Democracy 3

 PC
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 172 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 88 out of 172
  2. Mixed: 56 out of 172
  3. Negative: 28 out of 172

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  1. themipper
    Oct 16, 2013
    5
    I think this game is unfinished and needs some polishing.

    The UI and general presentation is neat but plagued with some bugs. I had to kill the process several times due to hidden and unclickable buttons. Sometimes it breaks after saving. The game hides behind an initially perceived complexity with lots of statistics, neat focus groups, flow diagrams and pie charts. The perceived    I think this game is unfinished and needs some polishing.

    The UI and general presentation is neat but plagued with some bugs. I had to kill the process several times due to hidden and unclickable buttons. Sometimes it breaks after saving.

    The game hides behind an initially perceived complexity with lots of statistics, neat focus groups, flow diagrams and pie charts. The perceived complexity is quickly replaced with the feeling of a pretty simple simulation.

    For me the gameplay consists of getting rid of the red bubbles by making obvious policy choices. Increase taxes and make up for it in give away policies. After that the country is stable and debt free. The only thing that follows is pressing next and wonder about the volatile behavior of the global market.

    The good news is that the game is fully moddable and the simulation parameters can be changed very easily.
    Which means the developer and the community can fix this and make it more challenging.

    They have to add more events, decisions, policies and the ability that policies can interact with each other by other means than the interest group. For example policies that exclude others or create an explosive situation.

    At the moment this game has no replay value. Every round seems to be the same.

    I really like the presentation and I will revisit this after some time has passed.    … Expand
  2. TrueTrueReview
    Nov 23, 2013
    3
    Ridiculous. I was on the lowest difficulty setting and I got assassinated within a few turns and failed attempts at it all of the time. Its nearly unplayable when I get killed with no way to stop it except going into massive debt to please the damn liberals. It's still worth 5 bucks if you have the time.
  3. raiokincaris
    Dec 9, 2013
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is very difficult to pull off on its own, and the style is suited for the type of game, but overall I'm not truly impressed. It honestly feels like, even when you create the best of paradises, your cabinet will always be out to get you, and won't bother supporting you when you need them most, which is after all the policies you want are in effect. It's nice for burning a few hours on, but not really worth more than a few hours.

    It's just really annoying that you can't eventually somehow sway people in your cabinet to think a certain way after pretty much brainwashing an entire country into whatever your whims may be. You'd think they'd learn a thing or two and actually step down so people who care about what you want done will step up and help out. In other words, this game forces you to lose after awhile of balancing. While on paper that kind of thing sounds like fun, but not when you just want to run your own country without listening to someone scream about how ineffective the road system is while people are busy clocking into work from home anyway.

    An odd tangled mess, in my opinion.    … Expand
  4. Sil4869
    Jan 28, 2014
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. When I first picked up this game, I thought of wanting to try out different genres other than my usual picks, like RTS, FPS and RPGs. When I saw the title, I said to myself “Oh, wow. Simulation politics. That’s not something that you can find everyday,” and of course, downloaded it immediately (Steam)
    After an hour into the game, there’s 2 words conclusion I can say here: Never again
    Seriously though, in all honesty, I’ve never been one as a fan of politics. Even so, I’ll try to give the review as unbias as I can. Besides, there are something good in the game.....somewhere. Anyway, here’s the review:
    The good stuffs:
    Educational. Yep, who would’ve thought that games can be educational (...wait, think I heard that somewhere before....oh yeah, it’s in 1996). Basically, you would do as the politicians do when they actually work – governing the countries. You can control the existing policies, make new ones or even cancel it if you want.
    These have various effects towards the people that you look after and true enough, like the reality, you can’t be a total saint by making eveyone happy. There are some events that may or may not be the result of your conducts – like pollutions for example. You raise the car tax (please, if any of you politicians are here, DON’T actually raise the car tax), people will use cars less, less CO emission and the air will be less polluted. Simple cause and effect chains that I find rare in games.
    The bad ones:
    Oh boy, where to start. Right, for one, the game’s lack of graphic innovation. I’m not comparing this game with other types of games, the others would have leave Democracy 3 in the dust in terms of graphic. I’m talking about the comparison with it’s prequels, the 1 and 2 and I actually played both of them briefly to compare. Seriously lack of innovation, and the time difference between D3 and D2 is around 6 years. If the developer added some kind of 3D moving man, showing reaction to the policies, I would’ve call it an improvement but not D3. No point in making a series of a game but each of them more or less the same with each other.
    For me, this game lacks replay value. I only played for an hour and I already uninstalled it. It gets too repetitive, too soon. Even the goal is repetitive, you only play so that you will be elected again for the next term. And for what? For the same repetitive tasks you have to do again? There’s no campaign in there or even mission objective. What’s wrong with having objective like you have to lower down pollutions or increase country’s economic value by the next term? And no, when people said it has a ton of depth, I say it’s only about a kilo. Depth of datas shown in the game doesn’t mean the depth of replay value is the same.
    Well, better make it my last point, running out of words here. Anyway, last and worst, the price. THE.PRICE.IS.BULL.(bleep). For around 200mb size of an appalling game, the developer expected the price of about $25? Are they drunk when pricing this game? I don’t condone to piracy but after this game, I came to understand why people actually pirated a game at all. This sort of attitude done nothing to get people’s support to buy a game legally.
    Well, here you go, my review. Bear in mind that it’s my personal opinion. If we’re of the same mind, good. If not, I don’t care. If you’re gonna troll, you’re a baby. Welp, time for another round of Call of Duty i guess.    … Expand
  5. rainman8
    Oct 12, 2014
    8
    Good value for €7 if your into politics and economics. There are no graphics to speak of and is a very basic game in that sense but gameplay feels a little complex and overwhelming at the beginning. One thing that annoys me is when you start doing really well (eg getting 80% of the vote) then you start having extremist (eg plots from liberals, religious, conservative etc) wanting toGood value for €7 if your into politics and economics. There are no graphics to speak of and is a very basic game in that sense but gameplay feels a little complex and overwhelming at the beginning. One thing that annoys me is when you start doing really well (eg getting 80% of the vote) then you start having extremist (eg plots from liberals, religious, conservative etc) wanting to assasinate you, and they usually do, it ruins the game for me. At least just have an attempted assination once every year or two instead of every turn (evetually they are successful). If the Trade Unions are against you you should have them organising strikes, or if the religious are after you have them get you excommunicated from the vatican or something instead of this everyone are assasins blanket policy.

