POLITICAL ANIMALS
Is it just me, or do you frequently fantasise about owning a lolly shop? You know the kind; all the sugary basics, colours of the rainbow and imported peculiarities. Would you try everything you sell, being the conscientious entrepreneur, or would the availability of so many delicious treats be more than one person could realistically appreciate? Political Animals is a cornucopia of, not sweets, but interesting stats, more than you can initially use or understand, for sure. I can eat an entire bag of Kool Mints in one sitting, but statistics are worth savouring.
Thankfully, this is a number crunch rather than a political statement because, when the game’s artist sent me a code, I did not want to play an election game. But, it’s light-hearted, silly and it definitely helps that the candidates are cutesy animals, with their abilities lightly reflecting their anthropomorphic qualities. As you spend a good several minutes on the character generation screen, tweaking everything from your chief political concerns to personal flaws, as well as for your staff, you’ll quickly forget that elections actually matter in real life and just count bonuses.
In game, this sometimes makes play incongruous. I wanted to tell myself an emergent story, inventing a reason for it to be OK not to negotiate with a terrorist threatening to make a class of schoolchildren “disappear” because my approval in the relevant state was OK. But, that decision really shouldn’t be a presidential candidate’s, anyway. In another random event, a celebrity likes you and, regardless of whether you choose to date them, you get both an increase in reputation and scandal, in marginally different measure. That made me laugh.
On the island map, your employees have one move and one action per turn, which require more or less logistics points depending on local standing. You can certainly work efficiently, like using a rally to focus a state on an issue, then campaign directly, also factoring in bonuses afforded by local patrons previously aligned or bought with gifts. Of course, results are proportional to how much money you spend, with a focus on fundraising being necessary for everything from paying employees to carefully placing bribes for enhanced reputation.
Scandals are created by a number of things, mostly your dodgy actions, but also by your opponent manufacturing them. When picking your team, lawyers are useful for “making scandals disappear” and a well placed journalist can highlight your opponent’s dirty laundry. At the end of the game, your play is characterised as one of a few styles. Mine is always Utopian, just like my starting character in Ultima 4 was always a bard because I answered questions compassionately and unquestioningly. But, there are several legitimate ways to play.
If I have one criticism it’s that the game seems initially quite difficult to understand. The tutorial is less an incremental journey and more a bunch of explanations that aren’t incredibly exciting to read. How the undecided will vote on Election Day is particularly opaque, although I know it is based on a combination of factors you can access, and presumably try to influence, via an overlay. Of course, this does lend Election Day and the state-by-state round-up a certain nervous excitement that highlights your many flukes and mistakes.
Think of Political Animals as a numbers game that is complex enough to be better realised as a digital product, rather than a boardgame. With, of course, cute campaign dialogue like, “Better hippocampuses for everyone.” Why does this game feature animal characters? Probably just for the play on words in the title, but it does build upon the theme relatively well. The plethora of statistics available to influence your playstyle will keep you coming back for more, in the face of both victory and humiliating defeat.