I think I’m just looking for some hope or catharsis lately. What’s a good game where I can see some success as a communist group, country, etc?
Would playing as the USSR for Hearts of Iron IV work? It sounds super satisfying to defeat the Nazis in a war, but the game also sounds extremely complicated - well, the one time I tried it (and found a 6 hour tutorial or something like that on YouTube, then gave up).
What do people think of that game? Are there other alternatives to scratch that itch?
There’s the recent game where you play as the Mensheviks or Bolsheviks post USSR Revolution in 1917, but I’m still figuring out the German SDP version of the game. My brain isn’t ready to learn all the nuance of a new version of that yet, I don’t think lol.
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Tonight We Riot is a fun retro beat-em-up where you carry out a socialist revolution by throwing bricks at cops
Stellaris if you want to do space communism. easy to become the Culture or United Federation of Planets or maybe something more militant
get Government Variety Pack mod for wide varieties of socialist governments (pretty sure made by a leftist because it’s not too brainwormed. a marxist-leninist state aka “socialist plenary” is an oligarchy but it mentions strong democratic control at local level. also has market socialist, classic worker’s republic, syndicalism, and siege socialist types. even simulates leftist infighting if your tendency is different then someone else’s, like you’ll still like each other but there will be a smaller friendly bonus because of “misguided comrades”.)
and of course the base game has "shared burdens’ civic aka fully realized socialism
stellaris 4.0 is kind of bonked at the moment tho so you either have to run beta patch or wait until late august when they fix it
This sounds like one of the most promising answers so far. Is it like Victoria 3, a game someone else said, in space?
the recent update has made it kind of Victoria 3 lite as far as economy goes. no dynamic markets but similiar building system (employ civilians (peasants) by building districts/buildings, specialize planets based on local resources, automate some processes as tech goes up)
but it’s more like a standard 4x, basically space Civilization, but with lots of customization (more customization built in then probably any paradox game). even without mods you can design your own empire how you like, and custom build every potential rival or ally and flag them to be in every game or random.
there’s also the bones of Master of Orion type space strategy games in there (ship design, rock paper scissors space combat)
oh and lots of post-human(post-alien) stuff. there are paths around it but you will eventually transcend biology either through biotech, cybernetics, synthetics, or psionics
I also know you kill a bunch of Nazis in some Wolfenstein games. Not sure that’s exactly what I’m looking for, but hey, it might scratch the itch. I’m not against recommendations like that.
Really liked Wolfenstein 2, but be aware its very much building a resistance movement rather than overthrowing the nazis, it doesnt really pull a cohesive politics together other than being left friendly and punching right constantly. Still very cool, and theres a lot to be said about how good the story of BJ and his parents comes together.
Have you considered Red Faction? It’s getting on in years, but it’s explicitly about a united workers revolution.
dwarf fortress and workers and resources: soviet republic, although ‘seeing some success’ can be difficult in both cases
Any way of making W&R easier to play? As in I love the game but I hate that everything is so clunky.
A new food and beer factory that cant be reached because the warehouse wont move stuff between them. Ok lets use forklifts, what do you mean forklifts cant go across the road cause its not the right one?
Cool a new supermarket in town, but I rather starve than walk 1km.
There is so much silly micro that I just cant.
Victoria3 is from the same makers of hearts of iron and I think it’s at least technically feasible to get a communist revolution in any country.
I got the game shortly before my spouse and I had kids tho so haven’t been able to play it much but loved it when I was playing.
Victoria 3 is the only paradox game I’ve gotten really into, it’s super heavily focused on economy and internal politics rather than building doom stacks to paint the map. It’s also a lot less intimidating to get into as there’s less micromanagement needed to do well (especially after the recent overhaul to trade). I really enjoy the fact that the majority of the game is focused on improving the internal conditions of your nation rather than on fighting your neighbors. You can become an absolute economic powerhouse with just a few well managed states and good trade deals, simply capturing territory is often a bad thing as you will inherit their problems. You can join (or form) power blocs with friendly nations to get preferential trade deals and prevent other nations from bullying you into submission. There is a well fleshed out system of gradually enacting social progress by manipulating which social groups are in power, you can absolutely transition to a full command economy with universal healthcare, education, and social services but it’s far more involved than just pressing the communism button
That’s one where you’re just running a country, right? It like Civilization or something like that?
I would characterize it as more like HoI4 than Civilization, as it’s a “real time with pause” grand strategy game rather than a turn based one, except with a much greater focus on the economy and diplomacy, whereas HoI4 is a very warfare-centric game and the economy is highly abstracted. You take control of a nation starting in 1836 and lead it through the process of industrialization with all the social and political upheval that comes with it. I’ve seen a lot of people call it a materialism simulator, because you can’t simply just jump to communism like is possible in HoI4, you actually have to build up an industrial base to create a proletarian class who then become interested in communism and then through them, socialism can eventually come to power via either reform or revolution.
Thank you that’s a much better description then I would’ve given since it’s been a bit since I’ve been able to play lol
Is there a country you’d recommend starting in that it’s relatively easy to get a revolution?
Dai Nam (Vietnam). The game is challenging and easy to fall into a death spiral. Dai Nam gives you a good start to learn the ropes of the game. It’s one of the tutorial countries, too, because it gives you a good blank start without difficult starting conditions and has been recommended by the community to be used as a first game country (previously it was Korea).
I really hope the next DLC or so will be a communist improvement (this last one fixed a lot of issues but is capitalist focused, and corporate states mechanically are overpowered in the game). It would be nice if command economy was overhauled and expanded.
getting a wii balance board to train for the rev
I’m looking for a game where I can have a communist victory lol. That one’s specifically after a communist loss.
HoI4 and Victoria 3 are nice games for escapism to make timelines that aren’t miserably bleak, but there’s definitely a steep learning curve for sure. And with mods, there’s a lot of neat scenarios and start dates you can pick from to start your global communism run, such as mods that cover the Cold War, the 2000s, the 2020s, etc. I recently played a nifty one called Red Dusk that started in 2000 with the premise that the August Coup was successful in removing Grobachev.
There’s a small indie studio call
Kremlin GamesNostalGames that makes kinda janky political simulators about socialist states, like Crisis in the Kremlin which is about late 80’s USSR, China: Mao’s Legacy which covers 1970s+ China, and Ostalgie: The Berlin Wall which covers the other Warsaw Pact states in the late 80’s. I think the latter also has DLC for Cuba, Yugoslavia, and the DPRK.There’s a small indie studio call Kremlin Games
Just wanted to add they’re called NostalGames now and they just released Crisis in the Kremlin 2 about a month ago. Def worth checking out all their games if you can get past their clunky UIs
HOI4 is good, check out the following mods: Kaiserreich (USA civil war run), TNOMod (WRRF russia) or The Fire Rises (China run) for good commie content
Vic3 kinda sucks for commie stuff. Its just not fleshed out enough for anything fun to happen
Suzerain has some commie paths for both of the campaigns. Use save editing if you want even more catharsis
Save editing?
yeah the game has pretty tight resource management; you can edit your saves to give you more, though.
Oh I was wondering if you meant something like that, or save scumming. Which I’ve done in many a Slay the Spire game lol.
