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. Development of Republic was led by Elixir Studios, a company by founder Demis Hassabis, who had previously worked on simulation games for Bullfrog Productions and Lionhead Studios. Design of the game was ambitious, with the game experiencing media hype from Demis Hassabis' descriptions of the game as a highly detailed and realistic simulation of political dynamics. The game experienced several delays, leading to the restriction of the scope of the game's features and scale.
Republic was released on 27 August 2003 to mixed reception, with many critics observing that the game fell short of the expectations induced by its lead developer. Whilst the originality and detail of the game was praised, many reviews observed the game lacked depth. The underperformance of Republic lead to Elixir Studios' discontinuation of development of additional features for the game, and a planned multiplayer sequel, Republic Dawn, was discontinued.
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
thumb|right|A [[press kit screenshot of Republic depicting an aerial view of the game's setting, Novistrana.]]
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 ideologies of Novistranans are generally influenced by their class or career. Police brutality and political corruption are prevalent. Novistrana has its own national anthem, which is sung in a fictional language. Similarly, the alphabet used in Novistrana is fictional although it draws heavily from the Cyrillic alphabet.
"Novistrana" can be translated in Russian and some Eastern European/Slavic languages as "New Country". In other Slavic languages it could be translated as "New Party".
Plot
Republic depicts the rise to political power of the player in the country of Novistrana. Following the collapse of communism across the Soviet Union, Novistrana has deteriorated into a totalitarian regime run by Vasily Karasov. Elected President-for-life, Karasov has overseen enormous inequality in Novistrana, whilst orchestrating crackdowns on dissidents, siphoning state funds into his own accounts, and conducting clandestine arrests with the Secret Police. The player is a young man in Novistrana who is compelled to take political action after witnessing the arrest of his parents by the Secret Police. The player has been monitoring the rise of Karasov over the previous decades, waiting for a chance to exact revenge. The game's ultimate goal is to build a faction to topple Novistrana's government and liberate the country from Karasov's rule. The Republic development team initially consisted of 15 Elixir Studios staff, growing to a team of 35 by 2003. Hassabis acquired several staff for Elixir Studios from colleagues and graduates at Cambridge University, and had avoided poaching staff from his connections from Lionhead Studios due to having left on good terms with the studio. The studio immediately began work on Republic, inspired by a range of sources, including the board games Junta, Illuminati, and Diplomacy, and the Elias Canetti book Crowds and Power.
Starting in 1998, Republic had a troubled production, with the game experiencing considerable delays over its initial release schedule for Spring 2002. Demis Hassabis attributed these delays at the time to an underestimation of the time needed to implement features at scale and detail desired for the game.
Delays to Republic led the Elixir Studios development team to restrict the ambitious scope of the game. Revisions to the scope included the number of locations, with the concept of "hundreds of cities and towns" to a district-based system within a single city. with final mastering of the game completed on August 8, 2003, and the game was launched by Eidos Interactive in North America on August 26, Europe on August 29, and Australia on September 11. Feral Interactive released a port for Mac OS X the following year on July 30, 2004.
Marketing
thumb|right|A screenshot of Republic illustrating the [[level of detail (computer graphics)|level of detail at the street level using the Totality Engine.]]
Republic experienced significant media hype arising from how its political simulation mechanics and level of graphical detail were marketed to the press, and significant coverage of the game at events such as E3. Many outlets were impressed by the scope of previews of the game, and shared predictions that the game would be "the most ambitious game ever", "a landmark moment in strategy gaming", and "a gaming milestone and stunning paradigm shift in games technology". Initial previews of Republic in 2000 focused upon the purported level of detail behind the game's engine, the "Totality Engine". Described as "the most advanced graphics engine ever seen, (with) no upper bound of on the number of polygons and objects", it was claimed the game could "render scenes with an unlimited number of polygons in real time". Tech demonstrations of Republic at this time showcased a high polygonal level of detail, with the claim that players would be able to zoom smoothly from the buildings in Novistrana to assets such as flowers upon the balconies of buildings with no loss of detail. The game was further purported to have artificial intelligence that would simulate "approximately one million individual citizens" at a high level of detail, and E3 in May 2001 to 2003, Industry impressions were broadly positive of Republic, with the game winning several accolades from publishers, including GameSpy awarding the game the "Best of Show" at E3 2001 for its "fresh new concept and great graphics engine", and IGN awarding it with the most "Innovative Design" of E3 2002.
However, by 2003, delays in the release of the game and the ambitious tone of the marketing had soured the enthusiastic tone of the gaming press. Interviews with Demis Hassabis at this time began to highlight shared concerns that the game may be too detailed or cerebral to attract an audience, that delays to the game indicated scope creep with the project, and that the high expectations for the game may be unrealistic and not met upon release.
Soundtrack
The music for Republic was composed by James Hannigan, and used an innovative adaptive music system. This process involved programming software to re-order and layer recordings from an orchestra into a seamless background music track. The music was designed to play certain elements in accord with events that occurred in the game, such as the transitions from day and night, the occurrence of in-game events, and the success or failure of player actions. James Hannigan reflected that "a lot of music tends in games tends to be disconnected from what is going on...the aim of the game is rise to power and I wanted the music to play a narrative role in that." Hannigan was nominated for a BAFTA Games award for Original Music in 2004 for his work on Republic.
Reception
Reviews
Critical reception of Republic was mixed, with review aggregator Metacritic indicating the game received "mixed or average" reviews, with an average score of 62 out of 100 based on 21 reviews. Elixir Studios abandoned additional features planned for Republic following poor reception of the game, including the testing of a multiplayer mode for potential inclusion.
Republic Dawn
Elixir Studios undertook initial development on a sequel to Republic, titled Republic Dawn: The Chronicles of the Seven. The game was announced as a partnership with Nicely Crafted Entertainment, who had created the online strategy game Time of Defiance.
Republic Dawn was envisaged as a first-person massively multiplayer online game featured in space in which players must build a republic. The game would feature player versus player mechanics allowing for combat and competitive business, allowing players to create political movements and influence the running of the republic and its actions. The game's story was also developed independent of Republic, with both studios collaborating as a result of uniting "separate long term visions", with both companies reportedly contributing to the game's creative development towards developing a prototype. Whilst Elixir Studios CEO Mark Hewitt initially represented that the studio's closure would "have no bearing on Republic Dawn" and technical advice and ongoing support would continue to be provided to Nicely Crafted Entertainment,