The game has decent writing (not nearly Disco Elysium levels but it's competent), and your choices really do matter quite a lot when playing. There is probably a huge amount of variety to achieve in any individual playthrough, and the game should be praised for that. Maybe it's just because I've actually taken classes in economics and am at least somewhat knowledgeable about national budgets, but honestly, neither make any sense in this game to the point where it really impacted my experience. For starters, the budget. It just doesn't make sense. Modernizing the air force? That's 1 budget. Passing education reform? Also 1 budget. Implementing a sort of bill of rights? 2 budget. Okay, I get that it's an abstraction, and certain streamlines must be made, but seriously? Are we giving every politician a fighter jet to pass these things? Why do internal reforms cost as much as major infrastructure projects? Also, the economy. Apparently, investing in military equipment and infrastructure brings almost no benefit to the economy. Unless you're conscripting people to reduce unemployment. Thaaaat's fine. At the end of the game I was straight up told "production has doubled, but GDP and dropped by half." Do they know what GDP is? It makes no sense and kind of ruined the experience for me.