    It doesn't make sense to me that your voter popularity at the very start of the game starts out at zero when you are first elected either, and the other side has like 40%. Maybe if you lose an election you could be in opposition and watch the other party in government reverse all your hard work and you can gain votes with opposition policy.
    At the moment I don't see much replay value after you've played each country once. And once you have your utopia (or as close as you can get to it) you are assasinated!!! Can get repetitive. Its a good idea and a good start though.    … Expand
  6. welle
    Jan 8, 2014
    4
    I like the game concept, but it has some MAJOR flaws:
    -The game is very small and has too few countries, policies and events. It's not in-depth politics, just barely scratching the surface. (This game could be made in Flash in like an hour and played in your web browser) :-/
    -Your prime ministers hate you and quit all the time. -There are like 5 random events and they happen over    I like the game concept, but it has some MAJOR flaws:
    -The game is very small and has too few countries, policies and events. It's not in-depth politics, just barely scratching the surface. (This game could be made in Flash in like an hour and played in your web browser) :-/

    -Your prime ministers hate you and quit all the time.

    -There are like 5 random events and they happen over and over(Gay marriage, adoption etc.)

    -Even if you have maxed out police and spy funding, you still get assasinated swiftly unless all groups of people are happy. Political assasinations in the EU are not THAT common.

    -Lowering taxes rarely makes anyone happy. For instance you may lower petrol tax to 0% and have maxed funding for road building, no bus lanes etc.. but motorists are still unhappy! WTF

    This is not worth 25$, If it's for free, well maybe it will entertain you for 30 minutes..    … Expand
  7. davidmitchell
    Nov 18, 2013
    10
    great game, tons of depth, very interesting to find yourself passing laws and changing policies that at the start you swore you would never do :D Its very welcome to see indie devs making games like this which you know EA or the other big companies would never touch. Definitely recommended.
  8. Toffenuff
    Oct 26, 2013
    4
    Not recommended for it's current price of $25. And I studied my fair share of political science and consider myself to be above average in terms of political knowledge and interest.

    I found this to be too easy (in terms of being re-elected, which is really the only major goal you're trying to achieve each term). Also not as complex as it first looked (another reviewer mentioned this    Not recommended for it's current price of $25. And I studied my fair share of political science and consider myself to be above average in terms of political knowledge and interest.

    I found this to be too easy (in terms of being re-elected, which is really the only major goal you're trying to achieve each term). Also not as complex as it first looked (another reviewer mentioned this already) since it's actually rather basic once you get down to it.

    Big thing is that there isn't much to do while there are a myriad of policy choices made available, most are extremely negative and will often result in serious consequences so essentially there is a "right" way to play this game. There aren't enough things to do (in my honest opinion) to justify the price point. Sure there are nice graphs and the UI is actually decent given the amount of information thrown at you, but beyond that and implementing/editing/removing a policy every now and again there isn't anything else. Plus while all the displays and the information given are nice, they're fairly obvious and anyone who has gone to college/is going to college will find nothing surprising here in terms of educational value as one reviewer has said it is really a high school level game.

    After every quarter or "turn" there is maybe some random event that occurs or some decision that you have to make, but there really isn't much variety after a little while and the random events are often just that completely random and illogical given the situations (at least in my two playthroughs). Plus once you decide you don't really get a notification or anything about what happened, which would have been nice. I got really bored after maybe 45 minutes (after starting and not finishing two different playthroughs) never playing this again (unless they seriously add a lot more content and make it less of a snoozefest) and I will reiterate: not recommended.    … Expand
  9. patrick_hamblet
    Nov 16, 2013
    10
    Fantastic game, tons to do here, the depth is incredible. Unlike other turn-based games it isn't so much a 'click-click-click' style of play, but more of a 'let me carefully weigh up a dozen different options' each time, which means the amount of time you can sink into it is extraordinary.
    I have spent many an evening trying to turn the USA into an atheist, liberal state, or convert    Fantastic game, tons to do here, the depth is incredible. Unlike other turn-based games it isn't so much a 'click-click-click' style of play, but more of a 'let me carefully weigh up a dozen different options' each time, which means the amount of time you can sink into it is extraordinary.
    I have spent many an evening trying to turn the USA into an atheist, liberal state, or convert France to hardcore capitalism, sometimes with mixed (even deadly!) results, but always enjoyed it. Highly recommended to anyone looking for a cerebral game that treats you like an adult and challenges your beliefs and opinions when it comes to politics.    … Expand
  10. rjtipton
    Nov 17, 2013
    10
    Great fun, I thought the game was cool BEFORE I realised there was a political compass built into it. Now I'm having a pretty amusing battle with some steam friends seeing who can win an election as far to the left or right as possible. So far my skills as a communist outweigh my skills as a fascist. I think once modders have really got going with adding extra policies it will be betterGreat fun, I thought the game was cool BEFORE I realised there was a political compass built into it. Now I'm having a pretty amusing battle with some steam friends seeing who can win an election as far to the left or right as possible. So far my skills as a communist outweigh my skills as a fascist. I think once modders have really got going with adding extra policies it will be better still. It's not a cheap game, but given the hours I've spent playing it, I've easily got my moneys worth from it already :D… Expand
  11. calcipher
    Aug 11, 2014
    6
    Pros:
    -Graphics improved from last edition
    -Overwhelming amount of data, all linked together. Lots of choices, graphs, spreadsheets - It's fun to play around and it's not terribly hard to achieve your goals: you can make the USA a communist country, or France a capitalist heaven easily, once you get into the mechanics. -Lots of mods available for free, both on Positech forums and    Pros:
    -Graphics improved from last edition
    -Overwhelming amount of data, all linked together. Lots of choices, graphs, spreadsheets
    - It's fun to play around and it's not terribly hard to achieve your goals: you can make the USA a communist country, or France a capitalist heaven easily, once you get into the mechanics.
    -Lots of mods available for free, both on Positech forums and Steam.

