If marks were given out of 10 for ambition then this game would certainly get a ten because the idea behind the title is certainly one of the most ambitious I have seen this year if not longer.

Not content with perhaps giving you control over a single army as in a war game or even a political party electoral campaign as is General Election (an old game on the Spectrum – trust me!) this game attempts to simulate what it must be like to be in control of a nation. This means you get to deal with decisions as varied as Terrorism and Agricultural Subsidies. You also have to try and please everyone and upset no-one, not least members of your own political party who seem to try and stab you in the back no matter what decision you come up with. (At least it makes you wonder what your own countries real life leader must be going through)

The game lets you take control over any current Nation on the Earth. The difficulty level set by which country you choose. For example choose Sweden or Switzerland for example and it will be easier than choosing the US or GB. However, beware, the developers, in order to make the game harder than it should be by have a habit of letting a terrorist organization strike at the heart of your nation or another nation declare military action on you. In one game that I played as the leader of Great Britain, a single decision where I tried to curtail the powers of the church brought about my downfall within 10 minutes further gameplay and nothing I could do could stop it.

The whole game takes place on a geopolitical map with various databases and spreadsheets becoming available depending on what icons at the bottom of the screen that you pick or which of your ‘helpful’ ministers wants to get in touch with you. Within these screens you manage all the economies and budgets of the various departments that make up the country. You also handle internal and external security, Intelligence, Education, Diplomacy, Health Care and Research among others. Again be careful because raising taxes will make everyone mad at you whilst lowering taxes will mean less money for you to play with and strangely the unions are against this.

There is also a fun newspaper that you get to read at various times during the game. Some of the headlines are quite funny and others just don’t really make any sense whatsoever but it does make a brief detour from the seriousness of the game as a whole.

Although very flat there is actually a bit of style to the graphics in the game (As much as you can with spreadsheets etc). The icons at the bottom of the screen are clear and easy to understand and the game has been made very easy to move between the different departments.

There is however, very little sound to it at all. There is a boring piece of background music and a few sound effects and that is it.

Overall this is a title that is definitely not going to appeal to everyone. Anyone who is not really into in-depth strategy games really need to keep away from this one, but those that do brave it and give it a chance will find lurking underneath a colourful, humorous and interesting title that the developers have obviously tried to be very ambitious in their aims and ideals with but perhaps stretched themselves a little too far.