Republic: The Revolution Review (no fat)

Republic: The Revolution Gameplay

Boasting a highly publicized 3d engine, players will actually spend majority of their time in the 2d map view. There are literally dozens of options to play around with, and the turned based system gives plenty of time to strategize. Unfortunately the manual is a little unorganized, and the in game tutorial does not suffice for the games plethora of options.

Republic: The Revolution plays like a business version of the Sims, with less personality. Once a gamer gets a grasp of the medium to advanced functions, the game becomes considerably enjoyable.

A nice plotline has you starting out in your hometown (after a short ‘Ogre Battle like’ questionnaire) with a promising political following. This is after the former Police Chief Karasov, decidedly takes over the fictional Republic of Novistrana and declares himself a life-long president.

Starting out in the city of Ekatarina, gamers are not giving immediate access to all the necessary tools to move along their cause. But with proper reading and patience, and a little obscure help from the tutorial, it becomes evident that Republic: The Revolution is like a game of tag. Dominate one territory, and while keeping your control over that take over another, and then another. Simplistic, but nice in execution-to an extent.

Republic: The Revolution – It’s My Party

Who you recruit to help you will determine how well you fare in the game. And with the help of good ol’ RPG statistics, what your help is capable of will let you decide how to deploy and use them.

Your help fits one of three descriptions: Influence, Force, and Wealth. Not really self explanatory at first, but easily understood in the said characters abilities. Like say a police lieutenant’s ability to intimidate, which would do well in an area where the local populace is easily swayed by force.

As you progress through the game, you will find more help to recruit. In some cases, you may even stumble upon hidden help, with the ability to do more interesting things. A good representation of this is the ‘hitman’ that becomes available, although he is far from what Eidos has marketed for years in PC gaming.

Like the Sims, the game has its own language. This works for the most part, except in some of the conversational mini-games. Used for various functions, this mini-game consists of rationing your ‘conversational points’ to gain an edge over your opponent. A limited variety of subjects for you to choose from at a given time will help you along on your way to a win, and possibly a new recruit. It is an important part of the game that can also sway a bad situation in your favor.

Republic: The Revolution Scripted Events

One of the unusual parts of the game is the use of scripted events, which is one of the few reasons you will have to check out the 3d view of the game. In these events it will be up to you to discover something important set up by the AI, to assist you in getting an edge over your opponent.

This hide and seek type mission is as complicated as clicking certain things, and looking for extra options upon clicking said thing. Since the action is not live/dynamic, gamers are forced to hurry to the end of their turn to find out if they even succeeded at finding anything. The innovation is far from historic, and the implementation of it is entirely unnecessary.

Republic: The Revolution Graphics

Incredibly gorgeous 3d graphics, with a thriving and living city. But since it is underutilized in the game, the 2d map should have seen more organization. A more detailed 2d map would have been preferred, or should at least have been optional.

Character models, although well animated, for some reason show no signs of real personality. It may be just the AI, but you don’t get the feeling that the people are nothing more than AI controlled 3d models…and that too, models who don’t even know how to make their walk look realistic.

Republic: The Revolution Sound

Set with a Russian theme, and blessed with classical melodies. The soundtrack hums along without notice, for a perfect use of background music. That’s the way it should be in this type of simulation, and with an orchestral score that you may find repeating endlessly in your head without notice.

Republic: The Revolution - Summing up

The game shows promise but falls flat with a steep learning curve, lack of an ‘end turn’ button, and almost a mockery of graphics with the uselessness of its 3d engine. With proper time and patience this is a great game to play through, but after all the effort put into learning it you’ll figure out that the replay value is less than 1/10th of the time you spent trying to learn the game.

If Republic: The Revolution concentrated more on gameplay than its graphics engine, then it could have revolutionized a lacking genre.

Republic: The Revolution Cost

Republic: The Revolution retails for $19.99US at the time of writing.