The United States’ sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, once declared in what is arguably one of the most famous speeches in American history “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” I have a feeling that this quote might not have been what inspired the title and/or premise of Brezg Studio and 101XP’s recent release known as For the People. However, that quote in particular repeatedly resurfaced in my mind as I researched the game and spent time playing it. I’m here today to assess whether or not the game does what it sets out to do, so let’s dive right in.

The events of For the People begin on the morning of Monday, September 12th, 1988. You control a fellow by the name of Francis River, a 26-year-old recent graduate with honors from the Corvinton Institute of Management and National Economy. More importantly than that as far as the game’s events are concerned, is the fact that you’re also an esteemed member of the fictional, communist nation’s leading Com-Union Working Party (or CUWP, for short).

When a newly-appointed, high-ranking official of the CUWP announces the party’s “New Course” program in an attempt to enact beneficial nationwide reforms, you suddenly find yourself unexpectedly granted the position of political leader in a booming mining town known as Iron-1. With your newfound power and influence, you must make decisions that you think are best for the people, hence the game’s title.

You set about doing that in various ways. As far as I’ve experienced, most of your day-to-day tasks involve reading through stacks of requests and complaints from denizens of Iron-1 asking you to somehow better their situations. This is usually at the cost of some amount of money. On the topic of finances, you start your new job with immediate access to Iron-1’s full budget of 485,000 of whatever the country’s unit of currency is. I strangely haven’t been able to ascertain what that unit might be quite yet. For simplicity’s sake, I’m just going to refer to this currency as “coins” throughout the rest of this review.

As you might expect, I’ve found that it’s best to avoid unnecessary spending as best you can. You ideally want to increase the size of Iron-1’s budget rather than completely draining it within the span of your first week on the job. However, one of the tricky parts of your job is balancing the need to keep the city’s coffers as full as possible with the expectation that you’ll do what you can improve the lives of those who make requests of you.

Someone asking you to spend one thousand coins to hire some municipal workers who will proceed to clean up their district may not sound like an unreasonable request at first. In all honesty, approving their request would probably be a good call. Even so, you would do well to bear in mind that each decision you make seems to become more involved and complicated than the last. As a prominent political organization, the CUWP seems to strive for not just the betterment of the lives of its denizens, but equality among them as well. I would also suggest keeping that in mind as you go about your duties.

You’ll want to carefully consider the implications of each decision you could make before you sign any documents. I say that primarily because as soon as you finalize any decision on a request form presented to you each day, you’ll be told via a printout exactly how your actions panned out. This will also tell you (essentially) whether or not you should probably have made a different choice. That’s one reason why I’ve found that the gameplay mechanics of For the People remind me of a few games in particular. The games in question are Papers, Please, Beholder 2, and the three most recent entries in the Tropico franchise, each in their own unique respects. Allow me to elaborate.

I would say the primary influence I’ve noticed within this title on the part of Papers, Please comes from the fact that so much of your job is based around thinking on your feet and acting upon decisions quickly so that you can process paperwork as efficiently as you’re able. You’re not on the same strict time limits within For the People as you are in Papers, Please, however; you can sign one document at a time, then put down the whole stack and do something else for awhile if you know there exists another daily task that demands your attention. You just won’t be allowed to leave your office until you’ve attended to all of each day’s assigned duties.

I’ve noticed hints of Beholder 2‘s influence in that most of your bureaucratic duties, such as the aforementioned processing of paperwork, kind of get in the way of the overarching story. It tends to pad the game out rather than adding much value to it. Some aspects of the game feel more like busywork at best, or chances for the game to mock your poor decision-making skills at worst. Thankfully though, the latter of these outcomes hasn’t come up much in my experience with For the People thus far.

The aspects which I find reminiscent of the three most recent Tropico titles take the forms of budget balancing and keeping each district of Iron-1 sufficiently happy. You want to make sure to do these things as best you can within a Tropico game so that you don’t have to continually receive bailouts from the World Bank. Additionally, you manage this so that the denizens of your small Caribbean nation continue to re-elect you to power. I would imagine something similar is the case within For the People. I can only speculate about that at this point because I’ve somehow managed to keep each district of Iron-1 decently happy with my performance as their political leader.

Folks, I must confess that illustrating what playing For the People is like by discussing other games to which I think For the People can be justifiably compared isn’t the only reason I’ve spent the past few paragraphs doing so. In a sense, I’ve been using those comparisons to beat around the bush and avoid discussing my primary complaint about the game. That complaint is that I think the game could stand to do a considerably better job of explaining certain gameplay mechanics that will prevent you from progressing through the story if you don’t do them exactly as the game wants you to.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Many of the game’s aspects don’t need their own lengthy tutorials. For example, you read over the stack of requests and complaints you have to address each day, you make a decision on each of them, and you sign your name where appropriate to put your decision into action. During interactions with various government officials, you simply need to listen to their counsel or concerns. Afterward, you may perhaps make a determination or two based on what they say. That’s all quite straightforward, even if your decisions don’t pan out the way you hope they will.

What I’m referring to specifically is a mechanic which forces you to ensure that Iron-1 has all the resources it needs such as food, raw materials, and medicine. This takes place through a bartering system if the city cannot produce these resources internally. This system will be introduced to you sometime within your first few days at your new job, but exactly how you’re meant to use it isn’t explained very well in my opinion.

Having said that, I readily admit that it’s entirely possible that I just wasn’t paying attention or didn’t understand what the game was trying to tell me. It just seemed like the game suddenly took me aside and said, “Okay, you need to figure out exactly how to use this system properly within two in-game days on top of everything else you need to do, or you can’t progress any further; we don’t think we need to tell you how to do it. Good luck!” Needless to say, I was left fairly confused and somewhat annoyed by this.

Again, perhaps this was due to a lack of comprehension on my part rather than an absence of explanation from the game. Maybe it was a bit of both. In any case, what I’m trying to say is that less-than-thoroughly explained mechanics like this one considerably dampened the fun I was having with For the People. I was just starting to get into the story when I was forced to stop and attempt to figure out resource transport logistics in a hurry.

Overall, I do enjoy For the People except for the one or two major gripes. I think you’ll find it up your alley if you consider yourself fond of any of the other, similar games I mentioned. I just wish For the People was more thorough when explaining gameplay mechanics that have the capability to hinder or outright stop your progress through the story. Especially for the benefit of players like me, who might not immediately be able to “pick up what the game is putting down,” so to speak.

A PC review key of For the People was provided by 101XP for the purpose of this review.

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For the People

$16.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Engaging Story
• Most Gameplay Aspects are Easy to Pick Up

Cons

• Could Do With More Tutorials For More Advanced Gameplay Mechanics
• Doesn't Really Ease Players Into the Learning Curve