Extremism is the latest DLC released for Democracy 3, a political simulator developed by Positech Games. Featuring 33 brand new situations and policies, Extremism builds upon the base game with a focus on some of the controversial topics a democratic nation might face. By focusing on the most extreme scenarios, Extremism hopes to add more depth to the already complex simulator. If you missed Extremism’s release trailer, take a moment to watch the video above and enjoy what might be one of the best trailers for a video game in recent years.
You may remember that we took a look at Democracy 3 and the Social Engineering DLC back in February of this year. While we enjoyed the game a great deal, there were some areas to improve upon. Specifically, I enjoyed enacting insane policies and converting my mostly peaceful nation into some variation of crazy. Extremism aims to give people like me a huge number of tools by which to destroy my nation and get myself assassinated.
There’s a few different ways to play Democracy 3. One way is to try your best to please everyone while correcting the deficit and being re-elected. Another option is to change everything and reshape your once great nation into an insane vision that only a madman could dream up. Either style can be quite enjoyable. Regardless of how you play the game, Democracy 3 seamlessly calculates all the data and offers an intuitive experience.
Because of the way that both Social Engineering and Extremism are integrated into the game, it’s possible to forget they are even there. Both DLCs function with the core game in a way that they build upon the existing system. You’re not just forced to play something like the “Extremism campaign”. It’s wonderful to see this type of DLC strategy from a developer.
Extremism’s policies are my dream come true. They encompass nearly all the things I had hoped for previously, and include a bunch of stuff that I had never even considered. So many of the new policies contain scary words like “Forced” , “Ban”, and “Compulsory”. For the insane dictators among us, Extremism gives us a brand new level of control over our population. Because Extremism focuses on the most controversial topics imaginable, you probably don’t want to use many of them in every campaign you play. It’s the over-the-top nature of Extremism’s new policies that make them so powerful.
If you want to force the unemployed to work, you can do that. If you’d like to force foreign immigrants to learn your national language, that’s a thing you can do too. Closing the airports completely? Secret courts? Banning divorce? Yes, yes, and yes. While these policies are probably not going to be very popular among most of your nation’s populace, they can be valuable tools in your arsenal of political weaponry. You won’t outlaw homosexuality, force everyone to go to church, and ban shopping on Sunday in every game you play, but you might be able to use some of these in a particular campaign to heavily push the nation in a certain direction.
If you’re trying to decide which Democracy 3 DLC to buy, I have a complicated answer for you. Both DLC packs offer such wildly different features that it’s difficult to say which one is better or worse. Social Engineering focuses on subtle changes in perception, while Extremism uses force to impose your will on the people. If you’re considering buying Democracy 3, buy everything. You’ll want the full experience from the beginning.
Because of the nature in which both Social Engineering and Extremism integrate themselves into the overall game, it’s quite difficult to extract each little feature and critically analyze them for a review. Instead, I’ll be looking at the overall experience with Extremism installed on top of the previous content. In the end, Extremism and Social Engineering made Democracy 3 feel more complete.
Steam | Official Website | Developer
Steam Cards: Yes (base game) | Steam Achievements: Yes (base game) | Version Reviewed: 1.14
Democracy 3: Extremism
Summary: Extremism adds a necessary evil to an already great political simulator. Extremism adds an excellent array of situational tools that rounds out the overall game.