14 DAY TRIAL // 
The Political Machine 2016 manages to deliver both a realistic representation of an electoral process that allows the most powerful country in the world to choose its president and an irony-filled criticism of the repetitive actions and outright lies that are often required to secure that position.
I won the game playing as Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, a robot candidate that clearly hates humanity, Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush and, most disturbingly, Ted Cruz, and I mostly had fun with the core mechanics, even if there are moments when they become repetitive, and the path towards victory is all too clear before the end of the campaign period.
I like that some candidates go for as many endorsements as possible and for big TV-driven negative campaigns while others tend to work at the smaller state level and rely on speeches and operatives.
The Political Machine 2016 is somewhat limited when it comes to the core mechanics, and it becomes a little too easy to win once the player identifies the delegate-rich states that can be won with limited efforts, but the experience of actually securing a result is more often than not both tense and filled with a critical take on the real world actions of the political class.
The title is both developed and published by Stardock Entertainment and can only be played on the PC.
Story
The Political Machine 2016 allows players to choose from a wide range of candidates and then do their best to win the coming presidential election in the United States, navigating a complex electoral system while dealing with everything from interviews to endorsements to personal attacks and fundraising.
All the major players of the moments, including Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio from the Republicans and Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton for the Democrats, are represented, but there are also marginal players from both parties that gamers can try to use.
Each politician has a set of attributes and positions on a wide range of issues, which influence the way he approaches the race and what states he can contest in the long run, and gamers also have the option to create their own character, using some very interesting cosmetic tweaks.
The political system of the United States is a very complex one and generates very interesting stories, but The Political Machine 2016 fails to offer more personal moments and more interactions between characters.
The interviews are very limited, and the emotion that's often central to politics is nowhere to be found in the game, which is a shame because it could have boosted the stories that the player weaves creates.
It's a big shame that the developers have not included a primaries-only game mode because that would have allowed them to focus on events like televised debates with many candidates interacting at the same time and on smaller town hall events, some of the unique elements of the American election system.
Gameplay
The Political Machine 2016 is a turn-based strategy experience that challenges players to use a limited pool of resources to secure the electoral votes of states to get their favorite candidate a shot at the presidency of the United States of America.
The two opposing candidates are selected (unfortunately no third-party runs are allowed) and start in the states where they were born, with a pool of action points that can be used each turn to deliver speeches, launch adverts, get more funds and out down campaign infrastructure (moving across the map also uses some stamina).
Headquarters are required to get more money and maintain a presence in crucial states and candidates also need points to recruit specialized operatives and capital that can be spent to secure the backing of organizations that can sway voter opinion.
With the default options on, The Political Machine 2016 uses a real world set of demographics and political leanings, but players can also choose to randomize population interests in order to introduce some interesting variations.
The first phase of the game tends to be focused on headquarter construction, awareness and fundraising and each candidate also gets a chance to choose his running mate and then park him on the map for some solid bonuses.
During the mid-game The Political Machine 2016 makes speeches and advertising campaigns more important and gamers will have to make clear decisions about the states they want to win and about the best way to secure more than 50 percent of the votes.
Operatives, endorsements, and TV ads are the main weapons, and a good interview can also deliver a solid boost with the final few weeks spent moving around the country, trying to shore up battleground states and trying to maybe cause an upset in an opponent's stronghold.
Both speeches and press campaign work best when the player crafts them to appeal to as many groups as possible and negative attacks also have a solid place in a candidate's bag of tricks, although the distribution of interests in some of the states looks a little weird.
The biggest problem with The Political Machine 2016 is that it sticks to a somewhat outdated image of the electoral process and fails to simulate the importance of PACs, the constant press interaction that candidates have to deal with and the way debates between the Republican and Democrat representatives tend to also swing public opinion.
“Gamers should also stay clear from the short campaign option because it does not give candidates enough time to secure states and there's a feeling that it's impossible to create and implement a solid strategy to get the presidency.”
For a player who tends to get information about the United States political process from mainstream media and only pays attention once every four years, The Political Machine 2016 offers solid mechanics that make it fun to try and secure a good result.
For a more political savvy gamer, the experience fails to capture some of the essential elements of the presidential race, and there are times when it feels too easy to undermine its mechanics and get a victory.
Graphics and audio
The Political Machine 2016 uses the same style that previous titles in the series have made their own, with bright colors and cute bobbleheads used to introduce a note of humor to the fairly cutthroat process that leads to the election of a president of the United States of America.
There are plenty of customization options for the candidate characters, and both the map and the associated view can deliver a lot of information about the state of a campaign and the best way to push for victory.
There are some moments when it is hard to notice operatives and to target their actions, but the presentation works well, especially complemented by the music which manages to sound uplifting and ironic at the same time.
The Good
- Offers solid politics-driven mechanics
- Solid blend of realism and irony
The Bad
- Some simplified mechanics
- Can become repetitive
Conclusion
Unfortunately, the game has not evolved too much, other than when it comes to the issues that voters are interested in and the candidates for both parties, when compared to the 2012 edition and that's a shame given the possibilities to add depth to the experience.
The over-reliance on speeches that pander to the interests of the audience, the cynical choice of crucial states to focus on and the dirty moves powered by operatives can be seen as a criticism of the entire president election process.
I would have liked to see a little more depth and more insights into how the political system works, like the ones delivered by the more complex Democracy 3.
But The Political Machine 2016 can also serve as an entry-level video game for those who are interested in politics and its limits serve as a good way to push a player to find out more about the process and to cast his votes only after careful consideration.
