First Impressions: Prove You're Right in Politics with DEMOCRACY 4
Democracy 3 is a very fun game where you get to try your hand at being the president or prime minister of various countries. You can enact policies, cancel others, balance the budget, and more. It’s a very nerdy game, but it can be a lot of fun and maybe even teach you a couple of things. Well, Positech Games has released the sequel, Democracy 4, on Steam via Early Access. The company was kind enough to send me a copy and I’ve been playing around with it. It’s fun. Here are some notes and thoughts.
First, it should be noted that right now, only four countries are available: UK, USA, Germany, and France. More countries are on their way. Also, the game is only available in English at the moment, but the team is looking to expand that. In fact, the team has a public Trello board where people can look at what is coming to the game. For instance, we know that they want to bring French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations as well as the countries Australia, Italy, and Spain.
Now, let’s talk about what I’ve experienced. At first, the game feels a lot like Democracy 3. That being said, the game looks a lot cleaner and much more polished. Also, as you play, the game feels more and more different. Diving a little deeper, it looks like they’ve balanced a number of things a lot better and updated the policies available and their effects. The graphics are updated and for the most part are fine, but the art for the ministers looks really weird. Albeit, it’s still an improvement from the previous game. There are also a lot more things that we see in 2020 versus what was going on in 2013. What I’m getting at is that at first glance there may not be very many changes, but the more you play, the more you notice. There are even coalition governments and third parties now.
One of the greatest things I noticed is that it’s easier to have ministers rise in how much capital they generate. I could never get that to rise in Democracy 3. One problem I had was that the game randomly freaked out and all the icons disappeared while playing. I don’t know what caused it, but that’s a bug that will most likely be found by other players as well and fixed promptly.
I enjoy how Democracy 4 appears to have more balanced costs for adjusting policies so that many of them feel doable. I also love how at a glance on the main screen you can see what you can afford with each policy instead of clicking into each one.
If you enjoy political simulations, Democracy 4 is great. Get your hands dirty and see what happens with different policies. Can you run the country of your choice better than whatever leaders you already have? The game is available now via Early Access.