Democracy 2

The good things:

-A few political/economical items were added to the list of existing ones. A little handful of policies, variables, obstacles, and a couple of events were introduced. All the additions are good, but they're not many either. The previous ones remain basically the same, although there have been some little tweaks in how some of them work, which mesh really well with what has been added, making a well balanced result overall.

-New political strength system. Instead of being able to make 2 law/policy changes each turn (or 3, or 4, if you were extremely successful in getting election votes), now every law/policy has it's own political strength requirements to be either intensified, lowered, or cancelled. This makes a lot of sense when you see it in game. It doesn't require the same political strength at all to make a change that everybody wants and has little cost of implementation, than making a policy change regarding a highly controversial subject or one that needs a lot of time, money, or human energy to implement. As with all the complex cypher balancing stuff in this game, this works extremely well and feels very logical. This one was a very well thought addition.

These points of political strength are earned depending on your ministers; their experience and loyalty to your party, depending in their political inclinations and your decisions. That is a great idea, right? It is, but there are several issues with how it was carried out, that I'll explain in 'the bad' list.

-The events are less annoying that in the previous game in the series. They are not so brainlessly frequent nor they repeat themselves. This was an improvement. On the other side, except for a couple of new ones, the rest are carbon copies of the ones in Democracy, word by word. In here, they lack the icons for the repercussions the bring, so you can't discard them with just a glance. They also include stock photo images -that look really cheap-, when the other most important visual representations (the minister portraits, the social groups portraits...) are drawn art. That contrast makes it look even cheaper in my eyes. So events were slightly improved... and slightly worsened too. In comparison with the previous game, it's way less ridiculous this way, though.

The bad things:

-The very same bugs as in the first Democracy game. You can tell that this sequel was not built from the ground up, but from the previous game's code. It is, actually the very same Democracy from 2005, spiced up, and with no bugs fixed. It even has some extra bugs! The 'angry voters for not fulfilling your promises' message is gone, but the election mechanics are even more buggy. You may get almost zero votes while doing everything alright and being popular with most people, even in a country where voting is compulsory.

-The interface change choices have been for the bad, in my opinion. You no longer have the current state of the most important variables at a glance.

-The ministers addition, which, in concept, should be a good thing.

-It is easier than the previous game. In Democracy, you couldn't just go and do whatever you wanted right off the bat (without breaking the whole country, I mean), and it's not like you can now, but you can certaintly try some extreme things without much fear of anyting backfiring. Then, the income and spendings may rise or fall noticeably without apparent reason nor previous change done. Things feel simply more random.