Rating: 
Summary: Dont buy this game is waste of money!
Review: The premise of Republic is this: your parents were "disappeared" during the days of the Soviet Union. Now the man who did the deed is the totalitarian president of the country. You decide to remove him, and replace him with yourself. The game takes you from the beginnings of forming a political party, to the hard struggle against the government and other factions to gain control of the country. For students of political history, it's a dream come true.Unfortunately, Republic is one of those games that you play and you initially think is really cool, but then as you get in deeper into play time, realize is fairly repetitive and slightly boring. More on this below. Learning Curve:
When I first started playing the game out of the box, one of my chief frustrations was the manual. The interface of the game is not exactly intuitive, and while it's functional and works well when you get used to it, initially learning to use it is difficult. The lack of a well written manual made that learning curve a bit more tedious. All the information needed to play the game is there, but it's poorly organized, making the player spend endless minutes scanning through it to try and find a one sentence explanation of a major aspect of the game. I have never understood why game makers with complicated manuals don't do their customers a favor and include indexes. This is a game that really could have used one. The in-game tutorial wasn't much better. While it too gave much of the pertinent information you need to play the game, it is presented as a sort of slide show of pictures, little more than a reference guide. It's the poor man's way of making a tutorial, and unfortunately only mildly useful in explaining how to play. Much of it is learned through trial and error. Both these issues result in a medium to high learning curve. Game Play:
Republic plays like this: You recruit henchmen who then go through the city and do your bidding, using different methods such as leafleting and posters to convert the city's people to your party. Other parties try to do the same thing. To stop them, you have the ability to attack them through propaganda or even by discrediting their henchmen. To win, you have to build up your own resources, which you use to further your cause, and fend off the other parties. The end goal is to become president of the country. It sounds good on paper, and the execution isn't terrible at first. There is a lot of strategy involved in planning where to send your henchmen, and how to stop the other parties from trying to stop you. You need to balance your resources, keep up the resolve of your followers, and beat down the resolve of your enemies. It's a fine balancing act that can be quite entertaining. The problem is that Republic becomes predictable. All the major events and goals in the game are scripted. No matter how many times you play, the result is the same, and though the game has 3 cities, all three cities mostly play out the same way. Perhaps if the makers had used random goals or added random events that could add or subtract to your progress things would be more exciting. As it is, by the time you get to the third city, the repetitiveness of doing the same sort of actions over and over becomes a drain. Control and design:
The whole stats system is quite novel and I rather liked it, though at times, the manual's lack of clarity frustrated me when commands didn't work the way I perceived they should. Overall, I was quite impressed, especially with the design of the conversation dialog. The game's camera controls have been complained about as cludgy. They are a bit, but I had little problem with them, mostly because I generally spent most of my time in the map screen. Incidentally, I had no crashes or noticeable bug appear while playing. Kudos to the programmers! Graphics:
Republic's graphics are pretty good for a sim game. The game's cities are active living places, with people and cars moving around following their daily routines. The people themselves are well animated, and the buildings do appear to have some depth to them. The game's camera has a 360 option, allowing you to scroll around and view things from any angle. It really is a visually attractive game. My chief complaint, however, is that this game doesn't really need them. Cut scenes would have provided much the same impact as the 3d rendering does. During 90% of the game you're in the map view. It's more efficient since the game takes so long to pass from one game turn to the next that using the increase speed option to help the game go faster is a must. It's an option only works in the map screen. So in the end, the 3D graphics end up being mostly irrelevant. Sure you can go and look at your guys walking around handing out leaflets or putting up posters, but after the first couple times of seeing them do it, it loses it's novelty and you tend to do other things instead. A big minus. Music:
One of the best things about this game is its music. Done in a russo/folk-classical style with an actual orchestra, it's not only instrumental (sorry about the pun) to setting the mood for the game, but it raises the game up a notch. Whoever wrote the music did a fine job. I almost wish I could get it on CD. It's that good. Incidentally, when you quit the game, Alicia Keys sings the Kostroma National Anthem. Star power. Woo. Bottom Line:
Republic is a game that had loads of promise and just didn't deliver that well. It's entertaining, but once you finish it, there's not that much replay value. 3 stars
Rating: 
Summary: Good premise, not so good execution
Review: The premise of Republic is this: your parents were "disappeared" during the days of the Soviet Union. Now the man who did the deed is the totalitarian president of the country. You decide to remove him, and replace him with yourself. The game takes you from the beginnings of forming a political party, to the hard struggle against the government and other factions to gain control of the country. For students of political history, it's a dream come true. Unfortunately, Republic is one of those games that you play and you initially think is really cool, but then as you get in deeper into play time, realize is fairly repetitive and slightly boring. More on this below. Learning Curve:
When I first started playing the game out of the box, one of my chief frustrations was the manual. The interface of the game is not exactly intuitive, and while it's functional and works well when you get used to it, initially learning to use it is difficult. The lack of a well written manual made that learning curve a bit more tedious. All the information needed to play the game is there, but it's poorly organized, making the player spend endless minutes scanning through it to try and find a one sentence explanation of a major aspect of the game. I have never understood why game makers with complicated manuals don't do their customers a favor and include indexes. This is a game that really could have used one. The in-game tutorial wasn't much better. While it too gave much of the pertinent information you need to play the game, it is presented as a sort of slide show of pictures, little more than a reference guide. It's the poor man's way of making a tutorial, and unfortunately only mildly useful in explaining how to play. Much of it is learned through trial and error. Both these issues result in a medium to high learning curve. Game Play:
