Is the President a Traitor?

I should start by revealing my bias; I'm a big fan of stories concerning spies, espionage, and webs of political scandal. This game feels a lot to me like All The President's Men, the Game and I love it.
Anyway, I think this is one of the best espionage simulations on Steam, mostly on the strength of its devotion to the theme. The writing is evocative; conversations with mysteriously-named sources are thrilling and nervous, especially in the beginning when you don't know who you can trust. The news feed pumps a steady diet of worryingly familiar headlines at you; and once you reach the point where you can start to make big moves against the corrupt members of the government, your computer display warns you in red letters that you are being watched. The game has a visual style to match, with brooding photographs for every actor and plenty of folders, torn papers, and typewriter fonts in the UI.
I think the critiques against the game written already (low replayability, simplicity, somewhat cluttered AI) are fairly made, but for me the game really accomplishes a lot, and with a low price tag. I think anybody who's interested in an intriguing game about this subject matter should give this a try.

I suppose this is the other half of a "neutral" review.
This is a modern espionage game based on real life events, involving the President of the United States. It evokes memories of games of old, such as Floor 13, or Sid Meiers Covert Operations.
While the game is very enjoyable at first, the mechanics soon become slightly transparent. The game is procedurally generated, but that has just mean each game is random, as opposed to dynamic. You have a set amount of money to use to investigate the President, but you largely do that by surveilling targets or tapping their calls.
The issue is that while it really evokes the setting, and the emotions of the modern era, it's not necessarily a great replayable game. That means for me it's only really recommended for people interested in the subject manner. I enjoyed the 10 hours or so I put into the game, but there isn't much left to do.
The President is in fact a Traitor, and so this game is perhaps better political and social commentary than an amazing game.
Still, the developer has tried something new, and brave. I am more than happy to fund further games with a bit more depth.

Author's note: In the event more playing time is logged after this review, all three endings were witnessed for the sake of providing an informed review. All except one achievement was earned in that time as well.
Overview
Without naming names, ol' Il Pallino is sure everyone wanted to see at least one American President removed from office in disgrace given how in the past eight years, there have been both a Democrat and a Republican who was President of the United States, and now the real time strategy game Is the President a Traitor? makes this dream possible. With the main character being incorruptible, exceptional, and patriotic, two insiders in the intelligence community agree (with one being reluctant) that the President must be investigated after evidence has been found that infers the President is under the influence of an enemy nation. After a briefing, the player decides if they wish to operate under the "act now" philosophy of the boss known as Smoking Man or the "careful approach" philosophy of Glasses Man, but regardless of the path taken, the player quickly learns through surveillance what was suspected all along. From there the player builds up files on not just the President and their cabinet, but also numerous non-politicians, and sixteen Members of Congress. The investigation uncovers people like spies and conspirators, and from there, the player must investigate, indict, and prosecute spies and conspirators. Once (at least) most of the guilty people are out of the way and evidence of treason has been discovered, the player is to either build more evidence in order to seek a federal indictment against the President, or "persuade" various people to be more patriotic and less corrupt who have the power to impeach or remove from office via the 25'th. Amendment of the US Constitution.
Graphics and Sound
The graphics aren't the best, are on the low end of aesthetically pleasing, but get the job done by creating the correct mood for the player by having a mostly dark appearance and a neon glow to everyone's dossier picture which reinforces the point that the player is working in the shadows in a corrupt world.
The sound is mostly limited, and while the background music does it's job at first in setting the same mood as the graphics, the loop gets old rather quickly. Players are advised to just mute the music and play the Queensrÿche song Revolution Calling.
Positives
Investigation, corruption, and lots of it. The best part, is that the President of the United States is the ultimate villain, which is fitting given how the position of POTUS generates a lot of antipathy for even popular Presidents.
Is the President a Traitor is purely randomized, so with every game, there's different characters (along with different genders for those characters) along with different double agents, and this combined with three possible methods of removing the President from office helps add to the replay value.
The save screens provide another interesting mood-setter, and how often does the player witness this feature in a save screen? Every time the player goes to save, load, or quit games, one of several quotes appear on the save screen concerning a philosophy about treason. (And one quote from George Washington about corruption.)
Negatives
Given the good fun and replay value, the normal price tag for Is the President a Traitor? doesn't represent value for money. While the gameplay is highly addictive the game must lose value after all of the endings are witnessed and all of the achievements are swept. Maybe if the game had better graphics, a better soundtrack, a couple of video scenes, and didn't spend almost all of it's time fixated on an office full of dossiers, then maybe Is the President a Traitor? would be a better value for the money.
Conclusion
It's just like Simon Cameron said: "An honest politician is one who when he is bought will stay bought." And naturally, nobody in Is the President a Traitor? is honest. Smoking Man said it best when he advises the player to trust no one, and that includes the player's superiors. This is an important clue!
The Honest word of Il Pallino... OR ELSE!
This review made possible through the generosity, consideration, and contribution of REXCurse (REXnetwork) and the developer/publisher.
Email contact@dnbmedia.co for requests & promotions.

I have played through the game and beaten it once. I've also lost once. The graphics are a bit primitive, looking like something that might have been done with stock photos and either photo shop or perhaps even MS Paint. The UI is not by any means intuitive, and this game does very little in the way of tutoring the player in how to play or other forms of hand holding.

All that out of the way, what a spectacular game! This title gave me the feeling I was the director of an investigation during a modern day counter-intelligence / DOJ operation that somehow also managed to convey the look and feel of some of my favorite 1970's era thrillers such as 'The Paralax View', 'The Conversation', and , of course 'All the President's Men'. While this game has a very identifiable political point of view (the regular media updates make that quite clear), anyone who may disagree with it and is willing to look past it while find an excellent little intelligence operation-sim hidden gem.

Highly recommended!

Is The President a Traitor? is one of the best games I've played recently. The art style is great, the music puts you on the edge sometimes and the game has a lot a flavour: interesting backstories, events, crimes. All in all it's a great and well crafted game. The only thing however I think that the game desperately needs as of now is keyboard hotkeys for different actions. Clicking does get kinda boring as the game progresses and in the end you're gonna be doing a lot of that.

Fun little resource management game with an interesting story. Good for 5 hours, a little expensive. If this goes on sale it's a definite buy.

I can't believe how much this game is slept on. The vibes are immaculate if you enjoy spy thrillers. I've found the gameplay loop to be quite cathartic in our current times.