1/31/2024 0 Comments Suzerain mapThe ends probably justified the means… but let's talk about those means for a second and what it feels like to play Suzerain. In the end, I broadly achieved all my goals: the country's major business leaders turned on each other instead of me, the reactionaries were largely broken, and while my "unity" party splintered I was buttressed by huge support among marginalized groups, rural communities, and progressives. My strategy in response to all this was to broadly embrace the symbols of nationalism while working to destroy the nationalist party, to push free healthcare in rural areas, and to paralyze the oligarchs by always being on the verge of full nationalization, but also by privately holding out the possibility of favoritism to those who supported me. Most decisions you make will occur after hearing your ministers and advisors argue their sides of an issue, and then you have to make a call. Your defense minister is also an ardent nationalist but a dedicated professional with ambitions to reform the military along modern lines, which puts him at odds with an equally nationalist but firmly conservative and statist officer corps. Your justice minister is a hardcore nationalist but also a ruthlessly ambitious bureaucrat. Your minister of health wants to modernize healthcare and extend access into the impoverished countryside, but he's also committed to privatization. You have your inner circle of political advisors, a fractious cabinet of ministers who have very different political visions and personal goals, a broader landscape of important politicians and leaders, and an international community full of fellow heads of state. It's through interactions with the enormous cast of characters in Suzerain that you govern and create policy. That, in turn, mostly opens the door to new events, decisions, and most importantly, conversations. Your "government budget" number will oscillate between -4 and 4, and each unit of the budget effectively gives you the ability to fund a new initiative like building rural hospitals, or undertaking a huge infrastructure project. While you'll spend much of the game looking at a map of the country, and the interface will give you a sense of how your economy is doing, how much money the government has to spend, and how much money you personally have in your family coffers, the similarities to other strategy games end there. Sordland is surrounded by nations with similar problems, all of whom are trying to navigate a cold war between a liberal, capitalist bloc of nations led by the US-like Arcasia and a socialist bloc led by the nation of United Contana, which stands in for the Soviet Union. The country is riven with lingering ethnic tension, a strong fascist movement and a weaker socialist one, and is saddled with a moribund economy that is partially-privatized and partially state-owned and fully crony-capitalist. You take the role of Anton Rayne, the newly-elected president of a "unity" party as the country attempts to move on from a legacy of civil war, a long dictatorial repression, and a short-lived economically liberalizing presidency. Suzerain takes place in the mid-1950s in the fictional country of Sordland on the continent of Merkopa, whose history mostly suggests Eastern Europe but also invites analogies to South America or the Middle East. Embracing the opportunities and straining against the limits of choose-your-own-adventure interactive fiction, it is an essential game that speaks not just to this moment, but the paths that lead to and from here. The nuanced dilemmas it presents, set against a detailed and convincing backdrop of mid-20th century history in a fictional world, make it one of the most fascinating political strategy games of the past several years. I don't know if I had to do either of those things, but Suzerain made me feel like I could not afford to find out.
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