With the release of their latest game, This Is the President, THQ Nordic and SuperPAC have released their satirical political drama, that plays out like an interactive book. It’s loaded with story-altering decisions and countless acts of corruption that make 2020’s election look like a children’s book in comparison! The game can be absurd and silly at times, but also well-written and thought out. However, it’ll take more than a clever story and scenarios to make this game stand out.

Story

From the very start of the game, you’ll take the role of President of the United States, and your primary goals are maintaining power through a series of political tactics, Constititututional alterations, and public opinion gamesmanship.

You’ll have a constant barrage of decision-making being placed at your feet by your trusted advisors, giving you multiple options and ways to deal with opportunities and dilemmas. The game is full of loads of scenarios you’ll be dealing with as President, Commander in Chief, and also as a candidate who may seek reelection in four years. Each scenario will take the story in a different direction and depending on your response and you’ll see the story arc in completely differing ways. There’s no shortage of plots and ploys for and against POTUS!

There’s an important twist in all this political action; you are working against the clock to secure the support necessary to amend the Constitution to legally protect you after your tenure in the office! Failure is not an option… you have a long criminal history that’s coming to light now that you are President!

Gameplay

This Is The President has overall gameplay that requires a lot of reading. Basically, the game can be described as a political sim with some minor elements of resource management. Chiefly, you monitor and manage the money as well as the stress levels of your key advisors.

Stress management is an interesting twist to the game, requiring you to choose mission options carefully, so as not to overwhelm those who work for you. Since each advisor possesses certain skills, your selection of who to assign has to also factor in their current stress levels. Maybe a hacker is best suited for this mission, but he’s too overworked and suffering from a breakdown so you’ll need to resort to a lawyer instead. These are the difficult choices you’ll have to weigh in the balance of how to best proceed in each of the game’s stories or scenarios.

Every decision you’ll make sets other events and storylines into motion, making for a constantly evolving story and game. While some scenarios are enjoyable, funny, and downright scandalous, there is a fair share of situations that feel like mere time fillers.

After my first couple of hours of playing, I quickly noticed that the gameplay began to get stale and monotonous. Reading numerous scenarios and clicking through the countless responses available began to make the game feel incredibly slow and drawn out. It certainly has a Choose Your Own Adventure feeling after interacting with the game for several hours. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the pacing felt a bit slow and sometimes tiring unless you’re in the mood for a novel.

Visuals and Audio

Voice acting in the game is somewhat limited, but for the parts you do experience, it felt a bit cheesy and poorly acted. The story and scenarios they are acting out are fantastically evil and enjoyable, but the acting takes away from the fun of the script.

The game has a constant elevator music vibe going on that works at first, but after a few hours, it begins to get old. It’s not a deal-breaker by any means, but I’d have loved to experience a bit more variety and use of fun or catchy songs.

The visuals for the game work well and do the job efficiently. The game’s screen and layout make for easy navigation and the images and short animation clips are great. I appreciated the variety and design and only wish there were more stories, characters, images, and videos to add to the replay factor of the game!

Replayability

With so many game-altering decisions to be made, you can easily play this game over and over and seek different outcomes and endings. I love that this game offers some diverse and unique scenarios, many that would make Netflix’s Frank Underwood roll over in his grave! The only gripe I had about it was that there aren’t enough of these scenarios to make it worth more than two or three playthroughs.

The game can be completed in a relatively short period of time, so starting over doesn’t feel like a terrible slog or commitment, which is something I value when pressed with so many games in my library’s backlog! To get the most out of the experience, each time you start over you’ll want to select new goals to obtain while in office. This will help expand the range of options and scenarios you’ll encounter and give you a few different worthwhile playthroughs. Beyond that, I think you’ll find it too repetative.

What Could Be Better

I would like to see a bit more game content, especially more scenarios that can randomly happen each time you play. This can be easily solved with DLC or a game update that fills it up a bit more. With another couple dozen short missions or scenarios that rotate in and out of each playthrough, I think this game could have really been a slam dunk in replayability.

However, simply adding more text would exacerbate another issue I had with the game. It could have used additional gameplay mechanics and options, to help break up the constant dialogue screens you’ll be reading. Perhaps the addition of mini-games or puzzles embedded into the storyline would help keep the game engaging and break up the reading sequences. This is where the side missions could have really added more value to the game.

Verdict

This Is The President really nails the humorously evil plot of a corrupt and criminal President of the United States. The story and script are well-written and at times a real joy to interact with. I would have loved to have seen a bit more variety and randomness with some of the events, tasks, and scenarios. The addition of diverse gameplay mechanics and puzzles or minigames could have spiced the game up to be more than just an interactive read-a-thon. This could have been done tactfully without disrupting the core experience and style of the game.

Overall, this game does what it needs to be a relatively fun political satire. For the right price, this game is definitely worth a try for any fans of political games, books, or TV shows. You won’t ever be able to successfully win the game and be noble, so be prepared to embrace your inner tyrannical leader!