Here to Stay
- March 11, 2023
- Marchello Giancarlo
- 3h median play time
Get on SteamIn "Here to Stay," a political strategy game, you build your own political party and compete in elections to gain control of a fictional Eastern European country in the 1970s. As head of state, you'll manage the budget, make diplomatic decisions, and consider the economic situation and ideologies of the population. The game offers a unique challenge as you manage your party, prepare for elections, and make decisions affecting the entire country.
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game has a brilliant concept and core gameplay loop that offers a unique political simulation experience.
- Once players overcome the steep learning curve, they find the game surprisingly deep and rewarding, with well-made interconnected mechanics.
- The party management mechanics are engaging, allowing players to strategize and compete effectively against rival parties.
- The game suffers from numerous unpolished elements, including a lack of a proper tutorial and an unfinished in-game guidebook, making it difficult for new players to understand the mechanics.
- There are significant performance issues and a confusing UI that detracts from the overall experience, leading to frustration during gameplay.
- Many features, such as saving favorite characters and the description of laws, are poorly implemented or inconsistent, contributing to a feeling of incompleteness.
- gameplay12 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The gameplay is praised for its innovative concept and intricate mechanics, offering rewarding depth after a steep learning curve. However, players criticize the unintuitive interface, lack of clear tutorials, and a distracting UI element that detracts from the experience. While the game encourages experimentation and offers satisfying party management, many find the initial hours frustrating due to unclear guidance and illogical gameplay requirements.
“Amazing idea for a game, love the concept and core gameplay loop.”
“It has a fairly steep learning curve, but after a couple of hours of gameplay, you receive the reward of developing an intuitive understanding of its mechanics and inner workings.”
“If you give it time and are willing to put in the hours, you will slowly see how the mechanics all fit together and affect each other.”
“I believe it's due to the fancy window that covers 10% of the screen and provides no gameplay purpose; there is no option to turn it off or even turn down the graphics.”
“What makes it frustrating is the condition of the game, the unintuitive gameplay, and the requirement that you take actions which make zero logical sense in order to progress.”
“Not a ton of hours, but the lack of a tutorial (a clear good one, not written in general terms without any guidance through the UI), an unclear UI, and unclear mechanics just made my first impression instantly negative.”
- grinding3 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessive and repetitive, with a steep learning curve that ultimately leads to minimal rewards, particularly in the pursuit of political advancement. The focus on party politics further emphasizes the grind, overshadowing the roleplaying elements.
“Steep learning curve, but once you are past it, you realize there is no reward for all the grinding you have to do to get one parliament seat.”
“So basically, the whole game is nonstop repetitive grinding.”
“It's pretty light on the roleplay and heavy on party politics and grinding your way from breaking into a city to running a whole state.”
- graphics2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The graphics have been criticized for being obstructed by a non-functional window that occupies 10% of the screen, with no options to disable or adjust the visual settings. Despite this, some users find the game's thematic elements engaging enough to overlook the graphical limitations.
“I believe it's due to the fancy window that covers 10% of the screen and provides no gameplay purpose; there is no option to turn it off or even lower the graphics.”
- optimization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has been criticized for imposing unnecessarily high performance requirements, particularly due to its limited window size, which detracts from the overall experience.
“Unnecessarily high performance requirements due to a tiny window.”
“The game struggles to run smoothly even on high-end hardware.”
“Optimization feels like an afterthought, leading to frequent frame drops.”
