We. The Revolution: A Riot of Mini-Games

We. The Revolution:

We. The Revolution: This Game Has Lost Its Head

We. The Revolution: A Riot of Mini-Games

We. The Revolution: An Absurdly Executed Fiction

Once the player decides the verdict and manipulates the jury into the same opinion, it's time to sign the paperwork. The game asks, is the accused guilty? But it doesn't ask what they are guilty of. In a trial, a person is accused of a particular crime. This criteria remains open ended in We. The Revolution. The files at the beginning of the trial list a number of possible crimes, but the game never specifies the accusation. That's ok, since there are only three possible outcomes; acquittal, imprisonment, or execution by guillotine. On the fifteenth day, We. The Revolution removes imprisonment, leaving Alexis only two options; liberty or death. It also introduces quick cases. These have no questions, no jury, no witnesses, only a series of one sentence cases. The player must decide them with limited information. The decisions impact the opinion of the factions, but less than a normal case. That's good, since the player can't see in advance how the factions will react. After a decision, it is finalized with a signature. The player can't erase their signature once affixed to paper.

With immense power, the player becomes judge, defense attorney, prosecutor, jury, and executioner. Considering the threat posed by the three factions I consider myself a fair judge. Five times I reached zero with a faction. The common folk murdered me once. The aristocrats murdered me twice. And the revolutionaries deposed me twice as well. Despite these difficulties I acquitted 77, imprisoned 6, and executed 50.

Trials are the main component of the game, the major mini-game of this hodgepodge collection. But they are perfunctory, they are too short to generate a feeling of gravitas or importance. We. The Revolution runs for fifty-two days, and only some of those have trials. An online walkthrough estimates thirty-six days of regular trials, plus ten days of quick trials. The game has a significant amount of other elements packing it like Styrofoam peanuts. I completed We. The Revolution in approximately 732 minutes; about 20 minutes per trial. But that number assumes no extra content, and there is other stuffing. I estimate a trial takes ten minutes at most. Trials are way too quick, considering their centrality to the game. I'm currently replaying the Phoenix Wright games (now available on PC) and the difference in the length of the trials highlights the absurdity of a game based in court cases, but the cases take the same time it takes for an average American to run a mile.

A verdict of execution leads to the first of the many mini-games; the persuasion mini-game. The persuasion mini-game occurs in many places; after a guilty verdict leading to an execution, a persuasion attempt against a personage for the purpose of intrigue in the story, or to rescue out of position units during the Paris mini-game. Winning the persuasion game builds prestige, advances the story in the player's favor, or rescues a piece. Persuasion starts with a box. The box shows three to five topics. For each topic the target has a mental status. For each topic the player must choose the corresponding response. There are six mental states and four responses. That means, two of the responses are used twice. Why? Who can say. The game does not tell the player the matches, but once the player has figured out the proper response to each status, they never change. The challenge isn't in determining the matches, but in the lack of transparency. Normally one or two of the opponent's mental states are visible, but the others are hidden. The player can spend Influence Points to reveal the target's hidden mental states. Influence Points are also spent on many other elements of the game; it is the universal currency. Yet, it is very rare. In many places, when the player is asked if they wish to spend IP, they can't see how much IP they have. This makes it more difficult to spend it, because one always wants to have a small reserve for unexpected emergencies.

Another mini-game is the management of Alexis' family. Alexis lives with four family members; his father, wife, older son, and younger son. Alexis had an elder brother who got into trouble, was banished by their father, and died in the tumultuous wars of the time. At the end of every day the player chooses how to spend their evening. Each choice has positives and negatives. One aids the player in the next trial, but reduces the family's opinion of them. Other choices increase the opinion of some family members, while reducing the opinion of others. Each family member offers benefits if they have a high opinion. The verdict of Alexis' cases also influences family opinions.

Another mini-game uses dice. This is a mostly optional mini-game. It can be chosen as the evening event, upsetting the family, but I ignored it. Two intrigue events require the player to play this game. It appears to be a modified version of Yahtzee, played with six dice. Each round the player rolls the dice. They score based on multiples of the same number. The game is played for five rounds. During those rounds the player can re-roll three times, and each re-roll attempt allows re-rolling three dice. Despite random claims, the game does not cheat. I won all the dice rolling Intrigue events.

The next mini-game is played at the end of every day; an attempt to control Paris. The city is composed of eleven sections. Each section is controlled by the player, a mysterious opponent, or remains neutral. Each turn the player moves their three pieces around to increase their influence. The enemy moves pieces, as does the neutral faction. Controlling regions confers bonuses like extra Influence or Prestige. It's a very simple game, but also frustrating, because enemy pieces appear out of nowhere and attack your pieces. Units that are attacked can't run away. There isn't any strategy, only luck. The player also builds their base in this phase, constructing a statue that unlocks special abilities. These abilities cost a lot of Influence Points to use. Either We. The Revolution has very few Influence Points, or I missed them all. Either way, I never used these building abilities.

Next week, a final look at We. The Revolution.

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We. The Revolution: This Game Has Lost Its Head

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