If you are a fan of micro-managing and dealing more with text than graphics, then there is a chance you may enjoy Rulers of Nations. This might be one of the most complex games I have ever played and you have to enjoy tasks like raising a 3rd world nations standard of living instead of conquering the world. While there is a competition mode in which 16 of the most powerful countries of the world fight, in the sandbox mode, war is a rarity due to things such as the UN. The bulk of the gameplay is balancing a countries budget and making sure you stay in power.

With that said, I love the nation building aspect and Rulers of Nations provides one of the best nation building experiences out there.

All in all a good game with lots of stuff to keep it interesting. Still haven't found a way to keep inflation under absolute control though. The interface is also pretty clunky.

Despite generally positive reviews from others, I was not at all impressed with this game. First off, I had stability issues all over the place. The game screen randomly went black, didn't respond, or simply crashed all the time. I haven't played all that recently, so perhaps this issue has been solved by now.

Second, this might be petty, but the voices are obnoxious. It sounds like a computer generated voice and it just grates on me. The English is far from perfect (or even good), as well. I freely acknowledge that it is very difficult to proofread a non-native language...but that's why you hire a native speaker to do it for you for $300.

Third, warfare is very abstract. That's not a huge problem, but I do wonder why there is any attempt at user control over warfare, since I seem unable to control my armies at all. I always end up giving control over to my generals who don't always make very good command decisions...

All that said, I know that there is a very active community of gamers who continue to play this game, and I do very much like the quarterly or biannual newsletter that covers important upcoming elections in the real world, which is then reflected in content updates. If this is your kind of game, you'll love it. There is no simulator that I know of that is so complete, with the possible exception of some Paradox titles. So, don't take this review as an all-around rejection of the game--just carefully consider if it's really what you want to spend $25 on.

The game if very detailed as far as controlling your country and does a pretty good job of living up to what it promises. It does however have a very strict learning curve and may turn new players off to this game quickly. If you have time to learn this game it can be very fun and I would recommend it. If however your looking for instant action this is not the game for you.

If your looking for game with high graphics and lots of action,then this is not for you.However if what you want is an intense political sim then you found the right one.Excellent in depth game where every decision you make has some short or long term effect.Just recently played where I had a good approval rating,robust economy and so forth then decided to secretly fund a rebel group thinking nothing of it.Before I knew it the UN had an embargo against me then i was impeached for the scandel.Just an example of how one small move can have big effects.All in all game is very in depth and addictive.

If you are interested in political, economic, geography or world organizations like the UN/EU then this game is IT. Congratulation, you have found the ultimate game of your liking!

This is by far the deepest and most realistic simulation game I have ever played. You'll gain powerful knowledge and learn the current world geography, political economy and military strategy based on realistic data with this game than taking college courses in economic or political science.

This has some much potential but does not deliver where it really counts. The battles for instance are terrible. It is hard to find out what exactly causes what in some instances. Also, the game needs a "playground mode", where you can turn a country into a dictatorship or turn North-Korea into a democracy without automatically losing power.

I Enjoy this game but like amny others have said this game gets its numbers super wrong you can't fix the united states w/o a civil revolt this game needs to give players a challenge while not standing in the way for them to change what ever country they want to into how they want to.

Rulers of Nations is a sophisticated and complex political simulation. It is a serious and hard game (besides the arcade mode).

With the width of the topic, there come strange aspects and some areas like warfare are very simplyfied.

But the game is well thought through and was polished over years. (I think since 2003, but I'm not sure.)

Geopolitical Simulator had several versions, I played updates 2009 and 2010. These where good titles too.

Rulers of Nations was made a bit more consumerfriendly than the last volumes, BUT...

...I would recommend Rulers of Nations and any GPS game only to people very interested in contemporary history or politics, that bring a lot of patience to get into the game.

Initial Impression:

I initially got a version of the game to try it out and decide whether I was going to buy it and there were just so many moments when simple math failed that I quickly stopped playing the game. (about 1-2 months ago)

After looking at the patch notes as they came out and finding that gamersgate had a sale on the game (was 19.95$) I proceeded to buy it since from a conceptual point this is the best Economic/politic simulator I've seen out there. (I play allot of paradox games so I include games like Vicky 2 and Supreme ruler 2020 in that comparison)

This game is NOT however a good military simulator so if you're hoping for a war simulation also then indeed go and look at games like the ones mentioned in the other posts.

