CyberJudas

The Good
When you start playing this game for several hours, you really begin to understand every crappy and lousy thing the United States government has done in the past to itself and to other countries. I dread to think that the actual government thinks the way I did when I played this game...since it became horrendously "logical".

The game is about playing the U.S. President, although the "cyberpunk" genre is actually a side-dish that can be removed. The game really focuses on "information". This game represents everything about all those conspiracies about "cyber-terrorism" and all that mumbo-jumbo. This game also represents everything about what a super power can do and get away with it.

The astounding thing about the game is that it really gives you an idea on how the U.S. government really works. You have your advisers from the CIA to the NSA, each agency gives your REALLY detailed information about what's going on in the world as well as detailed information on EACH SINGLE COUNTRY (if available). This game is actually one massic RPG-Strategy game where you can literally mold the world TO YOUR LIKING.

In this case "your liking" is expanding the American way of life, the American way of democracy, which represents the American way of power. You can influence "weaker" countries by increasing foreign aid or just invade the place and level it (which is what I did with Cuba).

The great thing about the game is the level of information and statistical data offered to reach your goal. Each country has percentage rates in their main rap sheet, you can see if your "intervention" changes those statistics in a particular country. For example if you make cultural exchanges with and "enemy state" such as Iraq or one of the Soviet nations, the % of fear towards the United States "may" decline, thus increasing their friendliness towards you making it possible to make them an ally. This is a small example about the game, where you control the slow process of transforming the world to become the you lap dog. Literally.

You really got to play the game to believe it. It's kinda creepy when you finally understand the game.

The Bad
Unfortunately, certain limitations about the game made it quite unpleasurable. The first is that you only have 10 years of office, of which you have to win the election again for full experience.

The second is that there are limited functions you can you for a certain period of time. You can only use economic agreements for only so many times, until which you suddenly realize that they have no effect, to ANY country. This is really a major dissapointment, since it's like taking the "character development" or in this case "country development" away, which by the way is the highlight of the game.

Another bad thing is you can't seem to "conquer" a nation. You can invade and level the place, but after that you can only replace it with a "puppet governmet". Which obviously is what they're trying to do with Afganistan and Iraq. I don't know why you can't conquer nations anymore, the puppet government thing has limited features and you can't really control that nation directly.

The Bottom Line
A rare masterpiece of international diplomacy. This is the future remake of Medieval Lords.