The Political Machine

"A good political simulator, but missing basic promised features."

After looking at www.politicalmachine.com, anybody would assume that this game was going to be the hit of the century (at least for politics fans!!). I've seen false advertising before, but this is just wrong. They promised so many features that don't even exist. I'll try to keep things "fair and balanced" by telling you what's really in the game. You can then make your decision about purchasing.

Gameplay
8/10
Basically, you look at a map of the US, click a state, and choose which action to take. There are only 5 actions to take, by the way. The game is very fun to play, don't get me wrong, but it is not the most realistic thing ever. It is super easy to get California to go Republican, and super easy to get Texas to go Democratic. They say each state will have different opinions about the issues, which is kind of true, the Republican states(in real life) care about the war in Iraq, and the Democratic states(in real life) care about the war on terror.... not exactly what I had hoped for. Then a few messed up states care solely about the enviornment (Not that the enviornment isn't important, but they literally ONLY care about the enviornment) . The game is super fun to play the first few times, but once you win a few elections it slowly starts to become more and more boring.

Online
0/10
It is super confusing to connect to the online portion of the game, I had to contact tech support, who had me change settings, which I must change every time I want to play. Then when you do get connected, there are usually no games. If you are on at "prime time" you MIGHT be able to get in a game. If you do, the lag is terrible, even if both players have cable internet.

Replay Value
3/10
Once you play 5 times, the game really loses its fun. They promise to keep things updated, but since its release they have only put out one update, which only fixed a few typos. The campaign is fun, but gets repetitive.

Overall, this is a very fun game, Best Buy has it for 15 bucks. This game is worth 15-20 bucks, but no more, and that's if you like politics, if you don't, don't bother. If you are looking for something more in depth, check out "President forever," which goes for 12 bucks, but is harder to use. Personally, I prefer The Political Machine.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/02/04, Updated 03/17/08

Game Release: The Political Machine (US, 08/12/04)