Suzerain's 2.0 update is a "massive overhaul" to the already-excellent political RPG
The Amendment update also coincides with a big discount
Text-based RPG Suzerain was already great to begin with, but today’s 2.0 'Amendment' update makes the game's political spider web even stickier. Developers Torpor Games describe the update as a “massive overhaul” that adds much-requested features, tidies up the presentation, and expands on the base game’s corrupt scheming/diplomacy. I’m tempted to lead my country to ruin all over again.
In a new Steam blog, the team say the Amendment update is “the culmination of a year-long endeavour… to refine and expand upon the original game,” although it’s apparently the first of several free updates in the pipeline. The update’s new Torpor Mode allows “for manual saving after completing the game once,” so you can now reroll saves if, for instance, the public starts calling you a stupid pig. Other new features include an overhauled UI, world map integration, collectible items and more.
Political machinations are also expanded in Amendment, with 12 new scenes, 6 bills, and over 300 extra news articles to flesh out all your presidential decisions. Torpor Games have also modified a bunch of existing scenes and deepened several characters’ storylines. Although I’m most looking forward to the new “Holsord-related lore” that ties into the street-level follow-up The Conformist, which is still in development.
Suzerain is getting some bigger paid expansions, too, starting with the previously announced Kingdom Of Rizia DLC coming later this year. Set four years before Suzerain, the upcoming expansion swaps the base game’s presidential role with a royal position, putting you on the throne of Rizia. Hopefully, it retains the same conniving negotiations from the main game, while adding more scenarios and whatnot.
Sin Vega (RPS in peace) spoke very highly about the game’s tough choices and tougher consequences: “This is a game that had me covering my mouth with disappointment at a betrayal, howling in triumph at cross-examining some legislation, and saying aloud to an imaginary billionaire "Threaten me again son and I will nationalise your shit".”
For the next two weeks, Suzerain is discounted to £3.80/$4.50 on Steam. After August 14th, the game will see a permanent price increase to $19.99 - up from $14.99 - to “reflect the added value and enhancements in this update.” Might be a good idea to jump aboard now, if you’re interested in the game at all.