Suzerain

[shoulders]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzerain_(video_game)

Got around to playing this intriguing game.

Political strategy, you take over a large regional (Asia/Middle East, it's basically Turkey) country in the 1950s, succeeding a two-decades long autocrat and a failed reformist.

Almost as soon as you start the problems become overwhelming and there seems no way of managing resources to contain them let alone recover from the starting position.

You're fed a series of red herrings while figures from within and without plot against you, having to negotiate with oligarchs, neighbouring powers, constantly invited to respect nuance and think several paces ahead.

It's a niche genre but it is miles ahead of the next best I can remember, Peacemaker, which was in turn miles better than pretty sloppy and simplistic titles like Democracy.

Nothing has come close to reinforcing the exhaustion that comes with the setbacks and glimmers of light that appear only to vanish and be locked away for years.

The challenge of reforming the constitution is genuinely difficult and the votes feel so tense, knowing that failure is total, absolute and irreversible (no save scumming is possible).

You can play different styles of leader, turning the country into your dictatorship, be a privatising oligarch,  ally with either superpower, be a hero of the people, but no political strategy title has put up so many obstacles in your way or enforced nuanced consequences of your decisions like this before that I've come across.

I picked up the full game on Google play for £3.99, you'll buy worse beers for that.

[Mister Six]

I assume the winning cinematic for setting up a successful, egalitarian democracy sees you being shot dead by the CIA?

[shoulders]

I'll let you know when I've done it 😬

[madhair60]

i did it first go. game's pimps.

[Vodkafone]

It sounds good. There are elements of this kind of perma-threat in Crusader Kings 3, but in that you can pretty much opt out of the worst by starting somewhere a bit out of the way, although as you expand it does inevitably increase the number of people who want a piece of your kingdom. How long does a game of Suzerain take?

[shoulders]

Not that long, nowhere near the length of a Paradox title even, but it's more about how important every decision feels and how much time you spend mulling things over I suppose. I guess you could clear it in two days easily.

[Vodkafone]

Thanks, sounds ideal in some ways - a bit of compressed stress.