Review: No. 10 – Full Confidence – this new political satire game challenges you to outlast the lettuce as UK Prime Minister
Pandemic, you say? Have to stay indoors, you say? But what about wine Fridays? Surely self-isolation doesn’t apply to everybody? I’m the Prime Minister for goodness sake.
No 10: Full Confidence is a new political comedy on the various app stores of all places, that apes the behaviour of the UK’s political classes over the past decade or so. For those not in the know, Britain has had 78 different Prime Ministers since Christmas, with tenures lasting from about 20 minutes to a couple of years.
This new mobile game sets you the task of outlasting the lettuce.
I don’t really play mobile games, but I do come from a country where a man dressed as a bin got nearly 30% of the vote in Clacton last week – and I was sad the bin didn’t get more.
I’m also a fan of hard-hitting political satire like Yes (Prime) Minister, The Thick of It and Veep. No10FC doesn’t quite reach the genius heights of these classics, but there is a lot in here that will make you laugh.
If you are from shores afar, you may not know that the UK’s latest guy in the top job, Andy Burnham, who’s actually a good bloke I have crossed paths with several times in a previous life, has moved some of the Government north to Manchester. Even this is represented by a North road sign stuck on the door of 10 Downing Street in the game. It’s all very current, and that is obviously important when it comes to getting laughs at a politician’s expense (should I insert a politicians’ expenses joke in here – oh, do your own work, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel).
The premise, after you have paid your £2.99, for this is not a free mobile game, is simple. Stay in power as long as you can. The various factions – backbenchers, general public, your Cabinet and so on will all judge you on your decisions. Lose any one of these factions, and you are ousted, and the next poor sod moves in. A scoreboard keeps a tally of your most successful stints.
You are given a random name/sex to start with, but you can change these if you want to play using your own name or one of your mates. You could even use actual UK Prime Ministers – there are a lot to choose from these days.
You have 45 seconds to ruin the country – hello Liz
The game sets a series of dilemmas every few seconds, and you need to choose an answer from three. Nothing is overly obvious, a lot are funny and will remind you of actual political nonsense that’s gone on, especially if you are from the UK. Pressure is cranked up in that you only get 45 seconds to make your choice or everything is negatively affected.
From Covid to the NHS, Royal scandals to ministerial infighting, it’s all here and it’s great to just jump in if you have minutes to spare here and there.
There is also some DLC, one paid, one free, which gives me the hope we might get new scenarios as real politics progresses. The free one is called Queen of the Humber and has a female Mayor challenging the PM for power, which, of course, is what happened with King of the North Burnham recently.
The post Review: No. 10 – Full Confidence – this new political satire game challenges you to outlast the lettuce as UK Prime Minister appeared first on The Escapist.