For the People

For the People is a mix of Visual Novel, Adventure Game and City Sim set in a fictional USSR-analogue setting where you play as a young bureaucrat managing one city's affairs. It does this with mixed success, although it still manages to be a fun game which I can easily recommend, especially on a sale.
Setting, Lore & Story:
- While the name of your superior "Joseph Steel" might make you think of a certain other man from the 30s, the game is actually set in the 1980s, with him being more of a stand-in for Brezhnev & Gorbachev, being a conservative who reforms the country later on with a campaign for younger bureaucrats, the protagonist Francis River being one of them.
- One big criticism I would have of the game's setting is that most of the information is locked away in a library and map that you have to read yourself instead of being more naturally integrated into the story. This might seem somewhat understandable given River's local position as a city manager, but it's a bit tedious to read and makes the actual story feel more thin, as the relationship between the party, unions and bureaucracy is still left ambiguous within the material compared to the less necessary to know geopolitics.
- The story mostly deals with you investigating corruption over a two week period while dealing with city crimes like a murder mystery. The time period feels a bit too short for everything you do, I definitely thought I would be playing for longer into the winter with more problems cropping up. It's still good though, even if I would have liked to see a bit more.
Art & Music:
- I don't dislike the black and white art, some of it is nice (especially Helen), but some more colour & detail would have been nice, as it makes the parts that do have that stand out too much. I also don't know if the colourless gray aesthetic is really necessary to have in a game about a city bureaucrat, it's not like I actually want to feel more bored reading reports in a room. It also confuses the setting a bit to the player, the art and the name of Josef Steel was telling me I was in the 30s-50s, while the actual story was telling me I was in the 60s-80s.
- The music & sound, while not very noticeable, is acceptable to good and adds to a mostly tense atmosphere, while giving closure to the endings.
Characters, Gameplay & Choices:
- The game elements consist of a visual novel part, detective storylines, an economy manager, a city view, and citizen/department reports, the latter four of which influence each other through the budget, your relationship with the city districts and your relationship with the party.
- As other people have noted, the result of decisions can sometimes feel a bit opaque. I got removed in my first run for "mismanaging my budget" due to pissing off certain districts too much, but I thought the issue was me spending too much overall and not too little in specifics before I replayed to find out that as a rule of thumb spending a little early is better than spending more or nothing later on. You can just ask the party for more budget a second time if you keep your relationship high enough, it's not actually a cause for removal unless you get under 20%.
- I liked the visual novel elements like the relationship with Helen and wish it had been more fleshed out with all the characters, it mostly consisted of binary yes or no options at decisions with only one dialogue option in-between.
- The detective storylines were great, especially the Paul Traube ones (which I wish had a different ending available).
- The economy manager system is ok, although it might have needed a better tutorial judging from people's reviews.
- I really liked the city view part, as sending agents out on missions would require careful decisions, although the results were sometimes poorly explained and felt like dice rolls.
- The report part is so-so, there's some great and fun stuff there, while other is more tedious and irrelevant to read, especially after the first playthrough.
Replayability:
- The game is very linear and there's only a few alternative lines in the visual novel part and detective parts, most of the replayablity comes from the other gameplay elements like agent and report outcomes.
-The 5 different endings are nice, but you realistically won't see half of them unless you achievement hunt, as they require you to actively sabotage yourself.
- If you want to replay it to get all the achievements like I did, I recommend putting down the game for a while and returning later so you're not just skipping through dialogue.
In conclusion, get this game if you're looking for a paper pusher sim with a communist setting like "Papers Please", with the main difference between the two being that "instead of being a cog in a machine, you ARE the machine", as one player put it. If you're looking more for a visual novel or choose your own adventure game with lots of choices, check out another review or get it on sale.

