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Can you survive in the political world as president of a small country? This is another strategy game from Addictive who brought us Football Manager a long time ago.

The game opens with choice of which sector to explore. This sector is your country and has a random distribution of lakes, as well as your first oil well. When you see a sector to your liking then you continue to the next part which gives you an option to save the game.

You can now import a tank into the country to help in defence. The option to see an oil survey map comes up and, with this, you can decide which are the best places to build an oil well. Four options appear and these are survey, build, destroy and exit.

Build allows you to build one of the following: an oil rig, anti-aircraft gun, storage tank, crossroads (not the motel), truck on road, straight road and the three crops. Oil rigs, storage tanks and trucks are used together to build up a supply of oil which gives you some income. The anti-aircraft guns protect you from air strikes. Tne road sections are needed to move your trucks along to the storage tanks and the crops are needed to feed your people.

The population have to be fed otherwise you lose popularity and the chances of disease increases. Your popularity is also affected by tank battles, balance of payments and by whether or not oil contracts are fulfilled.

Your objective is survive until the next election which occurs every two years. When an election occurs a running total of the number of votes you receive and those of the other two parties are displayed. If you win the election then you can continue for another two years, but if you lose the game ends.

Graphics are very simple, but in this type of game you do not really need spectacular graphics. The sound effects are pretty useless and add nothing to the game.

The game play is repetitive but it does provide a tough challenge to survive the two year periods. A bit more thought could have made this a really good game, but it does not quite have what it takes.

Survive two years.

It's one of the oldest ideas for a computer game there is, but I've always enjoyed economy simulations. This one isn't bad but I found it a little too limiting in the options it gave you. The odds always seem to be stacked heavily against you, which doesn't help. Once again, a game that could have been better with just a bit more work on the gameplay.

Clear and playable.

Graphics 42%
P. Everything is clearly defined.
N. Poor use of colour.

Sonics 22%
N. Boom is all you get.

Grab Factor 58%
P. Easy to start with....
N. but frustration sets in as things build up against you.

Staying Power 76%
P. Once you begin to get powerful things get a little easier.
N. Waiting for election results to come in takes far too long.

Overall 74%
N. At a budget price it's well worth a look