I don’t think I played this game properly. Yeah . . . I am not sure that starving my population whilst raging war on the UN is the right idea, but I loved it all the same! Realpolitiks places you in control of a country during various time periods, both present and future. Whether you continue the dominance of the U.S.A or turn an African nation into a global powerhouse, the choice is all yours.

Story

RealPolitiks drops you right into the deep end. Essentially, your goal throughout the game is to take control of any state in the world and run it. There isn’t much of an initial story; the stories are very much made up by your own actions. I actually love this. In games like RealPolitiks, where so many options exist, I never like to be shoe-horned into certain actions. It was great to see that this is a relatively sandbox-like game.

In one example, I took control of a broken-up England in the year 2222, all the while trying to form alliances with Belgium and Normandy as I was concurrently declaring war on the Welsh. In another playthrough, I led the modern-day U.S.A. into a war with Mexico, prevented an invasion from Canada, and then neutralized Iran. When the UN tried to defeat me, I beat them back with my mighty military, of course! As I said, there’s no set story to play through – you make up your own!

Create an empire? Or make one fall?

Gameplay

The gameplay of RealPolitiks is very much a balancing act. Essentially you have to manage a trilogy of economics, politics, and my favourite, military! Even when you go full warmonger like me, you have to maintain the economy to allow your GDP to grow, as well as preserve good relations with the rest of the world. As someone who is new to the genre, I felt this balance worked well. However, sometimes direction is unclear. For example, I was often unsure as to what I should be doing in order to achieve certain ends, such as increasing the happiness of my people.

Beyond this, you have a number of options that allow you to adjust the economy, military and politics of your country. These are split into trees, almost like RPG skill trees, and naturally, they progress as you advance your country. For example, mobilization can be improved to increase military effectiveness. Or, you could opt to gradually build up your country’s welfare. Let’s be honest though, you want to make your army the best so will probably end up pushing all your resources into that, or maybe that was just me?

Do you focus on welfare or war? I think war!

I won’t say I found myself exploring every one of these numerous options. To be honest, I found them a bit overwhelming, but I wouldn’t put this down to the game itself, but the genre. RealPolitiks aims to simplify the grand strategy genre and it succeeds somewhat. Compared to games like Civilization, there are much fewer options presented to the player. Therefore, the whole process of playing is much more basic. It isn’t perfect of course but, for such an in-depth genre, I found the gameplay relatively streamlined and well organised, although it had its issues.

A tutorial helped me somewhat understand how exactly the game works, but it took me a long time to even grasp the basic ideas of the world I was in. What is the point of a tutorial if you don’t understand how to play after completing it? This was my biggest issue with the game. I never had a full understanding of what I was doing and it is sometimes unclear what exactly the greater effects of my actions would be.

Graphics

The user interface (UI) in Realpolitiks is actually fairly well designed, and it needs to be. Fundamentally, a game in this genre needs to be easy to play, while also making it clear what the effect of your actions are, both of which are showcased in a decent manner. How can you plan accordingly if the game doesn’t allow you to see key events? Luckily, there are no major issues which prevent the player from missing out on what is going on.

The UI is tucked all around the screen so isn’t intrusive when not in use. However, as soon as you start opening up different tabs, such as the economy, ongoing wars, and the in-process projects, the screen becomes filled with boxes of various sizes which all overlap each other, bidding for your attention. This was one of the reasons I found the game overwhelming. I would be trying to find one specific event, an ongoing war for example, and would have to navigate through three other things to find it. This is exacerbated by the small Switch screen. However, it was a problem even in docked mode. With so many things happening on screen at one moment, it felt cramped.

The UI does its job well enough, although it causes issues on the small screen of a Switch.

In terms of the game itself, as you can see from the screenshots it is nothing spectacular. However, I don’t think this style of game needs amazing visuals and it does the job well enough, so I can’t complain! One thing I did like was the variety of map options, such as population and political maps, which were all different and useful enough to justify inclusion. The design is also somewhat rustic, which really emphasises the themes of global dominance and conflict of which my playtime was full of.

Audio

The sound is never a focus of Realpolitiks so there isn’t too much to say. The sound design is nothing groundbreaking, but it works well with the game. The highlight for me was definitely the audio associated with wars. It certainly got me into the mindset of battling against an army as I led my men to victory! I would also credit the soundtrack for working relatively well within the ambient atmosphere of the game. I won’t find myself remembering any of it though.

The audio during the war sections is the highlight of the game in this regard.

Conclusion

RealPolitiks is an attempt to break down the barrier between casual strategy fans and the grand strategy crowd. However, for me, I feel it lacks too much in too many places to truly succeed. It is neither a full experience or a casual-friendly one. You are left with a messy mix of the two, with neither group fully satisfied.

From what I had understood, RealPolitiks was supposed to appeal to someone just like me. I was left overwhelmed but wanting more, as the game’s systems and mechanisms are never explained enough to allow me to fully ‘get’ the game. I wanted to learn how to influence factors such as GDP growth for example. Unfortunately, there was nothing in place to let me get to grips with the content the game had to offer. Additional tutorials would be a great way of achieving this. They wouldn’t have to be in the way of experienced players but would enable those unsure of how to proceed with a way to succeed.

You will probably have some fun playing RealPolitiks – I certainly did! However, I think I had fun in spite of the game, not because of it. Would I recommend this one to strategy fans? For a portable strategy game, it isn’t a bad option. However, if you want to play RealPolitiks as a way to try a brand new genre: look away.

Thanks for checking out this review! For a strategy game I would 100% reccomend check out my Bad North review! The game is crazy fun for sure! For some more fun games check out our review of Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes! To keep the conversation going go follow us on Twitter and join our Discord.