Welcome, Comrade Sants. We have a lot to talk about, but so little time. The General Secretary is dead; we have crises brewing in the country and the near-abroad, and it is up to you to keep the People’s Republic of Sudlivia on the right path. But which one would that be?
Withering State is a narrative-driven game set in a fictional world with plenty of real-world parallels. This is the brainchild of a lawyer and political scholar who thankfully has too much time and knowledge on his hands, giving us an esoteric gaming adventure that is both a reflection of the world and of ourselves.
The version previewed focuses on Chapters II and III of Withering State, placing the emergent Alexander Sants in a caretaker role following the classic tale of the ever-powerful leader unexpectedly dying.
The Road to Sudlivia
I was born after the fall of the Soviet Union, but I was fortunate to grow up with grandparents who were deeply invested in the politics, history, and sociology of their defunct homeland.
The descriptions of life and events in the Soviet Union were always punctuated by eras of leadership. With the exception of Nikita Khrushchev (ousted in 1964) and Mikhail Gorbachev (resigned while dissolving the Soviet Union in 1991), changes always came after the death of a leader, with a new one emerging following internal machinations.
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Withering State puts you in the frontline of that as Sudlivian Premier Alexander Sants, unexpectedly thrust into the role of caretaker leader in a political apparatus too divided to appoint a new General Secretary immediately. There is no shortage of problems in need of immediate solutions, and a seemingly equal number of different ideological and practical directions, all of them being pushed by people with their own views and agendas.
The gameplay of Withering State is like a child of Suzerain injected with some Paradox grand strategy spice for the soul. Different meetings and events are initiated from maps, with well-crafted dialogue sections setting the stage for you to make your calls.
The pixel art visuals are a nice touch for a game set in the second half of the 20th century, and it made me feel nostalgic for the awkward yet charming MS-DOS games I used to lose myself in as a child, but what makes Withering State stand out the most is the depth of the world-building.
A Withering Encyclopaedia
Solo developer Ed V. put in a painstaking effort into building not just the country of Sudlivia, but the world and structures around it. Accessible either through the always-present encyclopaedia menu on the left or via tooltips in the game’s multiple interface modes, you can easily spend hours in Withering State without making a simple gameplay move, choosing to dive into the who’s and what’s of the world instead.
Withering State has a rundown on factions, institutions, events, people, a few documents and treaties, and even a cat. I see you, Behemoth. During meetings, you can request an overview of different aspects from the relevant ministers to help you catch up, so the database is technically not a mandatory read, but what good premier would Alexander Sants be if he did not sit down to immerse himself in the world he exists in?
This is the brainchild of a lawyer and political scholar who thankfully has too much time and knowledge on his hands
In classic political fashion, the game gives you some room to maneuver in this cloak-and-dagger environment. Meetings of both private and public nature have you declare your intentions and decisions to either affirm your leadership or test the waters, but these choices are not binding until decrees are issued, allowing you to play games with the different factions at the expense of losing trust (and maybe your head later down the line).
To help keep track of how you are perceived by both internal and foreign political peers, Withering State gives you a simple two-axis political compass. At a national level, you are gauged by your affinity to the reformist and hardliner factions of the Sudlivian political elites. Independent of that is your alignment between Western and Eastern blocs.
Although I feel the option is meant for cowards only, I like that Withering State has a friendly Chapter Skip button that lets you pick which branching path you want to load in the next one. That said, jumping straight to the outcome without partaking in the decision is missing the point of the whole game. After all, as First Secretary Anastas Istri wisely said, “life determines consciousness, not the other way around.”
Taking risks and standing for what you believe in is imperative in a nation that sits at the crossroads of a split world, but also has plenty of internal divisions to contend with. It feels like author Ed V.’s main inspiration for the geographical makeup of Sudlivia was Yugoslavia, with plenty of Soviet influence as well. Both Yugoslavia and the USSR had their rise and fall intrinsically linked to the relationship between their peoples and how central power handled (or often mishandled) that.
My Own Political Journey
The preview I got to experience only lasted two chapters, which was not enough to sway the political compass of my own Alexander Sants, but that lack of reflection on the graph was compensated by my own introspection.
I wanted to make Sudlivia stand on its two legs as a union, but without smothering its national identities in the process. I wanted good relationships with neighbors without making new enemies. I wanted an economy that served the immediate needs of the people but also was sustainable in the long run.
Withering State made sure I could try all of those things, but also made it clear that achieving this meant pulling a million different political levers and connections to try and effect that outcome, rather than just decreeing the problem solved. When you start seeing the result of your choices, even when you reach your goal, it makes you question whether the road there was worth it after all.
Ruling a country is never without sacrifice, and the People’s Republic of Sudlivia is no stranger to that. I can only hope that, by the time Withering State is out, the people will remember Alexander Sants as a leader who tried. Or at the very least, someone whose grave they won’t spit on. I can settle for that.
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