    Cons:
    -Too short. You won't play this game for more than a week, at best. It's incredibly easy to get all the achievements and once you tried even the more extreme policies, there's no reason to play it again. There are no scenarios. There are random events once every 4 years, but they have little to none impact on the gameplay. After a while, every playthrough just looks the same and you'll probably look for mods.
    - No editor. Modding is either done through Excel (lol?) or through an unofficial modding tool created by fans.
    -Terrible price tag: 23€ + 10€ of DLCs.

    If Democracy 3 was priced at 5.99€ or even 9.99€, I would've probably rated it 7 or even 8, but 33€ to get the full game is just too much. By the time I'm writing this, this game costs more than Skyrim and we're talking about something made entirely of spreadsheets and graphs, doomed to be left unplayed in your Steam library after a couple of weeks.

    For now it's a 6. I will eventually raise my rating if the price drops and/or if Positech implements an official modding tool.    … Expand
  12. kornel
    Feb 12, 2014
    1
    Good for a one-man developer, indie game. But nothing more.

    I studied political science in university and find this game extremely easy to play. Such convenience led to boredom quite fast. On my second play-through, i completely bored. My GDP, Income, technological advantages and so forth, keeps increasing steadily while debt area nonexistent. At first, changing policy and see how it    Good for a one-man developer, indie game. But nothing more.

    I studied political science in university and find this game extremely easy to play. Such convenience led to boredom quite fast. On my second play-through, i completely bored. My GDP, Income, technological advantages and so forth, keeps increasing steadily while debt area nonexistent.

    At first, changing policy and see how it affect the constituent is really playful. Buy after a few minutes I already know how to create my utopian socialist world, where everyone are happy except religious and liberal communities.

    On my second play trough, I was assassinated with explosion from a liberal terror group. Can you imagine that? liberal, terror group?! And what worse is, they attempted to kill me multiple times before, and yet my presidential guard can't do anything about it!

    The conclusion is, this game is good buy should worth only $5.    … Expand
  13. Genevaman
    Nov 13, 2013
    8
    A fun simulator for anyone who has ever wondered how their ideal system would work in real life. The fun is in experimenting rather than trying solely to stay in office. Whether you want to turn the US into a socialist utopia or open Britain into a free market libertarian state this game provides potential hours of fun with charts, graphs and policies galore. Pursuing a more centristA fun simulator for anyone who has ever wondered how their ideal system would work in real life. The fun is in experimenting rather than trying solely to stay in office. Whether you want to turn the US into a socialist utopia or open Britain into a free market libertarian state this game provides potential hours of fun with charts, graphs and policies galore. Pursuing a more centrist regime tends to be the easiest and those with an educational background in politics will probably find the game less of a challenge on its default difficulty but this is all about practicing the hypotheticals and, really, that's half the fun.… Expand
  14. Hambil
    Feb 7, 2014
    3
    This game has clearly confused the concept of liberal with libertarian. The effects policies like ending the war on drugs or public health care have are laughable and might as well have been written by Bill O'Reilly.

    Legalizing drugs raising drug use and crime dramatically, for example. Where is the option to decriminalize it and treat the people using drugs which should reduce drug    This game has clearly confused the concept of liberal with libertarian. The effects policies like ending the war on drugs or public health care have are laughable and might as well have been written by Bill O'Reilly.

    Legalizing drugs raising drug use and crime dramatically, for example. Where is the option to decriminalize it and treat the people using drugs which should reduce drug usage and crime? Why does ending the war on drugs cost me money when instead it should save me a ton of money.

