Politics; the perpetual cycle of competition between groups or individuals for power and leadership.

War; see politics.

Developer Stardock’s new strategy game puts you on the frontlines of political warfare and for the first time in gaming history players have the chance to wage their own political campaign in a bid to win the presidency of the United States of America.  The proceedings play out more like a  turn-based board game than a seamless Sims-style experience (high on text and low on flashy visuals) but the inter-affecting dynamics that emerge from the game’s cohesive and informative political gameplay formula permeate a rare sort of charm making The Political Machine a game that even n00b politicians can easily enjoy. 

You’ll start the game choosing your Republican or Democratic affiliation then select a candidate from a list of real-world politicians such as Bill or Hillary Clinton, Dick Cheney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the four Bushes, or John Kerry.  As campaign manager you’ll determine everything your candidate will do (from flying to different states, raising funds, giving speeches, and producing multi-media ads) during the 41 weeks leading up to Election Day.  The Political Machine is a turn-based game and each turn represents a single week on the campaign trail.  You can perform more than one action per turn but you are limited by your candidate’s stamina points and the campaigns cash reserves.

The objective of The Political Machine is obviously to win the presidency and you’ll go about realizing this task in an assortment of different ways such as speeches, ads, fund raising, and by installing as many headquarter outposts as you can manage to erect on the map.  If talking in front of large groups of people frightens you fret not because in The Political Machine you need only select from an extensive list of subjects (such as the war in Iraq, Freedom of Speech, gay marriage, the outsourcing of jobs, tax cuts, gun rights, terrorism, et cetera), decide whether you are for or against the policy and then click the ‘give speech’ button.  You can also give speeches to lower the popularity of your opponent in a certain area of the country by choosing to talk about topics that the state favors but your opponent opposes.

You can launch publicity efforts via newspaper, radio, and television – producing ad campaigns that will raise public awareness of your candidacy more and more as the ads circulate in a state from week to week.  Like speeches the extent of interactivity in producing ad campaigns is relegated to simply choosing a topic and your stance on it then clicking the ‘make ad’ button.  The most important thing the player should be aware of when propaganda-ating is where a particular state sits with a particular issue, particularly if it’s a hot-button issue.  Simply basing your political stances and efforts around your personal views and opinions will not win you any elections so, just like in real life; you’ll often flip-flop on an issue or forfeit your integrity so you can appeal to a certain sector of voters. 

Spin doctors, smear merchants, and more – oh my!  What, you didn’t think that climbing the political ladder all the way to the tippy-top echelons of the American presidency would be all propaganda and roses, did you?  You’ll need to employ a host of sorted political masterminds in order to haphazardly meddle in the affairs of threatening countries and experience happy-endings at the hands of intern caucus.  It’s a good idea to spend a portion of your political capital on spin doctors and smear merchants who can professionally derail your competitor’s efforts by raising the potency of your issue stances, or lowering your opponent’s issue rating, respectively.  You can also hire the assistance of other agents such as webmasters, intimidators, or ‘fixers’ who can take out your opponent’s agents.  In an attempt to offset the unfair real-life political opportunities that come with having a lot of money, you cannot flood the country with these types of agents to secure your presidency – instead, successive agent you purchase will get more and more expensive, limiting your ability to buy your way into the white house.

Occasionally, you’ll get invited to be a guest on various news shows across the country.  During these question-and-answer sessions the show’s hosts (Barry King, Barbara Sawyer, Bill Mathens, O’Maley, and Fred Toppel) will grill you on issues ranging from your political stance to your personal character.  The advantage of being on these shows is publicity; the disadvantage is you’ll drastically hamper your presidential efforts if the host calls you out on a spin reply or non-answer. 

Players can define nearly every variable in The Political Machine from agent and endorsement prices, to overall difficulty, and foreign political issues in order to mix things up a little bit or make winning the presidency easier.  You can even customize the warring state of the country and attempt to run your campaign during a world war.

Visually, The Political Machine adopts a dramatically colorful and exaggerated tone.  But to be honest, there isn’t a lot to actually see here.  The game is played mostly from a top-down view of the country’s map with small icons moving hither and thither as actions are executed.  Announcements and interviews consist of single overlapping illustrations that, while looking quite comical and representative of their real-life personas, ermm don’t move. 

The sound presentation is even weaker than the visual presentation with music that repeats, and repeats, and repeats, and eventually becomes quite annoying.  I’m not sure what sort of sound effects are appropriate for a political strategy game but since The Political Machine doesn’t really feature any outside of standard interface clicks and buzzes, I won’t even attempt to criticize the game in this respect.

Overall, The Political Machine is highly informative if nothing else.  But it’s also fun to play so I recommend it.  If you’d like to figure out what that “politic” stuff you hear about all the time is all about, but don’t want to be bored by drawn-out explanations from people who don’t even know then check out The Political Machine and give your sweating videocard a break from stressful 3D computations.  

Gameplay: 7.5
Very much a point-and-click affair.  Interactivity is limited to choosing options and clicking buttons.  The variables that compose the equation of The Political Machine are a lot of fun to play around with though and seem very well thought out and intuitive.

Graphics: 7.0
Exaggerated cartoon illustrations of actual politicians are used in place of real-life photos or realistic mock-ups.  Overall the visuals are very simplistic and almost static, but the illustrations do look nice.

Sound: 8.0
Lighthearted instrumental orchestrations constantly repeat to the point of being annoying.

Difficulty: Medium
There is a learning curve involved with successfully balancing the numerous variables at work here, but you’re allowed to fumble your way through the first portion of the campaign which should give you ample time to learn the various nuances.

Concept: 8.0
Can’t say The Political Machine isn’t based around an original concept, that’s for sure.  It’s the first of its kind besides.

Overall: 7.5
The Political Machine offers up a truly unique experience that is both fun and informative.  Give it a try if you’re interested in fun or learning.