Mr. President

TLDR the idea is good but the game crashes. You should realize that that's basically a digitalized tabletop game. If this doesn't scare you then worth trying. Pros: + Pretty deep immersion to geopolitics and internal affairs, a lot of areas covered well + I think this is replayable Cons: - Crashes - Learning curve is not for everyone

I like how informative it is to me about things that are happening around the world. I would also suggest to start with the easier setting.

Game status: Its playable and appears generally complete. I'm not an expert on the boardgame, but that side of things is proceeding well. The interface has some small issues, most of which can be resolved by a button click. A couple require reloading which is quick and doesn't create issues. There may be mechanics that aren't complete, but I couldn't determine that for certain either way. Any incomplete items are probably fairly minimal. I'm hoping that there are some incomplete end game options, but I don't think that's the case. Interface: It works well considering the scope of the game. There are some small annoyances when popups don't clear and sometimes obstruct parts of the game board. Visual improvement potentials: Fix the popups issue. Any popup should be able to be minimized at any time so you can look around and properly evaluate the game state. This is particularly an issue with cascading events where a lot can happen, and the game moves through them without really giving you time to analyze and enjoy the sense of overview and properly track what's going on. End Game: Similarly, when the game ends there is a large popup announcing whatever reason for the game ending and it is impossible to look around the map and do a deeper analysis of how it all ended. This is particularly frustrating because many games end during end of turn cleanup, when a whole lot happens in succession with very little user interaction. Being able to assess is important, especally after investing quite a few hours into reaching that game. This really depreciates the quality of the experience to the point where I'm losing interest in it already. The game itself: Well, I've been watching this since its development as a board game. Followed all the development blogs. In many ways this is exactly the kind of game I wanted and I was really happy to see it get made into a pc game, becuase the physical game is massive, and there's simply a lot that is better served with automation. Impressions: I play a lot of strategy games and this one is really hard. Even on easy mode its very challenging. There are a lot of things that can make you lose outright, some realistic, some less so. Outright nuclear war, yes, it's over. Russia or China dominance, well that's a reasonable end condition. Random chaos leading to an incredibly rapid decline at the end of the year, well that's just disturbing and ultimately unsatisfying. It is also the most frequent end game state at least after the first 15 games or so. In Standard mode, I have yet to survive year two. Hard or harder mode, is conceptually a nightmare. This is basically a game of mitigation. There are a huge things you can't control, and if it had been designed as a pc game first instead of an already complex boardgame there would be more depth to offer. For instance, you have significant input on high level talks with Russia or China, but most diplomatic events are just roll a dice and see what came out of it, with no player input or ability to influence it. A deal is made and you have to accept it. The same applies to bills which get vetoed (including your own). Yes a bill might get a poison pill slipped into it, but it should still be your decision as the President to decide whether or not to sign it. You may not be able to control congress, but you can definitely control whether you veto it or not. Vetoed bills do not go back for renegotiation, they just die. On the world stage, fires erupt everywhere, all the time. This is expected. There are things you can do to improve your chances but in many ways you are at the mercy of the cards and the dice if they get streaky. That's not necessarily unreasonable, there's only so much that one leader can influence, but it tends to get a bit over the top. You have a set number of actions depending on your skills, your team skills, and your priorities. In general about half of them will succeed, (depends on what you are trying). You get rerolls, bu…