    Unless you don't understand what a liberal is, don't buy this game.    … Expand
  15. msanch
    Feb 14, 2014
    4
    Ok this game isn't that bad. But I feel there is many problems. First, the variety of ministers at the beginning is absurd. I have never seen a government like that in the world. Every decision to convince one will deceive one or more others... Since when is there all type of politics type in ONE government? And second, as soon as one branch of population is unhappy, there is no strike,Ok this game isn't that bad. But I feel there is many problems. First, the variety of ministers at the beginning is absurd. I have never seen a government like that in the world. Every decision to convince one will deceive one or more others... Since when is there all type of politics type in ONE government? And second, as soon as one branch of population is unhappy, there is no strike, they just kill you... This is ridiculous! I like this game but there is so many problems. I bought it on promotion on steam, but I still feel that it was way too much for a game that don't seem finished. I'm disappointed and I feel I shouldn't have bought it.… Expand
  16. bluemonkey93
    Oct 24, 2013
    9
    I was fascinated by this game! I played it straight since I downloaded it last night I just got so absorbed into the game. The achievements are a little easy depending on your beliefs and values but the ability to play around with multiple different possibilities is great. I can see exactly where I want my country and political views to go in the real world and be able to predict possibleI was fascinated by this game! I played it straight since I downloaded it last night I just got so absorbed into the game. The achievements are a little easy depending on your beliefs and values but the ability to play around with multiple different possibilities is great. I can see exactly where I want my country and political views to go in the real world and be able to predict possible results in a shorter amount of time. Only players that are into politics and the strategy behind it will truly enjoy this game. Does seem lacking but having been so absorbed that I stayed up all night seems to remedy that for me.… Expand
  17. Tubey
    Oct 18, 2013
    3
    It pains me to say this, but whilst Democracy 3 clearly expands on its' predecessor in graphically, with a clearer overall UI the biggest edition, the problem is that there's very little else to distinguish it between Democracy 2.

    The exact same issues that afflicted the previous game are present here certain actions seem heavily weighted towards negative reactions no matter what you    It pains me to say this, but whilst Democracy 3 clearly expands on its' predecessor in graphically, with a clearer overall UI the biggest edition, the problem is that there's very little else to distinguish it between Democracy 2.

    The exact same issues that afflicted the previous game are present here certain actions seem heavily weighted towards negative reactions no matter what you do, meaning that despite the myriad of apparent options available to you, there is in reality only one or two actual ways to play the game. Want to be a fascist dictator for a laugh? Tough, as it's next to impossible to do before you're assassinated or whatever. You have to be a "good guy", either stereotypically Democrat or Republican. Anyone hoping for an in-depth political simulation of Tropico here are going to be badly misled.

    The exact same bugs exist too, which is really confusing as you'd think they would have been eradicated. Random crashes plague this title more than any other I can think of, creating a sense of panic every time you press to continue your game as there's every possibility you're about to lose the last 10 minutes of considered gameplay.

    But the biggest disappointment with this title is just how dull it is. There's no diversity, no unexpected events, no real emergency scenarios, no tests of logic and reason. Nothing. You'll play this game an hour and you will have seen everything there is to see. And given that I'm the target audience for this title someone who craves something with more depth than found in the millions of FPS clones that has plagued the last decade it is massively disappointing.

    This is a high-school educational game that has got too big for its boots and is attempting to fleece cash from actual gamers by pretending to be a serious title. Avoid.    … Expand
  18. leomcontos
    Nov 17, 2013
    6
    Great game Positech Games! but there is a lack of nations to play as and the polices are a bit strained, but the policies are only a minor problem. but luckily steam workshop changes all that. The price is also very 'inflated' at $25 USD, and the game is a few second download and quick to quit and enter the game. This all makes a really quick and great experience. I give this a 6/10:Great game Positech Games! but there is a lack of nations to play as and the polices are a bit strained, but the policies are only a minor problem. but luckily steam workshop changes all that. The price is also very 'inflated' at $25 USD, and the game is a few second download and quick to quit and enter the game. This all makes a really quick and great experience. I give this a 6/10:
    +Steam workshop
    -little nations and more policies needed
    +fun
    -price too high    … Expand
  19. Vexxer
    Oct 25, 2013
    0
    It bills itself as the most complex political strategy game ever made... maybe.. but it is the most boring one ever made. I tried to play it 3 or 4 times, and each time I turned it off within 20 minutes, there simply is nothing exciting or fun about tediously balancing approval ratings.
  20. PeppyPanda
    Oct 22, 2013
    10
    I really enjoyed my experience with the game and most of the problems people have with this game will be balanced out in the near future. This is one of the best games of this sort out there and you can really get sucked into the game.
  21. GamersResolve
    Nov 13, 2013
    10
    I really enjoyed this game, i can agree with other views about it needing polishing and it is being polished. Some people say its boring and repetitive, if so you can easily change some of the sliders, try running a country on 200% difficulty and trying to manage social services vs your debt, its hard but very fun. It is similar to Democracy 2 but its graphics and interface have beenI really enjoyed this game, i can agree with other views about it needing polishing and it is being polished. Some people say its boring and repetitive, if so you can easily change some of the sliders, try running a country on 200% difficulty and trying to manage social services vs your debt, its hard but very fun. It is similar to Democracy 2 but its graphics and interface have been updated quite a bit and its now very visually appealing. The polices would be the same but there are some new ones with room to turn it into a proper socialist or police state than you could in D2. Overall £18.99 is a good price for this game and with mods for new countries and policies coming out rapidly you can always play beyond what the vanilla game can provide and you can easily mod and add your own countries too.… Expand
  22. dsanders
    Oct 26, 2013
    1
    It's a decent game. But at $25, it's horrible, horrible value. It has only about 3 hours of gameplay. The game has been quite overhyped... cliffski drops ads to this game and other game anywhere he goes, even in the guise of asking for or giving advice. There are even not-so-subtle ads to the other games within this game. It's a blatant grab for money. There's almost nothing that makesIt's a decent game. But at $25, it's horrible, horrible value. It has only about 3 hours of gameplay. The game has been quite overhyped... cliffski drops ads to this game and other game anywhere he goes, even in the guise of asking for or giving advice. There are even not-so-subtle ads to the other games within this game. It's a blatant grab for money. There's almost nothing that makes this feel any better than Democracy 2, so at $25, it's a complete rip-off.

