The Political Machine

Written by Phillip Ellis on 9/17/2004 for PC  

Kerry and Edwards or Bush and Cheney? Bush or Kerry? These are all questions many Americans find themselves asking today as the 2004 Presidential Election is upon us. In this new strategy game from Ubisoft you can decide who wins the Presidential race.

The game has a simplistic goal, and an easy approach to learn. You go through 42 weeks of campaigning for the Presidency in an effort to win the office over your opponent. You must campaign on the hottest issues in the election this year, from the War on Iraq, to healthcare and Medicaid.

In the game you take on the role of a political campaign manager of a U.S. presidential candidate. You compete versus the computer, or you can take your game online and battle it out with other real people. The game screen displays the United States with all of it’s states. The citizens of each state care about various issues based on their demographics. If you go to California, obviously gay marriage is a big issue, if you go to Texas you must display your toughness, if you go to Florida you have to believe in healthcare. Some states tend to be liberal, and some are conservative. There are also independent voters which you have to sway to believe your side of the story. You have limited funds in the road to the Presidency, and you must use fund raising, and use your funds correctly to have enough to hang in the race and compete with your opponent late in the race. Throughout the game you can build campaign headquarters, produce radio ads, television shots, newspaper ads, and you can win endorsements from special interest groups. Winning the endorsements gets your name out in locations you would not regularly go to, and is a key to winning the election.

During the course of the election you will run into hecklers, many people against you, fixers, croppers, and protestors that will try to make your campaign a mockery in particular states. The game ends after week 42, when one of the two candidates becomes President of the United States. After the 42 weeks is over, it will run you through each state, showing the winner of the state, and of the electoral votes, leaving you in suspense as you countdown until the big win, or big loss.

Your candidate has a few characteristics that are very important to voters in this election. Charisma, comeliness, credibility, integrity, intelligence, media bias, military experience, minority appeal, religious devotion, stamina, fundraising ability, and money. Stamina could be the most important of all of those, because if you do not have much of this you will not be able to campaign as much as your opponent. So while your candidate is resting your opponent could be traveling the country with speeches that attack you, but you will have no way to retaliate until the next day. The main game mode here is campaign mode. In campaign mode you battle your way up the ladder against a particular party. There are ten possible opponents you will face, with each one becoming increasingly tougher and harder to beat.

To win the game, you have to attain 271 electoral votes. The important thing is to know which states swing towards your political party, so that you are not wasting time campaigning in a state that will likely not vote for you anyways. The only way to win the election is to get your name out, and for the citizens to be aware of you. The best way to do this is to build campaign headquarters across the country. Early in the race you will want to win endorsements from special interest groups while building campaign headquarters to get your name out, and to win over the voters of those special interest groups. When you go to do something, such as make a speech, or a television ad, the game displays three thumbs for what you are about to do. If you say you are “For the War on Iraq” then you will have a positive thumb from Republican Voters, and from Independent Voters, but a negative thumb from Democrat Voters. You have to know who your target is before releasing ads of that nature. Towards the end of the game you will want to bring in operatives that can help give you the edge in the election. They may dig up issues on your opponent, or smear his campaign while you roam free, taking over in the states he had.

The game is simple to pick up and play, and simple to enjoy. The graphics are much like a cartoon, but they get the job done easily. The game plays very well, and if you are a political junkie you cannot help but love this new strategy game. Overall, a very solid effort, and for the $19.99 price tag not a bad game to pick up if you want to change the face of the world by changing our election.