The game looks gorgeous but fails on multiple levels. Course design is miserable and has a thousand ledges when maybe some ramps might have done nicely? You're shooting most shots blind - the game offers you a camera but more often than not you are going to be shooting off of essentially guesswork. Some of the more horizontal holes it might give you are nice, they flow and are fun, but the vertical holes have you trudging your way down with a series of really unexciting shots. The card system is fine but really struggles to matter when at its core this game seems like it's designed to just be kind of annoying. Shot flexibility suffers as well, meaning if you happen to nestle yourself up against a ledge from a shot wherein you couldn't really see where you were shooting, you're not going to have many good options for recovery - and given that when you run out of shots the run is over, it feels very frivolous very quickly. This could have been many things - a "roguelikeish" branching run permadeath fest with no ramps and no enjoyable holes shouldn't have been one of them. I don't know if the holes were procedurally generated, but they feel like they were and I wish someone would have just taken the time to actually design fun courses.
This is the only good visual novel. This is a very good strategy game. This is an incredibly flavourful political simulator. This is Suzerain, a game where you are the leader of a small country stuck between two world powers, and how you choose to negotiate that will dictate everything that happens in your presidency. You'll grow relationships with characters, falling back on the rich and easy to use codex to contextualize events as you go. The campaigns are short but the thoughts it leaves you with stick with you. This game does a really good job at approximating a ton of real historical events. Nothing's specifically any one country, but the people react like an amalgam of a lot of parallel situations from now, and from the Cold War era of Europe. You really can - if you choose to - get immersed in a rich world of political intrigue. This is what Democracy 4 should /feel/ like. This is what Civilization 6 should /feel/ like. But only Suzerain approaches a game about managing government and growing political power with the grace, competence, and mechanics that it does, and it leaves you with a truly unique experience. Not just the easiest 5 star I've ever given, but the only review I've actually bothered to write on GOG. One of my favourite experiences of all time.