    The mechanics themselves are almost the same as Democracy 2. There are more assassinations. There's little actual complexity, it's still the same old stat-juggling game. I won most games by just ramping up maximizing political, ramping up income tax at the start of the game, increasing things like education, science, school, police funding. No complexity. There will be assassins that try to get you, but assassins come no matter what.    … Expand
  23. VideoGameCritic
    Nov 12, 2013
    5
    Civilization is one of my favorite turn base strategy game, been able to take over the world with your massive army is the best. Democracy 3 is nothing like civ and to be honest I kinda wish it was. The game is all about really the policies that you set in place for the country your in control of. Sometimes I really do think regardless of if alcohol laws I put in place or the amount ofCivilization is one of my favorite turn base strategy game, been able to take over the world with your massive army is the best. Democracy 3 is nothing like civ and to be honest I kinda wish it was. The game is all about really the policies that you set in place for the country your in control of. Sometimes I really do think regardless of if alcohol laws I put in place or the amount of time I put in to stopping wars It really just makes someone more pissed off. I could give everyone two-thousand bucks a piece and also punch there most hated enemy and still someone will still hate that I raised a tax by one percent. This game is just like actual politics and that's all it is a president simulator. I like the idea of the game and really I knew from the moment I started that this game was not the type of game for me. I really get what the devs were going for but in the end this is someones favorite game.… Expand
  24. GamingHeretic
    Nov 20, 2013
    8
    Democracy 3 showcases the best that can be achieved when a game makes learning fun. Positech’s game sits you as head of a country with the ability to change policy. Whether you are the United States, United Kingdom, or any of the other countries you’ll get the chance to move a country in any political position you want.

    The game is simplistic in scope, but offers a wealth of    Democracy 3 showcases the best that can be achieved when a game makes learning fun. Positech’s game sits you as head of a country with the ability to change policy. Whether you are the United States, United Kingdom, or any of the other countries you’ll get the chance to move a country in any political position you want.

    The game is simplistic in scope, but offers a wealth of information. Political capital will be the currency and determines everything that can be done in a turn. The amount of political capital will be based on the previous turn. The population will respond based on what you’ve done and the current political spectrum of the Nation. As an example, Playing as the United States I completely disenfranchised most of the population in the nation by removing all welfare benefits.

    The game is a point and click with turns. Every turn advances the game so many months until an election occurs. The election is straight forward, showing your base and the base of your opposition to see how energized they are. A graph dictates who is head and the winner. You can even have a display and break it down by type of voter, and reason they voted.

    There is a litany of information that can be garnered throughout the turn. You can see where voters are based on their type (liberal, Patriot, etc.), by issue, and other statistics.

    You will be forced to choose between a rising deficit, deficit reduction, popular opinion, and your own conscious in the decisions made. There are realistic consequences and the countries react relatively as well as you expect them to.

    The only real ‘gripes’ you can have about the game is perhaps that it is a point and click game meaning that this is more a relaxed feel. I would suggest listening or watching something while you play. Additionally, the game does sometimes can show bias. I found that capitalist and conservatives were far more willing to assonate then any other counterpart. This was even when I ran highly conservative and capitalist regime. It seemed stacked and gave an inaccurate message.
    The only other piece is the price tag. 24.99 is a bit steep for a point and click. Especially when you consider the price of alternative games are ten dollars lower. That being said, the game is well worth the money if you can afford.

    Pros:

    - Fun game play, interesting concept
    - Challenging, high replayability
    - A lot of strategy
    - Beautifully put together.

    Cons:

    - Price tag, a bit overpriced for what is offered.
    - Game can seem biased    … Expand
  25. ZZZGheronZZZ
    Jun 1, 2014
    7
    Can you say super high replay value??? I must've played hundreds of games as the US trying to balance the Mother F@%--n budget!

    :/ maybe it doesn't help that i always try to legalize cannabis right out the gate.
  26. Izoeros
    May 10, 2022
    4
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  27. ave
    Feb 11, 2015
    4
    I believe there is an inherent grandeur in politics, weither your are engaged in promoting ideas and values, or a simple citizen making sure the government makes the right choice on important issues, with you vote, your voice or your feet.

    Democracy 3 turns that picture into dull accounting, making the reelection your sole goal, and insidiously validating the fact that it's good to    I believe there is an inherent grandeur in politics, weither your are engaged in promoting ideas and values, or a simple citizen making sure the government makes the right choice on important issues, with you vote, your voice or your feet.

    Democracy 3 turns that picture into dull accounting, making the reelection your sole goal, and insidiously validating the fact that it's good to compromise with you opponents to gain a share of the votes, and take advantage of people's values and commitment to fool them.

    This game does not hide the fact being reelected will be hard and you will suffer. In fact, your eyes bleed at the very moment you see the general view and your policies. No scaffolding or ramp-up here. You don't start locally, lobby for one issue, push a particular law and move your way up to the top House of Cards style ; without the sex and murders. No, you are already in the President's shoes, knee-deep in a maze of interconnected and complex "stuff".

    I understand this is a clear choice from the developers, and even if I formely enjoyed the idea of playing Democracy 3, it was the fastest disappointment I ever had in games.

