Tom Clancy’s Politika was both programmed and published by Red Storm Entertainment in the late nineties. It is based on Clancy’s novel, Power Plays, and is basically an espionage and politically themed strategy game featuring an easy to navigate top down perspective. It is a successful conversion of the board game bearing the same title, and was converted to many formats.
The game can be played in a solo, single player mode against a somewhat vanilla artificial intelligence, or the game play can be spiced up considerably by selecting multiplayer mode and playing against a friend.
Tom Clancy’s Politika was both programmed and published by Red Storm Entertainment in the late nineties. It is based on Clancy’s novel, Power Plays, and is basically an espionage and politically themed strategy game featuring an easy to navigate top down perspective. It is a successful conversion of the board game bearing the same title, and was converted to many formats.
The game can be played in a solo, single player mode against a somewhat vanilla artificial intelligence, or the game play can be spiced up considerably by selecting multiplayer mode and playing against a friend. What’s more, there is a fully supported online option that allows players to hook up with perfect, unpredictable strangers for great, strategic games.
Within Politika, there are eight factions that the
user has the choice of playing. After President Yeltsin dies in the year 1999 without a confirmed heir, these eight factions must vie for control of the country. The KGB, Reformers, Mafia, Church, Communists, Nationalists, Separatists, and the Military are all looking to take charge of the nation. All are employing various tactics in order to gain popularity and influence with the population. Russia is thrown into a brutal and bloody civil war.
Politika plays very much like a board game, which is an attractive idea for fans of the original game. The emphasis of this particular game is not on using military might to sway the populace or devastate upstart factions. Politika, as its name would suggest, concentrates on using political influence, wealth and diplomacy to reach the desired outcomes.
Similar to a board game, Russia is divided into regions like one would see in the board game risk. Each individual region is divided into three sections, with the colour of each section denoting what faction has control of the section. It is possible for three different factions to have influence in a single region, just as it is possible for a single faction to have complete supremacy in a region. The more influence a faction has in the country, the more money it gains at the beginning of each turn, again similar to Risk. Game play continues with each faction vying for more control until one by one, they are whittled away. Eventually, one faction will gain control of the country.
Politika uses cards, similar to Risk to denote controls and influences. It features a nasty and confusing user interface, but the game play itself makes up for this. The graphics primarily consist of the map of Russia, changing with each turn. Overall, the game is very good, and should be seriously considered for download. It is an offbeat sort of strategy that does not showcase a powerful military, thus making it unique and interesting.
