First to preface, the game is enjoyable to me as is, just for the strategy and escapism elements alone. But the change from the 3rd to the 4th title so far is underwhelming. I wouldve hoped that D3 Africa edition wouldve had more of an impact on the 4th title, and the changes added over, and some are. But where is infrastructure? or government wage parity? Or State revenue administration? Really wouldve like to see what was seemingly learnt from D3 Africa, implemented and furthered in the 4th title.
But my main concern is on the level of actual simulation going on, ive seen this basically brought up in previous gripes with the titles in the series, such as D1 & 2. The math as brought up by āpbheadā. Things such as the population not changing after 12 years. 12 yeas of the state forcefully sterilizing its populous after one child, average life expectancy falling 100%, executing its citizens for any transgression, and completely locking down borders, fit with a border wall, armed guards and retina scans. No matter what policies you make the population is always counted the same. In D3 Africa there was urban overcrowding at least, not sure if that made the jump over, but even then it would account for population growth if i recall correctly, but come voting time the amount of people voting was always the same, its not too different in D4 and i wonder why? Would it not be trivial to have the population actually adjust to policies? While weāre on the subject of amount of people voting, where is the voting game? I cant have a hand in voter disenfranchisement? seriously? The game references this in multiple places during loading or quotes, but its void from the game after 5 installments. Let me have a policy of gerrymandering. I know youre from the UK not the US, but i know the UK has to have similar things, or at least know of it.
Which brings me to another point, have you seen the US recently? Things are a little hectic right now to say the least. And you just added the US recently, so im not expecting it to be a very good representation yet. But i hope its not released anywhere as it is. Is doesnt take a very observant outsider to say that the US is in a little bit of a rough spot right now. I mean where is the pandemic? Or the issues with police brutality? There needs to probably be some adjustments to the US.
Final note is something that i doubt will ever be implemented, because this will probably never be read, let alone given a second thought, but if the other nations in the game, or āworldā in the simulation, werent just unnamed. If you had the web layout of policies being simulated for at least like a couple of other nations, it would make the game much more immersive, at least in my opinion. Would also give an excuse to add like a map screen, to zoom out and get little visuals of what exactly is going on, doesnt have to be anything fancy, but what make a big difference to me, and maybe others, idk. But there is various advantages to siming other nations, the interactions would be much more real, and simulation esc. But i fully understand how tall of an order that would be compared to the game as it stands, but boy would that add a whole nother level to the game.
Overall would love to see more innovation on the base game idea, at least add new policies, as of right now its basically a reskin and while i still have invested some more time in the game irregardless and will continue to do so, i would love to see it continue to grow and evolve. Thank you to the developers, for the time youve already put into making this game, it has given me a fair amount of entertainment as is, and will continue to do so for a little while at least.