Executive Command
By Chad Sansing,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Quick, feel-good tour of the presidency.
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What’s It About?
EXECUTIVE COMMAND puts players in the president's shoes for a brisk, four-turn term of office. As the president, you must address Congress to drum up support for your chosen issue, sign or veto bills, deliver signed bills to their appropriate federal agencies, and also handle diplomacy and war. Congress will send you several bills per turn for you to review at the White House. Between signing or vetoing the bills and delivering newly passed laws to the departments that enforce them (like the Department of Education), you'll also travel to Air Force One to go on diplomatic missions and to the Pentagon to manage war against a fictional country.
Is It Any Good?
Executive Command delivers a bright, broad-strokes overview of the president's work. But because the game is meant for both middle and high school, the substance of the president's work seems centrist, neutral, and low-stakes. The decisions that you make are guided more by the game than by your own beliefs or goals. For example, it's always clear which choices the game considers to be "good" and "bad," so you have to play the game looking for the obviously "correct" answer instead of thinking critically.
Making "bad" decisions on purpose doesn't alter the game's trajectory, just the assessment of your performance. Waging war, in particular, seems uncharacteristically easy, simple, and vague. You might find yourself asking the military to act without knowing if you've asked for surveillance or an attack. Consequence, in general, rarely shows up in Executive Command outside of the scores you receive for "good" and "bad" decisions.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about civic participation and what they look for in a president.
What kinds of personal traits does a leader need to handle many responsibilities -- and serve many people -- at once?
Why do people have different ideas of "good" and "bad" rules?
Website Details
- Subjects: Social Studies : citizenship, government, power structures, the economy
- Skills: Thinking & Reasoning : decision-making, part-whole relationships
- Genre: Educational
- Pricing structure: Free
- Last updated: June 19, 2020
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