2008 Sim Game of the Year

Simulation games is a category where Independent Games always have some of the most interesting titles.  Indie developers' innovative approach leads to simulation games that are typically quite different from the standard fare found in more mainstream games.

This year's games tend towards educational, though they are so fun you probably won't even notice how much real world knowledge you are gaining.

5th Place - Supernova 2: Spacewar

Whereas Smugglers 4 (see #3 on the list below) focuses on letting the gamer realize their role as a renowned spaceship captain, Supernova 2 is all about letting you command an invincible (hopefully) space armada. Combining resource management with turn-based strategy combat, Supernova is a tasty bit of game for the strategy maven.

Combat in the game has some interesting touches. Not only do you need to focus on the arrangement of your ships versus the enemy (shots fired at the side or back of a ship are much more effective than those at the front), but you need to monitor your fuel (you need it to move AND to turn your ships) and track the recharge time necessary for all of your available ship weapons. Battles also can get pretty large, with dozens of ships to a side involved in the fracas. It�"s a very satisfying experience to hand-craft the ultimate in butt-kicking, unstoppable space armada and then take it out to destroy enemy alien hordes.

4th Place - My Tribe

My Tribe is about as direct a clone of Virtual Villagers as you could possibly get. Both are persistent-world (it plays even when it�"s off) games about intrepid explorers being stranded on an island, teaching them to survive, helping them unlock mysteries, collect items and brew potions. The one thing that My Tribe really nails that Virtual Villagers misses is playability. This is a game that will get its cute little hands on you and grip tight.

With the ability to directly specify what each of your tribespeople are working on, it�"s easy to pick up the game and easy to get deep enough into it that your tribe is thriving, and at that point the game has its hooks into you. As soon as you know that you have a happy, productive group of people that require your guiding hand to survive (as opposed to a collection of people that starve because they�"re not good at remember anything), you�"ll be coming back over and over to help them out.

3rd Place - Smugglers 4

Smugglers 4, after the fashion of big-time MMORPG hit EVE: Online, puts you in space and asks “Well, what do you want do now?” Captain of your own ship, Smugglers lets you roam the universe doing battle, hanging out in bars, trading, pirating, chatting with planetary leaders and taking part in some inter-galactic war.

There are a ton of mission types you can undertake and many different ways to customize your ship to make the experience something that you can really make into your own. The queued action, turn-based combat is a fun bit of strategy and while it can take a good deal of playing to work your way into the credits needed to really get things rolling… can you really put a price on becoming a famous inter-galactic spaceship captain?

2nd Place - Kudos 2

You don�"t have to be unhappy with your current life to want to give a new one a shot and Kudos 2 aims to let you do just that. Back again with a wealth of updates, Kudos is a life simulator that aims to give you a shot at creating an alter ego for yourself.

Kudos features a vastly updated interface, taking its already workable interface and making it both more accessible and more attractive. The look is very polished and nicely integrated. It�"s easy to see your stats, calendar and relationships all at a glance.

With simple point and click controls to work with, Kudos 2 is the kind of game that will hypnotize you and before you know it you�"ll have burned an hour helping your Kudos persona get ahead in her virtual world. Normally complexity and a wealth of options will grind a game to halt with obstructive menus, but not so with Kudos 2.

2008 Sim Game of the Year - Democracy 2

Not just another sequel on a list full of sequels, Democracy 2 is the next step in the evolution of a really special bit of gaming. The first Democracy game set a new standard for accessibility for simulation games. Sims tend to be dense, the kind of game that you can only enjoy if you have hours at a time to devote to them. The learning curve tends to be steep, rewarding those that have the willpower to drill through an entire manual and take note of every piece of minutia that the developer's can throw out there. Sim gaming can be very satisfying, but it really responds to the time you can afford to put into it… which is not something that casual gamers can afford.

Democracy, however, managed to strike a balance between sim and casual, and stay true to the critical components of each. Everything you want to do in this game can be done with a click of the button. The game will present the player with situations they must respond to: simply click the choice you'd prefer. Need to reduce your expenses? View a pie-chart with the info, click the area to reduce, move a slider bar to adjust the values. Done. Want to see what issues are affecting a voter group? Mouse over that group's name. The screen will dim and only the areas in question will be highlighted. Green lines display positive influence, red lines display negative. The faster those lines flow, the great the impact being had. And that's literally all you NEED to play the game. For something so full of numbers, Democracy 2 feels very organic.

Adhering to the old adage that if it ain�"t broke, don�"t fix it, there�"s not too much that on the surface of Democracy that has changed in this new version.

That doesn�"t mean this is a rehash. The game takes its old formula of carefully balancing various interests and political dilemmas and tweaks things with more realistic and accurate simulated voters, political parties, a wealth of statistical data from the real world and just plain more of everything that was there before. The game is now a deeper, more involved experience, and gamers can really tweak out on real-world data if they want to… but all this new depth doesn�"t do a thing to affect how easy it is to pick up the game and just play.

When what was there before was an outstanding bit of simulation gaming (#6 on GameTunnel�"s 2005 Top 10!) that really throws into sharp relief just how subtle the balance of successful politics can be, the improvements that have been made here only make the game that much better.

Sim Game of the Year Award History

History:
2008 - Democracy 2
2007 - Venture Arctic
2006 - Virtual Villagers
2005 - Democracy
2004 - Outpost Kaloki
2003 - Dope Farmer

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By: Michael Scarpelli
Posted: Friday December 12, 2008