by marie almond

Created on: August 13, 2008   Last Updated: August 17, 2008

Right away I will tell you that I give Oval Office a 4/5. I was unexpectedly addicted to this game. When I first downloaded the trial version, I thought how interesting can they make a game about polictics. But this is a great game that can help anyone understand how one area of the government in directly or indirectly effect another area.

First, choose what political party you want to represent. And many more are listed then just Democrate and Republican. Then choose what your currency is. And click on options to change music and effects volume, the interest rate, difficulty level, and cynicism. I also change it so I could change any policy anytime, otherwise you are limited.

I will admit that this is a first for me, playing a game that has anything to do with politcs. I automatically went to the "how to" and saw the pictures of past presidents and today's candidates. And it even has presidential quotes. there are seven sections: foreign affairs, welfare, economy, tax, public service, law & order, transport. You also have groups of votes to keep happy, statistics to see about your country and facts. The poor, crime rate, snd the GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

Right away I started with my country in a mess. Only technology was in the green. And in the seven sections of government there are little areas that represent schools, roads, drinking age, and the retired. And you have to change the policies for the sections to make the voter groups happy and trying to make everyone in the green is hard. They also show things like money coming in and money being spent. You have a national debt and detailed histories and summeries on all areas.

Very educational game while keeping your attention, and it is interesting to see how one change effects different groups. I got caught up in what the voters thought. And just tried to make changes to keep everyone in the green , which meant they were happy. This was a surprisingly fun game and I would recommend it to anyone who thinks they know how to run a country and make the changes to see if it makes for a better world.

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