The Best Geo Political Sim Since Shadow President
Imagine my surprise then, when reading an article about President Obama's inauguration, that this game was mentioned. I immediately went to the local game store and bought it.
The game installed within 30 minutes, and comes with one disk. Fairly small considering all the detail (although granted, the graphics and video detail that comes with most game is missing in this one).
The tutorials are not interactive, but rather videos that you watch in the game. Not the best, and they are not very in depth, but you do get the basics of the game from them. A good resource for someone is the CIA Factbook online. I believe parts of the sim are derived (just like Shadow President) from the CIA factbook.
The gameplay itself is interesting because it is real time, if you choose. You can speed up or pause the game, which is good for coffee breaks or if you're bored with nothing to do (there is always information to dig for).
The learning curve for this game is immense. You have very detailed control over the economy, military and policy. Some advisors help with decisions, but if you really want to succeed, it appears you must micro manage.
I've played this game for about 20 hours now, so more will follow. I'm still not sure how to NUKE, because you must enter a confirmation code, and cannot seem to invade Canada without getting impeached...those are some things I will try to figure out later this week.