Steam User 5

Reviewed last year

For the People is a mix of Visual Novel, Adventure Game and City Sim set in a fictional USSR-analogue setting where you play as a young bureaucrat managing one city's affairs. It does this with mixed success, although it still manages to be a fun game which I can easily recommend, especially on a sale.
Setting, Lore & Story:
- While the name of your superior "Joseph Steel" might make you think of a certain other man from the 30s, the game is actually set in the 1980s, with him being more of a stand-in for Brezhnev & Gorbachev, being a conservative who reforms the country later on with a campaign for younger bureaucrats, the protagonist Francis River being one of them.
- One big criticism I would have of the game's setting is that most of the information is locked away in a library and map that you have to read yourself instead of being more naturally integrated into the story. This might seem somewhat understandable given River's local position as a city manager, but it's a bit tedious to read and makes the actual story feel more thin, as the relationship between the party, unions and bureaucracy is still left ambiguous within the material compared to the less necessary to know geopolitics.
- The story mostly deals with you investigating corruption over a two week period while dealing with city crimes like a murder mystery. The time period feels a bit too short for everything you do, I definitely thought I would be playing for longer into the winter with more problems cropping up. It's still good though, even if I would have liked to see a bit more.
Art & Music:
- I don't dislike the black and white art, some of it is nice (especially Helen), but some more colour & detail would have been nice, as it makes the parts that do have that stand out too much. I also don't know if the colourless gray aesthetic is really necessary to have in a game about a city bureaucrat, it's not like I actually want to feel more bored reading reports in a room. It also confuses the setting a bit to the player, the art and the name of Josef Steel was telling me I was in the 30s-50s, while the actual story was telling me I was in the 60s-80s.
- The music & sound, while not very noticeable, is acceptable to good and adds to a mostly tense atmosphere, while giving closure to the endings.
Characters, Gameplay & Choices:
- The game elements consist of a visual novel part, detective storylines, an economy manager, a city view, and citizen/department reports, the latter four of which influence each other through the budget, your relationship with the city districts and your relationship with the party.
- As other people have noted, the result of decisions can sometimes feel a bit opaque. I got removed in my first run for "mismanaging my budget" due to pissing off certain districts too much, but I thought the issue was me spending too much overall and not too little in specifics before I replayed to find out that as a rule of thumb spending a little early is better than spending more or nothing later on. You can just ask the party for more budget a second time if you keep your relationship high enough, it's not actually a cause for removal unless you get under 20%.
- I liked the visual novel elements like the relationship with Helen and wish it had been more fleshed out with all the characters, it mostly consisted of binary yes or no options at decisions with only one dialogue option in-between.
- The detective storylines were great, especially the Paul Traube ones (which I wish had a different ending available).
- The economy manager system is ok, although it might have needed a better tutorial judging from people's reviews.
- I really liked the city view part, as sending agents out on missions would require careful decisions, although the results were sometimes poorly explained and felt like dice rolls.
- The report part is so-so, there's some great and fun stuff there, while other is more tedious and irrelevant to read, especially after the first playthrough.
Replayability:
- The game is very linear and there's only a few alternative lines in the visual novel part and detective parts, most of the replayablity comes from the other gameplay elements like agent and report outcomes.
-The 5 different endings are nice, but you realistically won't see half of them unless you achievement hunt, as they require you to actively sabotage yourself.
- If you want to replay it to get all the achievements like I did, I recommend putting down the game for a while and returning later so you're not just skipping through dialogue.
In conclusion, get this game if you're looking for a paper pusher sim with a communist setting like "Papers Please", with the main difference between the two being that "instead of being a cog in a machine, you ARE the machine", as one player put it. If you're looking more for a visual novel or choose your own adventure game with lots of choices, check out another review or get it on sale.
Steam User 2

Reviewed last year

A great simulation game with visual novel elements.
I thought there would be more visual novel parts but the simulation part is more important and time consuming. You really need to think about resources allocation or will run out of money / materials real fast.
It is a fun game. Recommended.
Steam User 1

Reviewed last year

Very interesting and original story and game-play mechanics. Didn't get very good ending but ok... Lived with it...
Steam User 1

Reviewed last year

I originally reviewed this negative after failing to comprehend some elements of the game (because, true to some other negative reviews, instructions on some aspects are lacking).
After that initial review I gave it another go and do find it to be fairly interesting.
Steam User 1

Reviewed last year

Despite the game having a feeling as though not really polished to it's best it's style an excellent story and resource management game, balancing not just material resources but also the happiness of the areas you govern.
Steam User 1

Reviewed last year

Doesn't quite reach the lofty heights of sir brante for me, but an enjoyable game, especially if you like the subject matter. Get it whilst its on sale if you're unsure.
Steam User 1

Reviewed last year

For the People and By the People and Withe the People or Not :) Cute short game in which you sign and approve documents in a enclosed city specialized in iron production and wait for results :)

For the People

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