The Political Machine (2008)

The Political Machine (2008)
PC Game | Windows | Stardock | 300MB

The Political Machine is a PC strategy game in which players run for President. Players can choose an existing candidate or can design their own from scratch, then choose a map/scenario to campaign in. From there, players must tackle the issues and battle against their ideological opponent for victory on election day.

Playing the game

Each scenario divides out the map into states (or provinces depending on the scenario). Each state is worth a certain number of electoral votes in which the player must win a majority of them on election day to win the game.

A player has two major political resources, capital and money. What they do with these two resources depends on the strategy employed. Each candidate has a number of traits that provide them with strengths and weaknesses such as charisma, stamina, integrity, intelligence, and position on the issues.

As the player travels the country, they can raise money, build campaign head quarters, do policy research, make speeches, take out advertisements, or hire political consultants with various abilities.

Meanwhile, your opponent will be doing the same thing. As the game progresses, the map will begin to turn either red or blue depending on who is winning (or purple of it's a tossup).

Spend too much time raising money and you won't have built up an effective grassroots movement. Spend too much time giving speeches or building political capital with local politicians and you won't have the money to take out advertisements, or conduct policy research that gives you access to better consultants and more effective campaign techniques.

The irony of the realism

The Political Machine is a PC game. It is designed to be fun. But underneath the covers it is one of the most advanced political simulations that exists. For example, in 2004, the The Political Machine 2004 edition accurately predicted the election in June. Stardock's Brad Wardell was asked live on CNBC in June 2004 how the game predicted the outcome. The game correctly predicted that Ohio -- not Florida -- would be the state to watch and whoever won that state would win the election. It also correctly predicted the winner of 48 of the 50 states.

Moreover, political junkies will appreciate many of the political consultants and strategies employed in the game such as the use of smear merchants, spin doctors, intimidators, cheer leaders, movie stars, etc. Strategy gamers will appreciate the balanced game mechanics which allows players to research new campaign tactics.

The Political Machine isn't just a fun game to play, it's a game that lets players see how the political process works in all its gory detail. Simple to play, difficult to master.

Minimum System Requirements
System: Pentium III 1.0 GHz or equivalent
RAM: 512 MB
Video Memory: 64 MB
Hard Drive Space: 1000