Republic: The Revolution Review
Gameplay: 5.5/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 9/10
Replayablity: 6/10
Opinion: 6/10
Overall: 6.7/10 (Mediocre)
Bad game design plague. What a waste.
Gameplay: 5.5
In Republic: The Revolution, you play as yourself, running a political party, trying to overthrow that 'Stalin Dictatorship Party' from it's throne. The game takes place in a fictional country called Novistraina, a country that broke off from Russia after the collaspe of the Soviet Union. The game sounded good, Novistriana had it's own citizens, landmarks and even a national anthem. But the gameplay is just too difficult and most of the times is a 'hit or miss' type of game.
The country of Novistriana is beautiful, the citizens are actually living in the city, walking to work or going to a newspaper stand to get the latest. But you would mostly be staring at a 2D playing field where you can launch all the actions and commands, and just admire the 3D world. Your actions require a sort of currency. Based on 3 principles; Force, Compassion and Wealth. This 3 will determine how well will an action work in a part of town. But since the game is mainly a hit or miss type of game, generally it gets boring to figure out advantages and disadvantages.
All your actions take place in an unattractive 2D map of the city, taking place in 3 time slots, Morning, Afternoon and Night. You have to assign yourself and your men to either put up posters, rally against the oppressors or just investigate on the area. The more knowledge you get about a district, the better you know about meeting places or places to tell the people about your ideas. Assigining is hard work, clicking on your character, then choosing from his list of actions, then choosing the location and then choosing the area of the action that is to take place. It would be easy if you got 3 men to assign, but the more you get, the faster you must plan. Another problem is that you have extremely limited control over your actions. You can't issue actions in the 3D world which is a disappointment. Some actions require you to enter the 3D world via clicking on 'view action' and it sometimes gives you a slider to control what is your actions is leaning to, do you want to spread Anti-Government or spread Anti-Capitalist protests? These to me, barely affects how the people react.
When finding someone to join your party, you can either let the computer try the 'Hit or miss' tatic or you go into the very conversation, either trying to ask for a favor or recuriting. You then would be thrown into a sort of card game, where you must have bigger numbers to try to win the opponent. Though it may be compelling to play, there is absolutely no change with your 3D self and the 3D competitor. All that happen is they will give short burst of speech, sometimes laughing or shouting. But it is very plain. In the end, you'll rather be planing your next move and let the computer do it's hit or miss stuff.
This freedom of actions brings another problem, in the game, the Dictator declared that anyone rallying and spreading anti-government remarks, (in short, going against the government) will be caught and arrested. I was able to rally all over town, put up anti-government posters and the so called dictator didn't even do a single thing to stop me. Also, when you do something that is unlawful, the passer-bys just walk as if nothing is happening. The newspaper stories are a nice touch but they are repeated and somewhat stupid.
Most of the problems lie in the complicated stuff, covering up the simplicity of this game. In the end, this game is just a turn-based rock-paper-sissors type of game, with a 'hit or miss' mode added to it. Strategy plays very little in this game and the tutorial requires you to read, not play at the same time learn.
Graphics: 7
They said they implemented an 'infinite pixel engine' into the 3D part of the game, where the whole town/city is loaded and that you are able to explore the city like the fellow citizens. You could, but you'll require the best graphic cards available. I experience alot of lag not from my CPU, but from my graphic card itself. Even after overclocking my Geforce 4 MX440 128meg (which is susposely one of the high-end budget cards) to the max and putting everything in their lowest detail, it still lags at a low FPS of 6-12 unless my camera is facing in some less busy area where the FPS shots up to 20-40. So be warned, it will be slow.
Though I got to admit, the textures in game are high quality which makes you feel that you ARE in the country. The people at least look like people but they look rather stiff in animation. Smoke and particle effect is also displayed but is weak compared to old games like 'Mafia' and new games like 'Max Payne 2'. The 2D interface is good but it is difficult to navigate through all the menus.
Sound: 9
A small and nice selection of classic Russian music, but is rarely heard in game and only is heard during the very very very long loading times, the main menu or the credits. The citizens all talk in a gibberish Russian, somewhat like 'The Sims' which no one in this world can figure. Sometime, the speeches don't fit and most of the talking sounds repeated.
Replayablity: 6
The game is terribly long. Spanning 3 towns, 3 paths to take in each town. You might want to try it all over again. But as the gameplay is bad, it might be not compelling to go all over the game again.
Reviewer's Opinion: 6
Bad game planning, the game seems to be rushed to meet the deadline and is poorly done. All that waiting are finally over, down the drain perhaps. If you do not have a good graphic card and processor, it will be 2D mode for you most of the time.
