This Is the President – Review
Follow Genre: Visual Novel, Simulation, Strategy
Developer: SuperPAC
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Platform: PC, Mac, Linux
Tested on: PC

This Is the President – Review

Site Score
7.0
Good: For once it feels like a game that gives you nice visual novel choices
Bad: More of a visual novel than anything else
User Score
7.5
(2 votes)
Click to vote
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 7.5/10 (2 votes cast)

When asking people what is memorable about the USA, at the very least some of the presidential elections must come up. Many of the Unites States’ presidents make the history books with something. Think of the shooting of JFK or George Bush’s child-like reaction during an elementary school reading when he was informed about the attack of 9/11. Yet of all the past decades of elections and news, none of these made such an impact outside the USA as the election of Donald J. Trump. For years, hundreds of his actions made the news everywhere outside the borders of the USA. His behavior and presidency turned into memes long before he got elected, and now, it seems, there’s also a game that’s heavily influenced by his time in the Oval Office. Ladies and gentlemen, this is This Is the President.

Story

Alright, fair enough, in the entirety of the game, there’s no mention of Donald Trump, nor is he greeted by the friendly first black president that was in the White House before him. The game does, however, bring you the same political thriller vibes that we got to experience in real life. You play as the newly elected president. While your predecessor is quite a dick who likes to throw verbal punches at you while he has to leave, depending on your choices, you might not be a nice person either. While this is largely up to you to decide, one thing is a given: You are definitely here to get the 28th (in-game) Amendment through to the constitution. This Amendment will make sure you can not be prosecuted for anything you did before your time as elected president. It’s a long road to get there though, and you will have to use all your newly acquired power to make sure you achieve your goal.

This Is the President revolves completely around its story. As you get further and further in it, you will come across many choices that decide how easy your life as a president will be. Make the right choices, and you might just survive. This includes telling the public the right things, not fighting with the press all the time, and several other key actions that will make things easier (or harder) for you. Always sleep with one eye open though, as there are people out to get you, and you never know who you can trust. It’s a well-written political thriller that makes you feel the weight of a ticking clock in a race to save yourself, while still presenting you with good moral choices. Having good choices that make you pause and think about the possible consequences truly adds to the charm of a game, and we are glad This Is the President does it right.

Graphics

In a lot of ways, This Is the President is more of a visual novel than anything else. Each event you encounter starts with a beautifully drawn picture implicating what your current location and/or conversational partner is like. Then there’s a conversation appearing one piece at a time, allowing you to read what is being said, and react to it with a couple of choices. That’s 90% of the game. There’s also a great introductory cutscene that really feels like a gritty graphic novel, and a map overview that gives you access to information such as your mission progress, items in your possession, or available missions. Even though most items presented in the game are static pictures with hardly any animations, it’s a cool art style that still does a lot of things right.

Sound

Accompanying the visuals are some very subtle sounds. Clicks, swooshes, an occasional chime, it’s nothing special but it sure works to make the reading feel slightly less tiresome after a while. On top of that, there is nice background music, but there are mainly just two tracks. One is rather funky while the other is jazzy. It’s rather simple, and even though it works well enough, we would have liked to hear more variety in the sound department.

Gameplay

As you know by now, This Is the President is largely a visual novel and a simulation of what it’s like to be the president, with some thriller elements added to the mix. You need to make strategic choices to get the best outcome, and these choices are made during the course of events, which are ultimately woven together by a larger story. This is pretty much what the entire game is like, and that’s also our biggest point of critique. While it’s a good and interesting game for sure, you are just reading up on what’s going on all the time, while the game could have benefitted a lot from some management aspects as well.

There is some management involved, such as making sure your few workers (a lawyer, a hacker, a bodyguard, and a communications director) don’t get overly stressed by performing (dirty) tasks for you. Also, you need to make the right choices to get enough money in your account to complete your main goal of getting the 28th amendment through. Where we would have expected raising funds would be done by making specific choices on the world map with strategy or management elements, it’s also simply tied to the pre-planned events and conversations taking place. This feels like a missed opportunity, as sometimes taking a small break from reading the story would be nice.

Conclusion

This Is the President is a solid political thriller. It’s also more of a visual novel where you get to make choices than anything else. While there are some management elements included in the game, they are overshadowed by loads of text. However, important choices are also embedded into those texts. Though we enjoyed making these choices and reading what’s happening, we would have liked to see a different side of the game as well. The game would have benefitted a lot from gameplay segments that included more strategy or managing, just like a real president would have to experience when in office. Other than that though, this is quite a solid game with proper writing.

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Rating: 7.5/10 (2 votes cast)
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This Is the President - Review, 7.5 out of 10 based on 2 ratings
Icecreamvamp


I'm a game designer, developer, and reviewer. I've been reviewing for 3rd-strike.com since 2017.

1 Comment

  1. […] got a review of the PC version of the game up, so make sure to take a look before you delve into the world of shady politics on […]

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