Civic Story

I was on the QA team for this game! (My playtime is not indicative of this; most of my hours were off Steam.) Intriguing visual novel about Canadian politics, something that even many Canadians aren't too well-versed on. There's fun dialogue, weird characters, and it doesn't shy away from Canada's darker topics either. There are many missable plot threads between the articles you read up on and story choices you make, meaning there's easily enough here for multiple playthroughs. The soundtrack's great and has lots of variety too, from chill tunes to themes fitting of a debate of ideals.

A beautiful slice of life story exploring the world of Canadian Politics in a lighthearted way! Highly recommend for anyone who loves politics and visual novels! The debate scenes near the end were my favorite parts. Definitely worth checking out!

Cute game that encourages people to vote! Focused on learning politics and the importance of voting, as well as how to research your political parties to make an educated vote, it's definitely a learning game, but that doesn't mean it can't be fun. The debate scenes are very entertaining and there's plenty of fun conversations along the way to keep things light. Recommended if you enjoy visual novels.

An entertaining game about actual politics and how it affects people.

(I should disclose that I was a tester, considering my hours played) Civic Story is Ace Attorney but for Canadian politics. It is an earnest attempt to make a game that can open up discussion about politics, which is something Canada has been having issues with over the years in regards to voter apathy and lack of participating in elections. Politics in any media generally go deeper in the realm of drama, but Civic Story aims to keep the subject matter more optimistic and potentially engaging, in the hopes to turn a topic relegated to ignorant anger and tribalism, to something with nuanced and open for debate. If you want to play a visual novel that explores politics in a more friendlier and charming light, or you're one of many that has little faith in politics nowadays, then go play Civic Story and potentially change your perspective. Hopefully the game can encourage you, even if you're not Canadian, to care about democracy.

An interesting peek at the often-overlooked political scenery of Canada - there's some clear satire here, but hidden in the (slightly-)exaggerated articles are snippets that perfectly mirror discussions being held today.

A wonderful game to get a hang of the complex world of politics. I would 100% recommend it!

It's a light romp of a story. Finished one route, but I am not feeling super inclined to re-do the story to see all the other stories/endings. Worth the money? Maybe heavily discounted sure, just don't expect great quality controls. It has charm and some aspects of the story do get intense for sure, but it is going to be a hard hurdle for majority of players to get over the default blocky look of the Unity engine. Also, if the topics of politics turns you off, do not play this game. It can get a little too real and evoke questions inside you, which I think is intended by the creators. I guess overall, I can recommend. But, you choose whether you want to try or not. 2.1 hours I have played is roughly for one playthrough and I think there can be like 3 or 4 different kinds of endings.

This feels early access - the frame-rates are abysmal on my uhd 620 despite looking early 2000s in terms of complexity. The writing seems ok at first pass, but it didn't get anywhere interesting before I got sick and tired of the jerky movement and loading times that felt like the CDROM era. also, disappointingly they decided to use both left and right mouse buttons (somewhat arbitrarily and completely unnecessarily) preventing use on a touchscreen computer. I'll consider trying again if they release a major update. dev, feel free to comment on this review if you think it's time to give the game a 2nd chance.

I reviewed this game for Handheld Gaming Community https://handheldgamingcommunity.com/, and I want to double down that this is a delightful game that has a great message about participation in your government. The game works well on Steam Deck. The devs are really great, and are very responsive. This game is worth your money, you will have a great time!