Democracy 2 is, quite clearly, the sequel to Positech Games' smash-hit Democracy. While Democracy was certainly not the first political game to hit the indie scene, I'd say it's not too far a stretch to say it's the game that's responsible for the current vogue in these types of games on the market.

Democracy 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. As a sim, Democracy tracks a good deal of inputs from the opinions of 21 different voter groups relating to dozens of different societal facets. You can introduce dozens of policy types and must manage everything from budgets to voter issues to insurgency groups, as well as random problems that will crop up as you play the game.

As a casual game... all this 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.

Democracy 2 basically just expands on the what the first game offered. There are improvements to the ways the voters react to you (though, really, that's all in the background), as well as more policies to choose from and cabinet members to deal with (though, really, I never did much of anything with my ministers at all). For those sim junkies, you can also compare policies and issues against real-world data, so that you can see how what you're about to implement functioned in a situation it was employed for in the real world.

The game also includes the ability to play in one of 9 pre-set nations, each with its own political slant and problems to address. This is also a nice inclusion and can help boost replay value for the title. However, overall, just not much has changed from Democracy 1 to Democracy 2. It's the kind of game that you should definitely get if you've never played the title before, but if you already own the original… there's not tons new here to recommend it to veteran players.

All in all, Democracy is a great game. It's fun to play, illustrates about the delicacies of the political process and is decently inexpensive ($22.95). If you've never played it before, Democracy 2 is the place the start.

Graphics:
Sim games are never too good with their interfaces… and Democracy 2 is the exception. The game makes viewing its myriad bits of info a snap with the handy-dandy fade-in and fade-out effect on-screen. It highlights exactly the info you need.

Sound:
There's some political sounding music… but that's about it. Sound fades into the background for me on this title… but it's not bad by a longshot.

Gameplay:
Accessible in the way many complex simulation games cannot manage, Democracy 2 is super easy to play, and this is its strongest point. You don't need to be a gamer to get into this one.

Concept:
A great game, and great for education (to a point… it IS a simulation), Democracy 2 just isn't very different from Democracy 1. The new features feel tacked on to prevent the game from being an upgrade only.

Value:
It's a relatively cheap game at $23, but again, not much reason to buy for owners of the first game. For newbies, this is a solid purchase.

Overall:
The only reason this gets a TRY is for those veteran players. You'll want to sample the demo to see if this version of the game is worth your dime. For everyone else, it's worth it. Give it a go.