The first glance at Democracy 3 can cause an immediate "it's too complicated" reaction, but the well-designed interface enables a fairly quick understanding of how to manage the policies required to create your own personal political utopia. For those that are into this kind of thing, Democracy 3 is a great way to test pet political theories in a (mostly) consequence-free way.

Political simulations are not everybody's cup of tea, but this one goes down smoothly. It'll show you how hard it is to please citizens so they don't run you out of office. [Issue#236]

In terms of gameplay mechanics it’s a very simple game but it does much more for understanding democracy than any citizenship lesson. [13/2013, p.72]

Democracy 3 is a title with a very interesting level of complexity but many important aspects are left unsaid. Though it has evolved since its second installment it forgot to include some elements that would have made the game a really complete political simulator. Its excessive standardization relegates the game with a choice for casual entertaining and it will be difficult to explode this Positech Game's proposal for long. Once corrected its technical mistakes and when the mods start to rise, we may be able to take this game to a higher, different level.

It bites off a little more than it can chew. Starting out with the premise of being a full political simulator in the end it is little more than an turn-based interaction with a population. But on this level you’ll get the high complexity that you’ll miss in macro management.

Fascinating, fast, and friendly but far too forgiving. Wait for the patches and iron man/lady mods.

If you’re already a fan of the series, it’s impossible to recommend a bare-bones expansion like this at its current price point. If you’re not… well, I have a hard time imagining that you’d enjoy the third installment at all.