Finding Life on Mars with ‘REPUBLIC’ (Review)

by Thomas Jancis
Thomas Jancis
•
March 6, 2020
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4 min read

(Full disclosure: I have previously seen a Work in Progress of this show and have friendships with members of the crew.)

In the year 2119, a long and bloody civil war resulted in the corporations of Earth being driven away from the Red Planet. Left behind, the Rebellion formed a series of small domed cities. Now it is up to these elected officials and the AI AMELIA to try and keep the cities running and prepare for whatever the planet throws at them.

This is the story of the Martian city of Hope.

I saw a previous version of this show at the DRAUGHTS cafe just down the road from the VAULTs. That show was a very intense game that involved many trades and background deals. There was much walking from table to table and stating deals, while trading resources and supplies. It was anarchy and my city narrowly avoided getting the entire planet nuked by Earth.

This version is much simpler. About nine cities, composed of ten citizens each sit on benches in the tunnels. There are three helpful assistants to the AI AMELIA who act as our gamemasters. They cut into the action to let us know various pieces of news and to give us the codes to unlock the cryo-chamber (or the “Sleepy Night Night Room” as we called it) which ends the turn.

AMELIA is on a tablet put between us for someone to read out. In our “city” it was decided that I should be the voice of the AI. AMELIA gave us monthly updates on the state of our city at the beginning of each turn, all the time being unnervingly nice.

“Oh, I do hope that the refugees bring other AIs for me to befriend. I get so lonely.”

We quickly decided that we didn’t trust her and prepared for a sudden but inevitable betrayal.

As the game started we were asked a series of questions that could be answered from a dropdown menu.

What did we grow? Potatoes. (Strawberry laces were, sadly, a declined option.)

What did we produce? Medicine.

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And what did we believe in? Hope. (Was that the city or the concept of Hope for us all? YES! STOP ASKING QUESTIONS!)

We tried to play strategically with our choices but they seemed more about “flavor” than anything else.

The heart of the game is budget management, not unlike the classic Sim City. Our team very quickly min-maxed the game and by the end were making 12 million credits a month. We were even able to make the employment rate 110%. Cracking the code like this made certain choices easier in the long run.

There was no interaction between the cities, beyond a planet wide vote whether a ship of refugees from Earth would be allowed to land knowing that Earth would retaliate. There was only one city that refused to co-operate and they were very heartily booed.

The final stages of the game revolved around an oncoming storm. It was going to hit the cities and points needed to be spent making sure that the Dome would survive the battering but also putting points into science would allow us to work out if the storm would hit us. We very quickly worked out that a strong dome would help us anyway so that was our focus. If the storm missed us we still had a lovely dome stopping us from dying.

The success of this game depends on your fellow players. I was lucky that my group was pleasant and willing to work together. I did take on an authoritative role as the Voice but made sure everyone was heard, despite the two minute time limit we were given to make our decisions. We even made an agreement that we would watch a Matt Damon movie before we went into Cryo. He was a hero who ALSO grew potatoes and was constantly getting into scrapes where someone needed to save him! WE LOVE MATTY D!

Ultimately we survived the storm and the planet would continue to develop and grow under the new government. As we prepared to exit, my fellow council member suggested that Hope would be renamed Dome.

This is very clearly an early stage of the game. We expected more twists or to need to make harsher choices. But actually things were rather utopian and no one got vented into the void of space.

Apart from company director Tom Mansfield, who provided rather upbeat interruptions about how the planet was doing, the other hosts mostly kept an eye on us or helped when the tablets chose to freeze JUST before the storm hit Hope. But I had fun and enjoyed playing.

I hope to return to the city of Dome and discover what new horrors await us on the Red Planet.