Recent reviews by L3MNcakes

This does not feel like a Paradox launch title. This feels like what I would expect the game to be after a few good content patches and DLC. I am over-the-moon with this title right now.

If you're after a paint the map your color wargame, this isn't it. From the get-go of it being announced, it never promised to be. Go play... literally any other strategy title out there. This is a gem for those of us who have longed for deeper, oft-under developed systems in strategy games.

If economics and internal politics of your nation is your jam, you will love this game. There is already so much to digest and if other Paradox titles are anything to suggest, it can only get better from here.

An interesting concept for a game, but unfortunately, seems to want to find every way it can to get in the way of what's actually fun and interesting about it. It starts out well, putting you in the position of directing the nightly news segment, and giving you control over the shots you want to broadcast and the way you want to portray certain headlines. Unfortunately, as the game goes on, it continues to throw more and more mechanics at you to the point where you're spending more time trying to play a bunch of mini-games all at once than you are actually focusing on the news segment you're broadcasting. Found myself going from, "Oooh.. this is a hilarious reaction shot. Let's make sure we get that!" to "Screw it, any shot will do, because I've gotta go over here and play whack-a-mole."

The live-action news segments themselves are all quite good and well written. I had a few good laughs. The "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" written portion of the story, however, is not. I found a lot of it either confusing to follow or just downright boring.

Overall, I think if the developers focused more on the "Propaganda Sim" aspect of the game, and less on throwing mini-games at the player that pull them away from that, this game could be a gem. In it's current state though, I'd only recommend it to see the live-action segments, and not for the actual game-play.

This game is wonderful! A well balanced blend of visual novel, courtroom drama, political intrigue, and strategy board game. My biggest gripe is that the writing isn't the greatest, but everything comes together quite well to tell a really intriguing story that does an amazing job of capturing the political turmoil going on during the French Revolution.

Choices feel meaningful and can have a big impact on how the entire rest of the game plays out. There is a good variety of ways to manage faction relationships and skirt death that gives the player a lot of freedom in deciding how they want to approach each situation. Just because all of France is calling for a person's head (or their freedom) doesn't mean you have comply. If you approach the game as an interactive story driven by the moral decisions that you make, rather than one about trying to min-max relationship bars (arguably a moral decision in and of itself, imo), then the game really shines and is one of the best of it's kind.

10/10 can't wait to make some counter-revolutionary heads roll again.