Democracy 3 is getting a "stand alone re-working" early next year that focuses on African politics. It will let you take charge of one of ten countries and implement policies to improve the lives of your citizens. The expansion will include new artwork, new music and new dilemmas that reflect "real world issues and situations that are relevant to Africa."
A few of those issues are summarised on the Democracy 3: Africa page: "Foreign aid and investment takes on a new meaning, and often comes with strings attached. Serious issues like malnutrition and access to clean water could be a matter of life and death for the poorest." Playable countries include Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Senegal, Tunisia, Botswana and Mauritius.
The expansion is being designed by Stargazy's Jeff Sheen, who tweets to say he's "incredibly excited" about the whole thing. Positech Games founder Cliff Harris explains the choice to go to Africa in the announcement press release: “Africa has been unrepresented as a setting for videogames but when it has these depictions have often been clichéd and certainly have never touched the real issues that the continent faces, such as malnutrition, poor literacy and access to clean water.
"Democracy 3: Africa puts these topics front and centre and will challenge players to make tough decisions on issues that we normally only encounter in news reports. So, even if you have successfully led a government in Democracy 3, this new title will make you rethink your priorities and policies.”
Democracy 3 is the leading game in the under-served political sim genre. We found that the systems were a little easily exploited in our review, but Democracy 3 elegantly expresses the relationship between policy, economics and social behaviour with its outstanding UI. It will be fascinating to see how the systems are adapted to meet a different political landscape.
