We. The Revolution

This historically set game manages to balance tension and paranoia, but its arbitrary decisions and consequences to decisions may leave this for strategy fans only. We. The Revolution is stylistically rich in visual appeal, and does a great job of depicting an oppressive atmosphere. Also, because of the need to massage the views of the various factions, the game also has built-in frustrations and paranoia from start to finish. The earlier cases set the groundwork by showing players how traps can be laid, limiting questions and the discovery of evidence to make the verdict simply a matter of popularity. There are consequences for all actions, and you will not only have the "people" watching closely, but also the "revolutionaries" and your family. It's a balancing act that can start to feel depressing.

We. The Revolution is visually pleasing, taking players into the era but not assaulting them with blood and gore: The guillotine does its bloody work offscreen. All of the mature content elements -- from sexual inappropriateness to rape, executions, and the political duplicity of characters -- are handled through reactions, text, and static cutscenes. While it does a good job of depicting the time, some of the elements -- like talking about rape -- probably didn't need to be in the game. At its core, this is about managing resources, and is a strategic game that layers on the suspense and paranoia with little room to escape. The use of asking questions, avoiding traps, limiting discovery often makes verdicts a gut decision and not one based on actual judicial science. Other strategic elements seem to have been tossed in to create a more robust experience, but sometimes it feels like some of the gameplay in We. The Revolution is more of the same but with a different look.