Republic: The Revolution is a video game produced by Elixir Studios and published by Eidos Interactive and for Mac OS X by Feral Interactive. The game is a political simulation in which the player leads a political faction to overthrow the government of a fictional totalitarian country in Eastern Europe, using diplomacy, subterfuge, and violence. Gameplay The player in Republic leads a grassroots political faction seeking to place their preferred government in power. As a strategy game, the 3D game engine is mostly a facade on top of simpler rules and mechanics reminiscent of a boardgame. The 3D engine provides a high level of detail and helps 'flesh out' the world of Novistrana, enabling players to take a virtual tour of their current location. However, the overall influence of the 3D engine on the actual mechanics of gameplay is minimal - the ability to view actions taking place does not affect the outcome of those actions. Some actions carried out in the game offer extra customization options in the 3D view (for instance, choosing the approach for canvassing or allocating 'cards' in negotiations) but these are separate to the 3D world. Ideology is the main way in which the political dynamics in Novistrana are simulated in Republic. The player, characters, actions, and districts in the game possess an ideology score as a total sum of three measures: Force, Influence, and Wealth. This score represents alignment towards certain actions on the political spectrum. Ideology influences many aspects of gameplay, including player's chances of success or failure in interacting with other characters, and their ability to take over and maintain a district. The game is divided into Days, each of which is a cycle of a Morning, Afternoon, and Night. Each of these periods is a turn of sorts, in which orders may be given to faction members to be carried out in the next available turn. Every morning force, influence, and wealth, the in-game resources, are collected. Synopsis Setting The game is set in Novistrana, a fictional former state of the Soviet Union. The design of Novistrana was inspired by real-world states such as Belarus, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan. Game characters speak a fictional language reminiscent of Ukrainian or Russian. The population is largely Slavic, and the country's churches are Eastern Orthodox. Novistrana is rife with political turmoil, with many differing political forces vying for power representing a range of ideologies. The