by Rainier Wong

Created on: August 14, 2008   Last Updated: August 17, 2008

Name of Game: Oval Office
Producer: Zero G Games
Type: Strategy
Price: $19.99
Ratings: 4/5

If you think running a country is easy, think again as this game can prove otherwise with its realistic situations, and issues. This game allows you to experience what it is like to run a country especially the United States.

Gameplay.
In this game, I had to play the role of the President who had to implement policies to solve various delimas, and problems the nation was facing.

Since it was my first time playing this game, I consulted the tutorial which was easy to follow. The games screen was full of icons with different symbols that symbolized the different portfolios that included education, health, security, defense, energy, and other portfolios that could be found in a human society. To find out the current condition of a particular portfolio, I had to click on its icon. It was not difficult to find out which one to click first as the most urgent ones were in red. I clicked on the policy icon to implement policies basing on what I read on a report window that appeared at the beginning of every stage of the game. On the top of the screen, I could see the amount of income, and expenditure, and national debt.

Implementing a policy could be a very challenging, and difficult task as it was possible to have more than one policy that affected an issue. To implement a policy, I had to first select a major portfolio, let's say, environment, and then an area under it, let's say, recycling. Once, I had selected a policy, I could get some information on it, and also whether it was implementable. To implement a policy, I had to consider the report that told me the condition of the nation, the effectiveness of the Secretary of the department who would be in charge of the implementation, the types of the people who would be happy or angry with the implementation, the national budget, and other factors. In addition, I had to balance national benefits with my popularity with the voters. Deciding how much money to allocate to a policy was also not an easy task. If I had implemented the policies correctly, I would get a favorable report at the next stage.

Game Control.
If you can use the mouse, you will have no problems with this game.

Sound.
Overall the sound was good. The music provided the atmosphere of running a country.

Graphics.
The icons were arranged very neatly, and the graphs were professionally done. The photoshots of the real politicians were also very good.

Creativity and Innovation.
Putting the running of a country into a computer game was both a creative, and innovative move.

After considering the important factors, I had given this game an overall rating of four out of five.

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