Horse 2912 - EA Politik '21 - It's In The Game

 

EA Sports - It's In The Game - Because Politics is A Game

The big thing in Politik '20 was the introduction of "External Environment" play. The first rollout was mainly a visual test with Bushfire 19-20 and the proof that that was a visual test was that the Australian Prime Minister was in Hawaii and wouldn't do anything; no matter how hard you mashed the buttons.

That was followed by the Covid-19 patch and depending of which government you were playing as, you could either play as 'active' or 'irrelevant'  government.

Politik '20 had the usual Presidential Elections from previous editions, except this was badly done and the developers accidentally copied and pasted the candidates from 2016 and the Vice President from 2012. This meant that Politik '20 was very buggy and many users reported that even if you'd won the Presidency with the D candidate, the R candidate would still claim victory.

For Politik '21 you get an upgraded External Environment mod for the Covid-19 patch called 'Delta' and the developers have rolled out test features like 'Civil Disobedience' and 'Insurgency'. 

I will say that I have found the mini-games such as Insurgency Jan 6 and War Memorial Riot really boring. I think that this is because MAGA Court Fight in Politik '20 was such a disappointment that the developers couldn't think of anything new.

The Covid-19 patch appears to be everywhere and for all nation states in the game and dependable on which country you have selected, the decisions range from sensible to silly; which is also dependent on whether the Government is 'active' or 'irrelevant'.

Rather than run an election mode for Australia and the UK in Politik '21, the 'irrelevant' government mode has been turned on full-time and you get to play in state and county mode. If you've selected Canada, you get to play with the full options of 'active' or 'irrelevant' but the External Environment features of News Corp mean that for the US, UK, and Australia, you can not switch.

If you are playing in Australian state mode, then depending if you have Lib or Lab selected (I have tried selecting Nat but it appears to be greyed out) then because the External Environment mod for News Corp is set to either 1 or -1 then even if your decisions in the game are identical, you will either be reported in the various pop-up news windows as being a strong leader or the devil incarnate.

Canada comes with an election mode which is pretty dull, because although you could win Government by playing as Con, and even hold enough numbers, you can't convince BlQ or ND to join you.

The election mode for Germany, now that the Merkel player has been retired from the CDU, is quite frankly, too hard to understand and you'll find that whatever party you have selected, you still won't be able to form government because there are 11 parties and the game mechanics still haven't been written.

There is a side quest if you've chosen either Australia, France, UK or US, called Treaty. If you have selected Australia or France, then you will be greyed out of actually making any decisions because they will be made by the US or UK on your behalf. This side quest ends with a treaty and the sale of some submarines which are presumably pretend as they are supposed to be delivered in 2030. After you have concluded the Treaty, literally nothing changes in the game except that France, China and New Zealand gets mad.

In Australia, if your Party has a Senate seat, you can import previous players to your roster such as ex-Premiers, but if you then try to assign these "classic" players House of Reps seats, the game glitches. I note that this only happens for a Lab player and not for a Lib one.

There are also messages from classic PM's from previous games such as from Politik '16 or even from Politik '93 and Politik '96 (back when it was back on SNES and MegaDrive and then N64 and PS1), and they show up with messages as "Miserable Ghosts". These little interludes are amusing but don't contribute anything to gameplay. 

Politik '22 will likely come with an election for Australia, as well as mid-term elections for the US, a coalition stacking game for Germany, and improvements to the External Environment features and the Covid-19 patch.

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7.9

This game has achieved an average rating of 7.9 among 89 critics; which says that although the graphics have improved year on year, the base content remains largely the same.