Democracy 3

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Mostly Positive · 74%Mostly Positive · 74%2013

$24.99

US Steam price, checked 1 h ago

The verdict

A deep, approachable political sim where tweaking policies and watching cause and effect is fun for a few hours. It gets easy and repetitive, and has launch/missing-text bugs on modern Windows.

Great for

Politics and economics fans who enjoy experimenting with policy sliders and emergent stories, ideally bought on sale

Main risk

Won't launch or shows no text on modern Windows, and gets too easy and repetitive after a few runs

What players love

Hilarious emergent stories and assassinations

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews

“I eliminated poverty, asthma, and environmental pollution all in one turn and then I was IMMEDIATELY assassinated while opening a school. 10/10 no notes”
Steam review · 14 h played ↗

“I turn Germany into a socialist, "Big Brother", atheist, militaristic, police state and with a death penalty for running red lights and I get a 99.77% approval rating.”
Steam review · 7.9 h played ↗

Deep interconnected policy simulation

Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews

“Rapidly though you find that running a country is more like weaving and pulling one thread taut will cause something else unravel unexpectedly.”
Steam review · 7.8 h played ↗

“Making a decision often has a butterfly effect across many elements of your nation, which you can clearly trace and understand.”
Steam review · 33 h played ↗

“Behind the simple interface lie truly limitless possibilities.”
Steam review · translated · 3.5 h played ↗

Fun and educational for politics fans

Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews

“It's a political psychology lab.”
Steam review · 11.9 h played ↗

“Talk about getting subconsciously educated on the difficult balance that our government leaders have to deal with.”
Steam review · 44.5 h played ↗

Great mod support and Workshop

Mentioned in ~1 in 11 positive reviews

“I strongly recommend modding the game heavily.”
Steam review · 53.5 h played ↗

“Interesting game. Pity there are few countries, but mods fix that.”
Steam review · translated · 5.8 h played ↗

Clear, intuitive interface

Mentioned in ~1 in 17 positive reviews

“The interface is exceptionally good, conveying extremly complex interrelations clearly.”
Steam review · 33 h played ↗

“the UI is so intuitive that you can jump right in without feeling overwhelmed”
Steam review · 13.7 h played ↗

Runs on low specs and Mac/Linux

Mentioned in ~1 in 30 positive reviews

“Runs well on Linux!”
Steam review · 11.3 h played ↗

“Good game for those who want to train their brain but only have low PC specs”
Steam review · 1.1 h played ↗

What players complain about

Too easy and shallow once understood

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews

“This game is actually pretty easy once you catch the drift and the progressive political bias, and you can get from any starting point to 90% and more on elections day.”
Steam review · 12.7 h played ↗

“This game is fun for the first 20 minutes, then when you figure out how to beat it you never want to play it again.”
Steam review · 6.8 h played ↗

Won't launch, crashes, or shows no text

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews

“The game is broken, no text is displayed in any menue -> Unplayable.”
Steam review · 17.9 h played ↗

“Game is broken on Windows 11, will not even launch.”
Steam review · 86.6 h played ↗

“Endless crashing when starting any nation with any amount of settings.”
Steam review · 23.6 h played ↗

Absurd, frequent assassinations

Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews

“a far-left faction assassinated me because I didn't have enough welfare programs”
Steam review · 4.7 h played ↗

“Do Literally Anything and Get Assassinated Simulator 2013”
Steam review · 6.4 h played ↗

Spreadsheet gameplay, just moving sliders

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews

“Move sliders, watch numbers change, do research tree, next turn.”
Steam review · 1.7 h played ↗

“The whole gameplay is scrolling a slider, you either add funding or cut it.”
Steam review · translated · 23.1 h played ↗

Overpriced for the content

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews

“please do not buy this full price, if you want to buy it”
Steam review · 5.7 h played ↗

“it's not worth the current $25 price tag”
Steam review · 6.9 h played ↗

Unrealistic, US-centric, two-party only

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews

“Every country plays exactly the same, just with different starter demographics.”
Steam review · 3.7 h played ↗

“It also only supports a two-party system, even in democracies like Germany.”
Steam review · 4.7 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Unsupported

Minimum

OSWindows XP

Processor2 gig

Memory1 GB RAM

Graphics256 MB

Storage500 MB available space

Recommended

OSWindows XP

Processor2 gig

Memory4 GB RAM

Graphics256 MB

Storage500 MB available space

OSWindows XP

Processor2 gig

Memory1 GB RAM

Graphics256 MB

Storage500 MB available space

More games to check

Other games we’ve read the reviews for

See all →

Mad Games Tycoon 2

Very Positive · 94%

+ Addictive one-more-game loop

− Shallow, repetitive loop once sliders are solved

analyzed 4 h ago

−25%

Feed The Forest

Very Positive · 93%Early verdict

+ Witty satirical story and humor

− Very short with little replayability

analyzed 6 h ago

−30%

Incremental Traffic

Very Positive · 90%Early verdict

+ Addictive, satisfying traffic-fixing loop

− Looks AI-generated

analyzed 6 h ago

−20%

Hubble Bubble

Very Positive · 94%Early verdict

+ Hilarious co-op with friends

− Feels unfinished and low-effort

analyzed 2 d ago

Weekly digest

Fresh games worth a look, in your inbox

The most interesting games we’ve just analyzed, once a week.Once a week we send the most interesting games we’ve just analyzed: the verdict, top pros and cons, and what changed. No spam.

One email a week · unsubscribe in one click