Now as far as this game goes the great advantage that it has is the level of depth and options you have for all parts of your

Things that should be fixed most urgently to make this game even better:

- correct handling of new buildings cost (although I do need some more extensive tests with something immediately obvious like a nuclear power plant I'm still getting the impression that any investment I make to build anything stays permanently in my budget even after the 5 year period)

Things to improve for the game to be more realistic:

- Make EU last longer as in my game in 2-3 years all contributing countries are out of EU

- Decrease the occurrence of nuclear incidents (I understand that Fukushima might have scared some people but 20+ nuclear incidents in under 8 years is a bit much)

Bugs noticed:

- As Romania 10% of my GDP is building and housing which now only has 58.7 employees after a sudden drop at the end of my contract with GB after 5 years!! (not a typo that's suppose to be the # of ppl working in the field - aka other fields have numbers like 500k, 200k etc).

Final opinion: 4 stars out of 5

This game is definitely worth buying if you want to deal with all the complexities of a real economy as it took me 8 years (my current game) to notice all the bugs mentioned in the latest version and besides those few problems you do get the full satisfaction of ruling a country, trying to balance different groups and learning in the process.

This game is the most fun I've ever played.

It is realistic and provides an understanding of reality.

You can zoom in on details at close range.

All cities named as they do in their country, for example Gothenburg in Sweden or Roma in Italy.

The fun quizzes and the UN Security Council is the finishing touch. This game is certainly good value and should be played by all strategy fans.

On a scale of one to ten I give it ten.

This game is totally amazing.. I have been playing it solid since I purchased it, and it was worth every penny! The game is in depth and very very addictive! It has a steep learning curve, but as with all grand strategy games, this is a good thing!! From avoiding WWIII to the complete destruction of the world! This game has it all!

What an enormous disappointment; this game is so broken that it's virtually unplayable. Worse, it takes hours to get everything set up, so it takes hours before you realize that it is just junk.

Here's one of many examples! Why on earth would you be forced into resigning because "the situation is out of control and there are threats against your life" when your approval rating is 85%?

Or hey, how about accidentally going to war with the British Virgin Islands because your AI sent ships through their territorial waters?

Come to think of it, how do you get an 85% approval rating as president of the US? Or the inverse, a 2%? And why did the Republicans all vote for gay marriage and tax increases? This game is just nonsense. Ugly nonsense, and grating nonsense too due to some truly irritating synthesized voice acting.

Rulers of nations has a good "feel" to it, you get more graphics in this game, your Ministers pop up and give you advice and stuff related to your country and you really get the feeling you are in charge. However the gameplay is not very realistic, decisions can really get you into a mess VERY fast, some things really do not make any sense, for example i once got booted from China presidency while having 100% popularity, improved the balance by over 50% in just 6 months and while also improving all Foreign relations.

Besides that the game is buggy, i constantly get errors which blanks out the game.

The price is also somewhat steep for a relatively unknown developer and considering the game itself and what is on the market.

I always support small developers and i think it is a good effort overall, maybe it is the best GEO political game for passive players, for those which like depth i would still go for Supreme Ruler 2020, or price wise Superpower 2 is a much better deal (although this one is a little outdated these days).

The game concept is great, I enjoyed it a lot, but the AI seems to be really weak in accomplishing its war goals. Actually I've never seen an AI country make a treaty different from "frontiers unchanged". The game needs patching and still some work on the AI and the simulation for dictatorships and communist regimes which treat scandals just like a democracy would.

Also, if as the head of the US i finance a democracy group in Iran and it gets discovered, I get impeachment for financing "terrorist organization". That's a bit dumb.

The game needs some work and a patch which I hope they let out soon, but other than that it's a really great game.

Like Interceptor say in his review, not much changes since GPS1, and game is still plagued by nasty bugs, like those approvals ones, and features absolutly not realistic at all.

This game is just a political/economy simulator, and it is far better than Superpower and SupremeRuler series in that, but nothing more. Despite this it does not reflect what reality is really, and what history has proven. Try to be a dictator in N Korea or Somalia you'll see what i mean, you wont survive long DESPITE what reality is in real life. This game was designed to play "good & balanced economy" countries and nothing else which is a shame.

Being also a huge fan of the Supreme ruler series (even better with lastest patch for 2020GC ), there is nothing in common between those two games, GPS2 fail just miserably at the military part of the game (dumbest IA ever) and there is no interest at all going at war in that game (when most wars declaration seem also to be scripted in advance, and when wars will always generaly end in status quo, since IA isnt capable of achieving anything).

