Customer Reviews

Commander in Chief

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I wouldn't go so far as to give it one star, but I was so incredibly disappointed with this game.

It's a great and fascinating concept of a game, and I'm sure it will entice people to get it because they figure it will be chock full of depth and immersion, but sadly, Eversim would have been better off keeping this game in production and not releasing a half-done product to match Inauguration Day.

The names in the back of the manual are all French, and there are tons of grammar and spelling errors that plague the game, probably resulting from poor and unchecked translation, with many words unchanged from the original French (ex: "Irak"). Much of the text is bizarre to read aloud, and some is downright incomprehensible.

As mentioned by other reviews, withdrawing troops from a country and repatriating them is completely broken, with the only other option for doing this is manually telling all troops to move back home, a process that takes ages (in my case, moving troops out of Iraq and back to Australia).

The game stalls a few months in, the tutorial is poor and clunky, the manual isn't very helpful, and you're left to flail around helplessly in a sea of crushing depth and information as your popularity plummets.

Going back to the military, it's also very difficult to assist allies and since repatriating soldiers from abroad is broken, quickly sending aid to friendly nations is too, and the same excruciatingly long and drawn out troop movements bring the game down.

I've encountered lag and slowdown, even as the game was four months underway, and alt-tabbing is simply out of the question.

It's incredibly disappointing because the idea for such a game is incredible, and the potential is definitely there to create something astonishingly good, but sadly even though it's a great concept, the delivery was sorely lacking, with strange grammar, a skin-and-bones tutorial and unhelpful manual in which neither appropriately prepares you for the game.

Better either to wait for a more established company with a history of grand-scale works, such as Paradox to attempt something like it (probably unlikely), or hope that updates for the game correct an unbelievable plethora of follies.

It gets one star out of five for being disappointingly garbage, and another for having a stellar idea in a game, which most people will agree with.

This game has the potential to be phenomenal, but the delivery falls far short of the promise. First off, the game barely works on a brand new state-of-the-art computer. The load times are RIDICULOUS and the game is very slow and choppy and freezes constantly. Second, it is apparent that the publisher was more concerned with the release date coinciding with the inauguration than with producing a quality product. There are countless errors in spelling and punctuation throughout (Irak? Respponsible?). Third, the game is hardly as customizable as it seems. I couldn't get very far into the game without the lag making it unbearable, so I'm sure there are other things that I'm leaving out. I desperately wanted this game to live up to its potential, but it did not. In these uncertain economic times, I highly recommend saving your money for something more entertaining - like a pet rock collection.

Good product however public opinion is bias to the left. It also has several errors, like when you add an event the event names on the creation menu don't match what you actual create, Contracts fold backwards, etc. Overall a very good game.

This game is fun, however very challenging. I suggest starting out with 1 day as 30 mins, to give you a feel for the game. Pros: Good graphics, real time stats, challenging, replay value is decent. Cons: Not very many options when meeting with cabinet members, language is hard to understand and what certain things will do if you change them. Overall, a good game, tough, but fun.

Geo-Political Simulator is unsurprisingly exactly what its title states: A geopolitical simulator. Eversim's execution in making their game precisely that, plus their dedication in continuously releasing patches and updates to make the game better, along with a few cherries on top, means that GPS is the new power in a genre that is too often abused by terrible titles over and over again, or simply neglected as irrelevant by other developers.

As the player, you assume the title of Head of State of practically any nation on earth (about 180 out of the 195 officially-recognized independent nations are playable). Immediately you're submersed into the political culture of the nation of your choice. At your disposal as the head of state, to change or overhaul at your will, are a vast multitude of departments and organizations commonly found in real-world countries: The national treasury, the economy, the healthcare/labor system, the justice department, the defense department, education, the interior department, the foreign affairs department, even the constitution (granted your nation has a constitution). The amount of available options for running the state is truly staggering.

One of my favorite parts of GPS's realism is the amount of interpersonal contact you have to have as a world leader. Each new game you start randomly generates a new set of "characters" for every nation in the world. Each character holds some type of public office within your country or is just a celebrity, and running your country well means communicating with those people very often. This is where you get a sense for the depth of the realism, as more often than not you'll be speaking a lot with people that really just don't like you at all. Think Bush had it bad with his cabinet appointments? Just wait till one of your ministers gets in trouble with the law and discredits your regime. What will you do? Shape him up? Fire him? Or, my personal favorite, just make him disappear.

