With the Presidential debates being such a big deal in the US and election season well and truly upon us in the UK, it felt like the right time to get around to checking out and reviewing I Am Your President, a political strategy game in which yes, you guessed it, you get to be the President of the United States of America.

The game starts off promisingly, with your unseen character (the action takes place entirely in first person, on menu screens and backdrops with the bare minimum of animation) winning an election and an interesting, multiple choice personality test used to determine your general political stances. I found this pretty engaging, and it was definitely interesting, if unsurprising, to see where I fit on the political spectrum.

Unfortunately, the game kind of continues in almost exactly the same way for the duration, with often complex political situations reduced to multiple choice decisions that take place from behind your desk in the Oval Office.

The weird choice to have static backdrops and cut out photos of people who are supposedly advisers, reporters and other staff members is certainly an odd choice, and gives the game a very unappealing aesthetic.

That’s not helped by the fact that it takes place in such a limited and dull set of environments. Press conferences and Air Force One provide the odd change of scenery, but the novelty soon wears off with them too.

I Am Your President purports to be satirical, and I suppose if you think that simply replicating recent left and right wing policies, talking points and slogans is satire, then you may find it enjoyable.

I wasn’t overly enamoured with how many policies and sayings seemed to just ape a certain orange idiot’s ramblings and half-thought-through ‘ideas’, but at least the option was there to not go through with them.

Choosing each option affects certain stats either positively or negatively, with you having to manage (presented here in alphabetical order) Diplomacy, Economy, Industry, Military, Politics and Society. They’re all a bit too broad, and some things seem to affect one or more quite randomly, or not at all, but managing these all successfully is the key to re-election, and therefore, success in the game.

I found that things did improve a bit when venturing beyond the borders of America and engaging in trade deals or even military activities, but even these are handled by choosing options in conversations, so it doesn’t really do much to keep your attention even then.

So unfortunately, as much as I approached I Am Your President with an open mind, and found myself enjoying it for the first few days of my virtual presidency, it didn’t take long to get bored and frustrated with the whole thing.

I’m sure there’s probably a metaphor or some sort of commentary on what it’s actually like to be President, so perhaps we should consider this to be a successful adaptation of the real thing?

In any case, despite its ambition and unique premise, I Am Your President simply isn’t much fun to play, and soon outstays its welcome; I certainly won’t be running for a second term.

Many thanks to Ultimate Games for providing me with a code for I Am Your President for review purposes.