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Republic: The Revolution Review
Chris Leyton
01/09/2003
In development for more years then we care to remember, is Elixir Studios strategy title everything it promised...
Weâve been waiting for Elixir Studios PC strategy title âRepublic: The Revolutionâ for quite some time, however the promise of political strategies, advanced AI and state-of-the-art graphics has been enough to sustain our interest despite the continued delays and hyperbole spewing fourth from the PC community.
Republic: The Revolution places players as a political upstart in the fictional USSR break-off republic of Novistrana; out for personal revenge against a corrupt regime itâs up to you to gain the support of the people and lead them to freedom.
For a more extensive description of the games mechanics and story behind Republic, we suggest checking out our earlier First Look at the title.
Republic is certainly a hard nut to crack even for the strategy enthusiasts out there; itâs likely your first game will be spent aimlessly wandering around and trying to understand what all the fuss is about. This is helped in no small part by a completely unfriendly user interface and the lack of any guiding tutorial, instead players are occasionally presented with a static screen that does more to confuse then educate.
Perhaps the first thing to try and understand is the concept of ideologies that govern everything in the game. Every character, district and action within the games world is governed by different ideologies, based on either âWealthâ, âInfluenceâ or âForceâ; for example a working class district is often ruled by the Force ideology, whilst actions such as âCharity Workâ are built upon the âInfluenceâ ideology.
These essentially serve as ingredients for a glorified âScissors, Papers, Stoneâ game mechanic, whereby âForceâ beats âInfluenceâ, âInfluenceâ beats âWealthâ and âWealthâ beats âForceâ; thus a force action such as âDebt Collectionâ would provide better results against a character built upon âInfluenceâ then âWealthâ.
Itâs a simple concept that is made deviously tough in its implementation and one thatâs damned near impossible to explain, however understanding this is paramount to enjoying âRepublicâ.
Each of the games three towns are split up into different districts, beginning in your home district (that which is most similar to your ideology), itâs up to you to build up support in each district and enlist other key members to your faction, thus increasing the scope of actions available to you.
Actions in the game range from âCanvassâ to âAssassinationsâ, each of which are designed to achieve one of three different goals â“ to gain Information, to raise Support or to Discredit other factions.
Information actions are designed to gather information about each district, the primary result of these actions is to determine secretive locations in which to carry out your more nefarious actions. New locations are discovered in the district once your level of intelligence in the area exceeds their secrecy level; the higher the secrecy the more likely your actions will succeed. Other results of Information actions will reveal key characters and the actions of rival factions within that district, whilst you can also spread âMisinformationâ to cover up your more scandalous activities.
Support actions such as âEvangeliseâ, âRallyâ and âCharity Workâ will build support in the chosen district; at the end of every three days your support in each district is calculated and turned into âWealthâ, âInfluenceâ and âForceâ points â“ all actions costs points, so ensuring your support grows is paramount to success.
Finally, because your Support actions will only appeal to neutral civilians, youâll have to knock the support from the four rival factions with a variety of Discredit actions such as âVandalismâ, âDebt Collectionâ and âGraffitiâ.
To carry out actions in the game, the main interface presents you with a timeline that consists of three different sections per day. Carrying out an action simply requires you to select the action, select the district and then choose a location within that district based on your intelligence. You can have a maximum of six characters (including yourself) within your inner circle, each of which can carry out different actions, thus paving the way for an elaborate rise from obscurity to leading the country.
Speaking truthfully, most action are simply a case of watching out a cut-scene, however certain ones require you to âmodifyâ the outcome of the action, such as slanting a âRallyâ towards the hearts or minds of the voters or angle a âPoster Campaignâ towards capitalism.
The game includes a rather strange conversation mini-game for actions that require you to talk to other characters. This is essentially a âTop Trumpsâ game, which requires you to allocate a set amount of points to four different conversation buttons; youâve then got to play against the other character in two different rounds, if you win enough points youâll win the conversation and the support of the character.
However like so much of Republic this feature just doesnât feel as if itâs been thoughtfully worked out, itâs certainly functional and gets the job done, but just doesnât feel as if itâs been four years worth of work.
Whilst weâre on the games misgivings, perhaps the biggest complaint that we have with Republic has to come from the sheer design of this game. If weâre speaking truthfully it feels as though the guys at Elixir came up with some good technology and tried to build a game around that.
An example of this is the games âTotalityâ graphics engine; a lot was made of this a few years back when the âgameâ was given its first demonstration. Despite rendering an impressive amount of detail in considerably large areas, the design of the game renders the 3D engine virtually useless, as youâll spend most of the time in a 2D map screen taking an overview of the whole town. Whilst many have been keen to jump on this stick and it is a fair point to make, it should be noted that the same thing can be said about many strategy titles including The Creative Assembly acclaimed âMedieval: Total Warâ.
You can tell that Elixir have tried to work on ways to get you into the town so to speak, as youâll be able to gain more information on certain buildings and characters by clicking on them whilst carrying out âInformationâ actions. However it just canât help the feel that Republic started life out as a tech-demo and didnât have enough time spent on its initial development of ideas.
Itâs also true to say that the neither the âTotalityâ engine nor the cutting-edge AI is as impressive as they should have been. Although the game renders a whole town to a nice degree of detail without any loading, the effect is spoilt when you notice such things as characters clipping through buildings.
More worrying is the problems that appear with the games AI; simple features such as âPath Findingâ seem to cause the game problems, with characters walking in funny directions and looking decidedly awkward. Our personal favourite is when a gang of four thugs that were tasked to enter a restaurant and beat the place up looked extremely dubious as they neatly lined up and went in one by one, making sure to close the door each time behind them!
Sure itâs nit-picking to criticise a game just because the characters arenât looking at each other when theyâre talking, but because all the actions are essentially glorified cut-scenes which you spend more time watching then interacting with, the end result is ultimately ruined by such little nuances.
Despite the misgivings and the fact that Republic just doesnât feel that well though out, we had fun once we got into the gist of things. Republic plays more like a strategy board game akin to âChessâ or âGoâ, whereby itâs a constant attack/defend mechanic that drives your progress in the game. Sure youâll spend most of your time wandering why you need such a monster-spec PC when you spend so much time in a simplistic (yet overcomplicated) 2D view; but if youâre prepared to give the game a go and think youâll enjoy the political overtones and situation, then itâs likely youâll gain more and more enjoyment the further you play.
As you progress in the game youâll gain more and more satisfaction as your faction slowly begins to grow, and quickly begin to admire the sheer level of non-linearity to the gameplay. Whichever direction you take can lead you to glory, from a forceful approach to a peaceful campaign to liberate the masses â“ itâs entirely up to you.