Of course, every nation has its challenges. While playing a game as Canada or Australia might be easy and profitable, eventually you'll probably want to have a taste of being a third world dictator, which is where the fun really begins. Somalia, one of my favorite countries to play, is notorious in the real world for its near-lack of central government and generally terrible conditions, and in the game it's no different. With a Machiavellian attitude and a little luck, I'll make it to the next election about 50% of the time. But on the other side of the coin are military coups, civilian uprisings, foreign invasions, assassinations, and loads of other fun things that might just lead to your demise. Don't tick off the wrong people!

The cons, believe it or not, are minimal if you like political simulation/nation-building strategy games. You won't see over the top graphics and animation, to the dismay of most gamers and reviewers. Rather you see data, text, and information, which is actually useful and integral to the gameplay. Eversim still does its share, with a fully 3D map of Earth, complete with cities, landmarks, and monuments, plus graphic representations of things such as troop movements that help you plan wargames. GPS had several flaws in the early releases of the 2008 edition, but Eversim is now up to version 2.39 and I've got to say, things are as smooth as ever, English translations included. There's an active community that's constantly growing, so you're sure to meet avid simmers like yourself out there if you're ever in need of hints or tips. In all honesty, it's worthy to be compared with games like Supreme Ruler.

GPS fully lives up to its title and expectations. Although warfare is an integral part of GPS, this is not a war game. It's political, diplomatic, economic, and militaristic all at the same time; and it's the reason that many other reviewers rate this game so poorly. Too many of them pick up this game expecting another Civilization or Age of Empires clone, and are disappointed when they can't immediately load the game and nuke somebody for no reason and without repercussions. GPS is extremely immersive and I love playing it; it's fun and interesting for a casual gamer, but at the same time it's engaging and detailed enough for a hardcore simmer.

My son chose to be PM of Israel, ran the program through once to get an idea of how it worked. He then ran it through again and made his citizens very happy. At one point he had a 100% popularity rating, even though he was at war with Iran and the economy was tanking a bit. He got through the war, won it and got Iran through a true democratic election and got his own economy back on track. At that point, the Knesset voted him out! I'm not sure why this happened and it was the most frustrating part of the game -- here he was, victorious in war, a new ally in Iran, making great alliances everywhere and raising money by making business deals with other countries instead of taxing the people to death, high approval rating, and he's deposed.

That said, the game is very detailed and illustrates the difficulty in running all aspects of a country, trying to keep relatively balanced budgets, working with allied countries, dealing with enemies and terrorists (he also succeeded in routing a major group of terrorists), and keeping your people happy and employed.

He subsequently chose one of the missions, trying to make Cuba a democracy. I think that lasted about 5 minutes, truly an impossible task, or very difficult at least!

For those interested, the game works with Windows 7 machines; I called the manufacturer before buying it to make sure, since it wasn't clear on the packaging.

I bought three of these to play multiplayer. To activate the game they wanted to much personal information. I searched the internet to find a phone number to contact them, nothing just an email address. Is there a way to get around the internet connection and giving all the personal information? I am sending the games back to Amazon. I will not buy from this company until: 1) they have an easier way to get help (a phone number) 2) the software does not require internet connection to play 3) I can load the software without giving personal information.

It's all fun and games, but as you spiral ever downwards in popularity, you find yourself alone with no real input or help from inside your office. Sure, read the paper and try to help your polls, and you go down. For instance, I made a mistake in firing a minister, so I lowered the income tax rate. Wouldn't you be happy if the pres. did that? No it started riots for craps sake! Makes no sense what so ever. Dialect between you and people are sadly short, with only comments, or bribes..WTF? They need a help me button. I could not negotiate one sales contract! Too bad. I wanted to learn and play politics, but I can't with this game.

I was a beta tester for this game last spring when it was first being released in English.

I have to tell you that the title has vastly improved since that time and gives every indication that it will continue to evolve. I am impressed by the development team's dedication to the title and its continual efforts to update and upgrade the product.

The language issues have drastically improved; most of the text is now more or less professionally translated.

I recently replayed the game in its more or less current state and I honestly had fun running my government.

What the title needs, I think, is some guidance to the players on what the expected outcomes of certain actions might be. Right now, if I had any criticism, it would be that actions seem to have random effects, which will always be disturbing to strategy players.

I think the title is definitely worth picking up, if only for the knowledge that the developers will continue to evolve the product and that it will continue to improve.

A very complex game. A wide variety of factors and settings to play with. Only being well versed in the manual can you succeed with ease.