Dictator: Rule the World

This strategy game has a clever premise, but its ruined by the constantly pushed ads on-screen to take your money and the boring gameplay choices. The premise behind Dictator: Rule the World is to see if you could manage a small country before you attempt to rule the world. But overall, the game is simply a string of yes or no choices, with each round having you either fulfill or deny a request from one of the six factions you rule over. These sometimes absurd requests always benefit some of the factions while hurting others. The problem is that it's usually far from obvious how a choice will affect other groups. This makes it almost impossible to plan any real strategy to maintain balance. Instead, you either need to count on pure luck, memorize past results for when they come up again, or rely heavily on the "Advisor" option, which allows you to make any decision without negative effects. You've only got a limited number of these "Get Out of Jail Free" cards provided daily, unless you're willing to buy more in-game ... which brings up the game's other major issue: monetization.

It should come as no surprise, and should be expected, that most free-to-play games have to do something to make money. Maybe a special boost here, a cosmetic option there, or even just asking players to watch the occasional ad or two. Dictator: Rule the World takes this to an extreme. The gameplay is constantly interrupted with pop-ups and banner ads that block part of the screen while you're playing. It also constantly reminds you that you can get rid of these pesky annoyances, but only IF you're willing to pay a recurring weekly, monthly, or yearly charge to become a "VIP." It's such an intrusive and overbearing cash grab, it feels more like extortion than incentive. It's enough to make an already repetitive and bland game cross over into the realm of just plain irritating.