis to test how much the voters would still want to keep me in power. Without campaigning at all, I won the next election with 96% of the vote. The more-detailed screen for election results is useful, although the new part where people from different voter groups sort of "drop down" into the results graph is unnecessary and distracting. Also, campaigning feels detached and dull; you can't actually manage where your funds go (dragging down the opposing candidate, boosting a certain perception, etc.), campaign donors are just faceless entities that represent a few voter groups, and there are only a few publicity stunts, and there's not really an incentive to take the riskier options, as the increased rewards are minimal. I must say that the speeches are a highlight, and it's fun to customize your speeches - it feels like the only finished part of the mod. All in all, I can't say I recommend this DLC. Its uses only come into play rarely, and it doesn't fix the single most important underlying problem of the section of the game it claims to improve. Although there are some rewarding aspects of it, the DLC feels incomplete. Perhaps wait for a sale (and not the 10%-off first week sale).