Unit control is just so clumsy, there is simply almost none, and when it comes to big countries it is just a nightmare to manage your units. Also it is not user friendly at all, and if you delegate it to IA, expect all your troops to die stupidly rushing at ennemies one after the other without any strategy.

All in all, this game can be very frustrating sometime (not speaking of corrupted savegames also), when it can also be a good and fun challenge on the other hand.

I was a huge fan of Silmaris games in the 90's (especially Ishar, Transartica and Maya), but now (Eversim is same team as Silmaris) that isnt great anymore.

I usually support small game developpers, when they meet my expectations. This review is maybe harsh but that's because GSC2 does not meet my expectation for a realistic political/economical and military simulator.

The idea is nice, the execution is lacking.

Approval rating is erratic, events are unrealistic (Like 3 terrorist attacks in 6 months), and the starting data for some countries is so flawed that it vanishes the immersion. The game must have been designed by some ultra-nationalistic French wing, waiting for a new Napoleon. Definitely not worth 40 euros, in its current status it should be a 10 euro game.

Great game, so far the best geo-political sim out there. This game is a combination of democracy 2, supreme ruler 2020 and Superpower 2. Not is it a combination of these games, but it has all of the best things about each one without of there weaknesses. I give it a 4.9 out of 5. I hope they come out with more updates and continue to make sims as great as this one.

I will have to say that after playing the first geopolitical game, I'm wondering besides the graphic changes what else has changed? Yes, some of the bugs have been fixed, but the classic drop from 50% approval rating to 1% from one mishap and you lose aspect is still there. This was from a trade agreement with another country that fell through. I was still in the green on treasury, but my population hated me so much after that, the game was over. C'mon...Really? The voices are pretty bad as well, but I didn't expect much. Their is a patch update as soon as you start the game so that is pleasing to see. I have not been playing a ton yet, but I'm leaning towards being upset from spending $40 for a game that reminds me of playing a graphic upgrade on the orginal. 3 out of 5 stars, since I still like the concept of the game, and I have not had any ctd's.

Yes, indeed a nice game, based on a great concept and allows you to run a country's day-to-day affairs, starting from economy and public finances over to security and warfare. The aim is to fulfill your agenda and to remain popular enough to rule another day. Your political opponents not only lurk in opposition parties but also in your own party's ranks, civil society and last but not least your family. You must make sure everyone is happy, or have at lease a neutral opinion of you. The main challenge may lie in keeping the budget balanced as there aer countless spending priorities, such as military, social welfare, education, R&D, industrial subsidies or cultural events, to name a few. Soon you will discover that a 24hour day is not enough when it comes to persuade members of the parliament and also your government to vote in favour of your new tax bill which already sparked angry demonstrations and sit-ins all over the country.

While all these game elements are fascinating, the game machine could use some fixing as frequent crashes to desktop spoil the fun... This is why I give the game 4 out of 5.

Great game, One of the best I ever played. It is truly balanced, artistic and playable repeatedly with unlimited ways and approaches. I highly recommend the game for all gamers whether you want to get your nation out of the third world club, fight terrorism, survive the recession, or wage all our war. You can do almost anything today's world leaders can do. It is really a very nice game and enjoyable not only for hours but months if not years. The endless ways of reaching your goal and watching the effects of your decision is really great.

This game is very sofisticated and there are so much you can do that it will take you some time figuring out how to play the game.. for exampel people go on a strike and here you can choose from several possibilities like talking payment increase and increase in medical staff ect. but you can even bribe their spokes person and if you are really good you can even make him/her talk your case.

Its quite difficult to explain everything you can do but you can even trade technologies and research new ones that might give you an advantage when either fighting or exporting stuff.

If you for exampel deside to go to war you can even micromanage your troops and tell an airplane to attack a special target, but be carefull what you attack you can also hit refuges on the run and well lets say it liket his it will not look good in the media. From time to time important people will ask you questions that will affect the way the media or puplic see you..

In in general the game is huge, you can zoom in everywhere in real time on the entire planet and see tanks or other stuff moving around.

I only know 3 small negative tings about this game.

One is that becourse the game is so huge it sometimes feel like my computer is not big ebough to run the game. The other is that the game is very complex ( i love it ) and it take some time to master it..

The last one is the price i think its a little to much but its okay.

Conclution

I give the game 4,5 stars out of 5.. Its a really original game with alot of great stuff, and i like to support the small game developers especially someone who make such an impressive game.

Finaly i will go and play again, had a little problem with China if you know what i mean ;-)