Republic plays like this: You recruit henchmen who then go through the city and do your bidding, using different methods such as leafleting and posters to convert the city's people to your party. Other parties try to do the same thing. To stop them, you have the ability to attack them through propaganda or even by discrediting their henchmen. To win, you have to build up your own resources, which you use to further your cause, and fend off the other parties. The end goal is to become president of the country. It sounds good on paper, and the execution isn't terrible at first. There is a lot of strategy involved in planning where to send your henchmen, and how to stop the other parties from trying to stop you. You need to balance your resources, keep up the resolve of your followers, and beat down the resolve of your enemies. It's a fine balancing act that can be quite entertaining. The problem is that Republic becomes predictable. All the major events and goals in the game are scripted. No matter how many times you play, the result is the same, and though the game has 3 cities, all three cities mostly play out the same way. Perhaps if the makers had used random goals or added random events that could add or subtract to your progress things would be more exciting. As it is, by the time you get to the third city, the repetitiveness of doing the same sort of actions over and over becomes a drain. Control and design:
The whole stats system is quite novel and I rather liked it, though at times, the manual's lack of clarity frustrated me when commands didn't work the way I perceived they should. Overall, I was quite impressed, especially with the design of the conversation dialog. The game's camera controls have been complained about as cludgy. They are a bit, but I had little problem with them, mostly because I generally spent most of my time in the map screen. Incidentally, I had no crashes or noticeable bug appear while playing. Kudos to the programmers! Graphics:
Republic's graphics are pretty good for a sim game. The game's cities are active living places, with people and cars moving around following their daily routines. The people themselves are well animated, and the buildings do appear to have some depth to them. The game's camera has a 360 option, allowing you to scroll around and view things from any angle. It really is a visually attractive game. My chief complaint, however, is that this game doesn't really need them. Cut scenes would have provided much the same impact as the 3d rendering does. During 90% of the game you're in the map view. It's more efficient since the game takes so long to pass from one game turn to the next that using the increase speed option to help the game go faster is a must. It's an option only works in the map screen. So in the end, the 3D graphics end up being mostly irrelevant. Sure you can go and look at your guys walking around handing out leaflets or putting up posters, but after the first couple times of seeing them do it, it loses it's novelty and you tend to do other things instead. A big minus. Music:
One of the best things about this game is its music. Done in a russo/folk-classical style with an actual orchestra, it's not only instrumental (sorry about the pun) to setting the mood for the game, but it raises the game up a notch. Whoever wrote the music did a fine job. I almost wish I could get it on CD. It's that good. Incidentally, when you quit the game, Alicia Keys sings the Kostroma National Anthem. Star power. Woo. Bottom Line:
Republic is a game that had loads of promise and just didn't deliver that well. It's entertaining, but once you finish it, there's not that much replay value. 3 stars
Rating: 
Summary: Good game, but over-hyped
Review: This may go down as one of the most over-hyped computer games in history. Don't get me wrong, the game is pretty good, but it has been touted for so long, and delayed so many times; various reviewers over the last few years have carried on about its remarkable flexibility and wonderful graphics and game engine. In the end, it's good, but doesn't quite live up to the hype. The game is intended to be a political simulator. You play an insurgent or visionary in an Eastern European country, part of the former USSR. The aim is to overthrow the President and become president yourself. You do this by recruiting helpers with various skills and abilities, and putting them to use in turning the population of various cities to support you. Amongst other things, you can leaflet a district, arrange for the bashing of a rival to weaken their resolve, vandalise an opposing factions' district to weaken their support, and hold public rallies to build up popular support. In this way, it is quite flexible. However, this is essentially a turn-based game; the ever-running clock merely limits the time you have to decide on your actions in each turn. Also, the manual and 'tutorial' in the game are not well written and therefore not very helpful. As such, you'll find yourself learning as you play and it will probably take some time before you find all the commands and options you have access to. Perhaps my biggest gripe is that the ideology model is quite one dimensional, with anti capitalism/pro-union on the left, freedom/democracy in the centre, and capitalism/free-market on the right. Then again, while real world politics has many more dimensions, this is probably a relatively accurate portrayal of major parties in many countries. Overall, if you are interested in politics and want to try a very different sort of game from your average first person shooter or RTS, I'd heartily recommend it, but don't be fooled by all the hype from the last few years.
Rating:
Summary: Not the game I fell in love with, but still decent.
Review: Three and a half years ago, I read the announcement of Republic's development with great joy. Unlinear gameplay, multiple approaches, interaction which every individual citizen in the game... Ah, the joy I felt when I read those previews. Screenshot after screenshot came... delay after delay... and then we ended up with this. We were promised the moon and the stars and we ended up on the sidewalk with mediocre gameplay, a rather-linear storyline (although the methods to accomplish the objectives are yours to choose, the results are always the same), and an AI that makes you question whether or not they are actually your opponents. However, when you forget what you were promised, and look at what you have, it really isn't that bad. It accomplished quite a bit, the engine is definitely worth looking for in future titles, and the gameplay can be fun when you surrender yourself to the fact that you will be spending 95% of the game-time either looking at a 2D map of the city with pie charts and avatars, or playing the conversation minigame (perhaps the single feature that embodies the shortcomings of this game). My advice: read the reviews on gamesites before you buy this one. I am TOLD the learning curve is steep, but I had no trouble whatsoever- I think such people are used to mindless games like Grand Theft Auto 3.
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