    Hopefully, real democracy can be experienced in the real world, so you can pass this game without regrets.    … Expand
  28. diehard-gamer
    Dec 7, 2014
    7
    Good game. Played a couple of times (with the first two dlc/expansions installed). Initial impressions are its not a 'hard' game. Its like manipulating a graphical spreadsheet with hidden and time delayed formula linking key cells and trying to get a good balance in the key cells you're most interested in. That's not to say its not fun, if you like that sort of thing. I found it fun. YouGood game. Played a couple of times (with the first two dlc/expansions installed). Initial impressions are its not a 'hard' game. Its like manipulating a graphical spreadsheet with hidden and time delayed formula linking key cells and trying to get a good balance in the key cells you're most interested in. That's not to say its not fun, if you like that sort of thing. I found it fun. You can 'build' the government you want, 'research' new policies etc ...... Every so often you have to win an election to stay in the game. To win the election you have to have the majority of voters vote for you. All good. BUT. Yo can get assassinated by extremists. OK, fair enough. But I created a liberal paradise with all the policies you'd expect, but with a strong police force and lots of surveillance (to remove organised crime, violent crime etc). I won two elections and was just about to win a third. My police kept warning me the corporates were unhappy with my high tax rates. Fair enough. I had game 'awards' for equality, eco friendly, health care, education etc - then a 'liberal extremist' assassinated me with a bomb. With no warning. Game over. Not sure how realistic that is. Anyway still a fun game.… Expand
  29. BalicanBreeze
    Aug 1, 2014
    8
    It's a great game, with an easy to use interface and a good modding scene, really extending the lifespan of the game. There are a few very unrealistic consequences to doing too well, which kinda makes the game stop up completely if you get into those situation, but if you try to play average instead of creating an utopia, you'll be fine.
  30. Bubbadabad
    Nov 29, 2013
    7
    Getting this game, I thought I would be the greatest political ruler since Gandhi. Unfortunately, I was quite mistaken.
    Democracy 3 takes you through what seems like a promising political career, but what you realize is only a pile of kissing up to the various parties that have power. Just like real life.
    Waive the mandatory drinking age? The masses love you, but violent crime    Getting this game, I thought I would be the greatest political ruler since Gandhi. Unfortunately, I was quite mistaken.
    Democracy 3 takes you through what seems like a promising political career, but what you realize is only a pile of kissing up to the various parties that have power. Just like real life.

    Waive the mandatory drinking age? The masses love you, but violent crime spikes.

    Legalize drugs and prostitution? Liberals and socialists are fin, but the religious and conservative bunch really want you out of office then.

    Playing through, I never thought I would do half the things I ended up doing, especially since at the end, I was trying to run a country similar to Communist Russia, all while looking back, wondering what had gone wrong.

    My main complaint with the game, is that while you can change many of the the stats about your country, you can not change the religious population. Many times I've had to change what would have been a very good plan for the country because of strong opposition from the religious front.

    All in all, I'd call this a solid game. 7.5 Will play again kind of thing.    … Expand
  31. Titule
    Apr 5, 2014
    3
    It is poorly implemented, it is crashing a lot. Once it does, you can't continue with this saved game because it wlil always char at the same point.
    The gameplay gets boring after some time.
    The price is way too expensive for that,

    I reccomend you don't buy this.
  32. yusep
    Jan 28, 2015
    9
    This game is a must have if you like politics and you like complex data analysis. Downloading the Spain Mod and solving the crisis situation was a really challenging and rewarding experience.
  33. Thealmightyduck
    Jan 31, 2014
    6
    I did like the game quite a lot. It is a good political simulator game in some respect. I mean it portrays people in ways that aren't just two-dimensional. Another nice thing is that you can edit the game, which I have started doing. Its easy to pick up and play. However, there are significant issues with the game that can't be ignored. Most of these is the price. To justify paying £19 orI did like the game quite a lot. It is a good political simulator game in some respect. I mean it portrays people in ways that aren't just two-dimensional. Another nice thing is that you can edit the game, which I have started doing. Its easy to pick up and play. However, there are significant issues with the game that can't be ignored. Most of these is the price. To justify paying £19 or $25 for a game, the game would have to be good, with cool graphics and most of all content that means you would replay it time and time again. Instead, you may play it 7 times and never play it again. It is extremely simplistic and simple. I mean you can increase healthcare spending but this is not accompanied by anything; no graphics just words for you to appreciate what you have done. This is only the beginning of the problems, Whilst voters in the game aren't 2D, they aren't particular complex either. Someone who is a Keynesian would be a Socialist in the game. A Socialist doesn't nationalize any industry though, which is strange because that is the definition of a Socialist, someone who believes in an economy which is collectively owned. In some regards, this shows the game to be particularly American. There is also significant Left-wing bias to the game. Capitalists and Conservatives are seen as heartless monsters that like to complain about any sort of government interference or liked "gated communities" or disliked disability allowance. Religious policies are always negative; either opposed to science and create a technology backwater or create ethnic tension. I mean religious countries can never be scientific can they? Oh yes, India is the world's largest producer of scientists. I am a Socialist myself but Socialism in the game is very simplistic but so too are the capitalists who like to privatize everything. But the Liberal/Conservative thing is perhaps just as bad. Most people exist between being true-Liberal and true-Conservative. I would say I am quite conservative on crime and family, There again I hate the death penalty and agree with equality for ethnic minorities. So I am a mixture but perhaps would exist in the "Conservative" section, despite my disgust of the death penalty. But people aren't just Liberals or Conservatives; perhaps they are a mixture. The game also completely ignores voting systems and considering it is supposed to be called "Democracy", Having a systematic electoral college in say America would really add to the game. But instead to is just a collection of calculations of who votes for you, who votes for the opposition and who doesn't vote at all. This is the dumbest thing that has ever walked in a democratic arena. Firstly, you could easily win 75% of the vote in the game when in real life, you are unlikely to achieve more than 55% in a two party state or about 40% on a good day in a proportional based system. There aren't even constituencies or anything; just you getting half of the vote will establish your victory.

