Suzerain: The Trials of A Great Nation

Suzerain has internal events, foreign policy, economic policy, and the managing of superpowers. With so much occurring it's easy to be buffeted by events. The opinions of others, and the fear caused by potential failure, leads to a failure to follow our conviction. That's how I felt during the first playthrough. Before I talk about the two endings I achieved, I wanted to mention a few other concepts.

The main mechanic of Suzerain is making choices, small and large. Many of these choices are binary, but a significant number are multiple choice. Choices come at Anton without advice, and with lengthy cabinet discussions among self interested ministers. The many choices are brewed together to provide the outcome the player expects, but also surprise the player in interesting ways. Choices act in a complicated and interlocking fashion. The other characters are all interacting with the player's choices, searching for a way to gain an advantage. Especially the conservative members of the USP who seem determined to sabotage Rayne.

The choices are backgrounded by the historical context. The developers put such work into Sordland and the surrounding region. The country feels alive because it has a history that is deep, complex, and contradictory. Sordland isn't on a straight path forward. It isn't just one thing. It is a cauldron of ideas fighting for supremacy, surrounded by other countries with their own complex problems. It's a country, and a people, so steeped in atrocity, that it uses the past to justify a new atrocity, and that atrocity to retaliate again. It has a cycle of violent revenge that only Rayne can ease, or use to his advantage (if that is how you want to play).

Suzerain is packed with text. Nothing is read to the player. There are casual conversations, contentious cabinet meetings, and carousing with the public. There's a codex with dozens of entries on major political players to past presidents, to obscure fictional religions. Fortunately, it's well written. It is crammed with reading, but in a good way. The informative text is clear and to the point. The dialogue is engaging and concise, while also revealing underlying motives, complexities, and histories. 

One of the unfortunate limitations of Suzerain is the process of decision making. Unlike The Political Process, Suzerain is a story. The player can't take unilateral decisions. In The Political Process, where there are no events, the player writes legislation for any topic at any time. In Suzerain all decisions are prompted. The player can't act until the game asks them to make a choice. The player can't fast track choices or avoid others. I understand why this system exists, but sometimes I think, if only I could have made this decision a few turns ago.

I made two attempts at Suzerain. In both I was the same; an anti-corruption, democratic reformer, implementing a planned economy, with a focus on improving education. In the first attempt I was an abject failure. My constitutional amendments were crushed, the economy floundered and sank, and Sordland became a pawn of United Contana, the communist superpower. Seeing the writing on the wall, I had already chosen to retire instead of seeking a second term. But to add insult to injury, the Minister of Defense, Iosef Lancea implemented a coup, removed me from power, and jailed me for a dozen years. He stabilized the county and reinstated democracy.

The second attempt also ended with Iosef Lancea, but first I managed to succeed at introducing a substantial series of amendments to the constitution. In this second attempt I avoided unnecessary conflicts, brought Sordland out of recession (though not in stellar fashion), increased civil liberties, eased repression on minorities, and avoided entanglement by the superpowers. But I actually regret the last point, because the massive country of Rumburg attacked. I had maintained the military, and had one ally. My Iosef and my Chief of Armed Forces, Valkan Kruger, seemed too optimistic about the outcome. I was right. We were crushed, and at the end I was in the presidential bunker with Iosef and my family. Iosef and I ran out and shot as many Rumburg soldiers as we could. He was killed. I was taken alive. I had a solo meeting with the Queen of Rumburg. When I tried to kill her, I failed (you always fail) and was executed.

After the final event the player sees a political compass with many of the characters on it, including yourself. Both games I was in the middle of the bottom left; a socialist reformer. My main disappointment with Suzerain is that I failed to win either time. Based on conversations on Reddit, it seems there are many ways of winning. But the path to victory may be narrow. The Suzerain wiki on Fandom.com, lists 9 major types of endings with 19 total possible endings. Only one of the major endings (Reelection), and a total of two possible endings (USP Reelection and New Political Party Election), could be considered victory. Two other major endings sound neutral, along with their associated sub-endings. That leaves the majority of endings as failure. I believe I would have earned a USP Reelection victory if only I had aligned enough with one superpower to avoid the Rumburg war.

In conclusion,

Suzerain is a masterwork of storytelling, politics, history, and dialogue. It creates a realistic world from scratch, creating a vibrant history of the region and the country. It creates nations, ethnicities, religions, conflicts, and characters with distinct uniqueness. Each of these seem real, and realistic, believable as entities. Then Suzerain asks the player to make complicated choices with trade offs, ambiguity, and deceptions. Choices are more than a simple yes or no. The results of the choices are complicated, but believable. Some choice based games fail because the outcomes are bizarre and absurd, or too obvious. Suzerain avoids both of these by creating surprising outcomes that make sense. This is all conveyed through long pages of dialogue and description that are well written and clear in their meaning. The player isn't confused about their knowledge or choices, though they also understand other characters are attempting to deceive them. Though I was disappointed at my failure to beat this difficult game, I also value the idea that not all decisions lead to good outcomes.