Realpolitiks - New Power

I got this on Switch which comes with New Power. I'll not talk about UI New Power brings some life to the dull moments of waiting in the original game. This can be a good idea, but the execution is so flawed, one wonders if activating the DLC is worth it, and I'm leaning to "why even bother with it?" While the idea of "the lesser of two evils" is usually interesting, New Power doesn't even pretend to do it and goes straight to "how long until the player realizes they're being fooled?" For example, an organization is capable of shutting down your stock market instantly, with literally no way to stop them. All you'll see is an event window with 2 choices: shut down your stock market, or shut down your stock market and lose some resources too. Another event involves you either losing a massive amount of resources or pick a choice which will give you massive warmonger points, immediately painting you as international war target. Yet another event involves you losing a massive amount of resources, or try to circumvent it only to find out it leads to you gaining massive unemployment While the NGOs have tasks which would steer your gameplay, their requirements are absolutely absurd, and trying to do what they ask will hamper your score, while giving negligible bonuses at best, and harming your nation at worst. In other words, it's in your best interests to actively ignore the new factions. For example, the conspiracy theorists ask you to have high unemployment, be in debt, and have negative population growth. You don't need to understand gameplay mechanics to figure out that this is in fact batshit insane. The diplomatic annexation is actually a pretty good concept, and I do like it. However, with how much the NGOs actively attempt to make you miserable with their choice of "lose or lose even harder", this isn't worth it

I got Realpolitiks and the New Power DLC when it was on sale and that was my first and only experience, so I will be leaving the same review on the main game page as well as the DLC page. I suppose I think I'll be the first person to give the DLC itself a review since nobody seems to have done that yet. I just want to say that I really had a lot of fun with the game. It does have its pros and cons. Pros: wonderful atmospheric sounds that make you feel like there are lots of really intense tiny battles happening in the distance. I really felt the game nailed that spot on. That was really cool. I really loved how the game was a good balance between some of the other more "overly-complicated" games of this similar type, but not too simple either. It landed in a very special "Just right" kind of good spot that other games seem to miss, so this was very special for me since it was not simple, but also not complicated to the point where I went crazy. It was just flat out simply just a good FUN game and I would recommend everyone grab it on sale some time in the future and play it for days and days, I REALLY enjoyed this. Cons: The clicking. So much clicking! ahhhh! This game is VERY fun but you need to click and click and click and click, click to do every single action and make everything happen. My hands and wrists did get kinda sore, but they're okay. Game speed is also a little weird, some things happen too fast, but sometimes the game makes you wish there was an 4X or 5X speed button. Another thing I notice is that even after all the financial related upgrades and opening those little stock market things with everyone, I can never stop my "GDP" from going down into the red zone forever, never to be saved from the depths of doom ever again. I just don't know how to save that from happening. It does get a little tedious and grindy because of those cons. Otherwise, this is an excellent game that I'm really happy I was able to experience. Loads of fun! :)

This game does have some moments, but It is just a generic country sim with "events" taken from recent world events. It is in no way realistic, it is more of a "react to random dialogue that happens to have something related to world events" sim with some managements stuff thrown in. It is very similar to HOI, but lacks the balancing and polish of the latter. I have played mods for HOI that are about 90% this game in terms of content and context, but with the fully balanced HOI government systems. If you can stretch your mind into thinking this as more of a sandbox, you will probably have some fun, especially with some of the scenarios. But if you came to have a go at what real politics (get it) feel like, I am afraid you will be heavily disappointed. pros- Its like re-watching every major national news event from the past 30 years in a game, so if you are not fully caught up with world events, you will get some cheap information. The UN is fairly realistic; apart from being annoying at times, they are useless and controlled by the biggest delegates.