    Overall, it is questionable whether paying $25 is worth it. Sure, the game is good and is quite fun, but the content really does lack a lot of features which justify the $25    … Expand
  34. RMDsilva
    Feb 23, 2018
    4
    It's entertaining.. for a bit... but scores low on replayability to be honest.
    Get it for a couple of dollars, if anything, but with pretty much zero international relations, quite a few unrealistic policies and simple gameplay, it's barely better than a web app to score your political standing.
  35. TheWalkingFat
    Apr 13, 2014
    10
    Though, not for everyone. It is a complex and wonderfully fun game with a great modding community. It has a complex yet simple layout with each country having very different qualities, I'd recommend it for those who love politics or elections. It does need to be harder though.
  36. PublicNuisance
    Aug 5, 2019
    7
    I really wanted to slam Democracy 3 and label it as nothing more than having a left wing bias but on further thought I’m not sure if I can or if that even matters. Here is the story of one of my reigns as Prime Minister of Canada:

    I am in power for over 20 years. I give the people everything they want to the max in terms of government funded education; government funded university; max    I really wanted to slam Democracy 3 and label it as nothing more than having a left wing bias but on further thought I’m not sure if I can or if that even matters. Here is the story of one of my reigns as Prime Minister of Canada:

    I am in power for over 20 years. I give the people everything they want to the max in terms of government funded education; government funded university; max funding to libraries, police, jails; subsidies to every sector you can imagine; legalized drugs, prostitution and gambling, etc. By the end of the 20 years I win every election with 96% of the vote each time. It doesn’t seem to matter to the people that we are $1.4 trillion in debt, have a deficit of $100 billion per quarter and are heading for the brink of destruction. This all with an income tax rate of 55%, corporate tax at 25%, sales tax at 20%, a gas tax, capitol gains tax, etc.

    Now for the flip-side I tried a more libertarian approach, still had all of the personal freedoms as before but taking out the government funding to all that I could. I also reduced the income tax from 55% down to 20%; reduced the corporate tax from 25% to 10%; abolished the gas tax, tobacco tax, alcohol tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax and had plans to reduce the income tax further. We had $100 billion in reserves and had a surplus of $10 billion per quarter after just five years. I lost the election only getting 2% of the vote.

    I tried playing as Australia, The United States and Germany having similar results with all three. Now my first thought was that this game just loves left wing socialist policies but then I got thinking maybe it was trying to make a statement about how dumb the average voting public is. I could certainly agree if it was. I then thought that maybe the moral of the game was that it isn’t your job as leader to do a “good job” but to get elected. A grim and cynical view but one that has some truth to it. I could easily win the game and continue to get elected if I pushed aside my personal views on politics and policy and went with what would garner votes. In the end maybe it doesn’t matter. If you enjoy simulation games and have an interest in politics you will surely find some value in Democracy 3. You may want to turn off assassinations as it is next to impossible to not get killed within 5-10 years by some group you have angered. This being said you have a good amount of options you can tweak such as political apathy, natural disasters and citizen views. You can also enact a good amount of policies as well as adjust a lot of different taxes. You can play pretty much any way you want to, or try to anyway. There are a decent amount of countries to play as and the difference is mainly what the laws and policies you start out with as well as the makeup of the population. I disagree with certain consequences that policies have such as legalizing drugs increases organized crime. That makes no sense as that takes business away from organized crime.

    I played Democracy 3 on Linux. It never crashed on me. There is a manual save option allowing you to save whenever you want. Alt-Tab didn’t work while playing. While playing the game my system used 525MB of VRAM, 2% of my CPU and 2.3GB of system RAM. I was playing version 1.30.2 that I got from GOG.

    It is easy to get bogged down in a political debate with the game but at the end of the day it is solid fun and most of it’s issues I had with it such as the assassinations and the policy consequences. Many of these issues can be side stepped such as turning assassinations off and other things such as the prostitution issue are just a personal belief that is what it is. Once you set aside your personal beliefs and just work within the game rules it can be fun.

    My Score: 7/10

    My System:

    AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 19.1.3 | Samsung 850 Evo 250GB | Manjaro 18.0.4 | Mate 1.22.1 | Kernel 5.2.4-1-MANJARO    … Expand
  37. tilde
    May 30, 2014
    7
    Good game, one definitely worth buying and playing. I enjoyed it, however it lacked the gameplay aspect of the gaming industry.
    Regardless of this, it's still a good game and is a lot of fun, especially if you're interested in politics.
  38. dondavidml
    Jul 7, 2014
    9
    In english at the bottom...

    Si te gustan juegos como mech commander, romance of the three kingdoms, civilization, age of empieries, caesar y te gusta solucionar los problemas de manera pacifica, y los juegos dificiles? este es tu juego. Es un juegos de simulacion de decisiones politicas, puedes apoyar a tus creencias politicas, apoyar las energias renovables, proponer un sistema de    In english at the bottom...

    Si te gustan juegos como mech commander, romance of the three kingdoms, civilization, age of empieries, caesar y te gusta solucionar los problemas de manera pacifica, y los juegos dificiles? este es tu juego.

    Es un juegos de simulacion de decisiones politicas, puedes apoyar a tus creencias politicas, apoyar las energias renovables, proponer un sistema de salud y educacion gratuito, incrementar el bienestar de tus electores o perjudicarlos, puedes adoptar medidas populistas e incluso te pueden matar (alguien recuerda a kennedy?)

    si buscas un juego de accion, buena musica, excelentes graficos y multijugador, este no es tu juego.

    ----

    If you like games like MechCommander, romance of the three kingdoms, civilization, age of empieries, caesar and like to solve problems peacefully, and if you like hard games, this is your game.

    It is a game simulation of policy decisions, you can to support your political beliefs, support renewable energies, propose a system health and free education, increase the welfare of your constituents or hurt them, you can adopt populist measures and may even kill you, do you remember Kennedy ?

    if you want an action game, good music, great graphics and multiplayer, this is not your game    … Expand
  39. noobyboymax
    Nov 16, 2014
    9
    For someone as interested in politics as I am, this game is everything I could have ever wanted in a political simulator. The interface is beautiful. The sliders are fun. The design is simple. The policy-making is easy. And the voting is smart. This game is a masterpiece.

    Despite this game's amazing replayability factor, I've found that the lack of different countries are a little bit    For someone as interested in politics as I am, this game is everything I could have ever wanted in a political simulator. The interface is beautiful. The sliders are fun. The design is simple. The policy-making is easy. And the voting is smart. This game is a masterpiece.

    Despite this game's amazing replayability factor, I've found that the lack of different countries are a little bit off-putting. There truly aren't many. In the end it doesn't really matter when you're playing but it can be a drag when you realize you've played every country at least 10 times. I know you can get mods but it looked like Cliffski relied on mod-makers too much.    … Expand
  40. Rednetter
    Aug 18, 2015
    5
    Was amazingly fun at first, but is only good for the short term. At first it seems complex but then it become a little mundane once you understand how it all fits together and the impending timeline challenges for each country seem to be the same.

    The game needs a bit more balance. Once you figure it out you can stay in power indefinitely in a virtual dictatorship, which quickly gets    Was amazingly fun at first, but is only good for the short term. At first it seems complex but then it become a little mundane once you understand how it all fits together and the impending timeline challenges for each country seem to be the same.

    The game needs a bit more balance. Once you figure it out you can stay in power indefinitely in a virtual dictatorship, which quickly gets boring. The beginnings are often the hardest, but after the first election it gets easier and after the second it become a cakewalk. It should be easier to begin with and then get more difficult rather than the other way around.

    They should also include difficulty ratings on countries - some can be extremely difficult in the first term compared to others.    … Expand
  41. Liuon
    Apr 17, 2016
    9
    This game is very very good, BUT only for a very small part of gamers who truly like this type of games. It's a true tycoon-management-political simulation game with tons of information to learn. If you are very young you may find it impossible to play, unless you are a true strategic freak. I think you have to give time to this game in order to appreciate its power and make full use ofThis game is very very good, BUT only for a very small part of gamers who truly like this type of games. It's a true tycoon-management-political simulation game with tons of information to learn. If you are very young you may find it impossible to play, unless you are a true strategic freak. I think you have to give time to this game in order to appreciate its power and make full use of its abilities.… Expand
  42. GriefSeed
    Dec 2, 2016
    8
    Democracy 3 is a great game that everyone should play, but it isn't very fun.

    A brilliant concept that unfortunately is somewhat self-limiting. The game does a great job of communicating the immense complexity of political action and the necessity of compromise. For this alone, I would recommend that everyone give the game a go at some point in their lives simply for the experience of    Democracy 3 is a great game that everyone should play, but it isn't very fun.

    A brilliant concept that unfortunately is somewhat self-limiting. The game does a great job of communicating the immense complexity of political action and the necessity of compromise. For this alone, I would recommend that everyone give the game a go at some point in their lives simply for the experience of being able to expand ones own perception of how government works. It's hard to have empathy for politicians, but this games almost makes it possible.

    The game's realism and depth simultaneously makes it frustrating to play. If you do as you wish, you will almost certainly get assassinated. If you do compromise, the only goal you are working toward is eventual re-election. Certain people will no doubt love creating there own goals and toying with the knobs and dials in and of themselves, but I felt I had gotten everything I could out of the game after only ten or so hours.    … Expand
  43. tastybaldeagle
    Feb 5, 2018
    8
    Not nearly complex enough for me personally, but I got a few hundred hours out of it, which is pretty impressive. Expansions have improved the game but didn't add any new core features.
  44. hileger
    Oct 19, 2022
    2
    эксель таблицы которые делали в 2000х типа симулятор алкоголика или бомжа
  45. borla
    Feb 6, 2022
    7
    Good strategy game with interesting mecanics. Also, the game hud it's pretty cool.

Awards & Rankings

51
#51 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 14 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 14
  3. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. Digitally Downloaded
    Mar 17, 2014
    70
    At its core, Democracy 3 is a mass of pretty spreadsheets that visualise an intimidating amount of data systems that are all linked to one another.
    Read full review
  2. IGN Italia
    Mar 9, 2014
    61
    The idea is great, the realization not so. Democracy 3 fails to portray the nuanced inner workings of a democratic government, instead presenting the player with a sort of strategical puzzle that can and must be solved in a clear way.
    Read full review
  3. Gaming Nexus
    Feb 25, 2014
    88
    The first glance at Democracy 3 can cause an immediate "it's too complicated" reaction, but the well-designed interface enables a fairly quick understanding of how to manage the policies required to create your own personal political utopia. For those that are into this kind of thing, Democracy 3 is a great way to test pet political theories in a (mostly) consequence-free way.
    Read full review
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