My Review on An Old Cycle

tl;dr: it’s not very good, 5.6/10

Honestly, this mod feels like it’s 5 different mods in a trench coat (and it doesn’t execute that particularly well). When I went through my first play through of the mod, I thought it was a pretty neat mod. However, looking deeper into the mod itself shatters that viewpoint. I wish I had a more positive outlook on it like some other folks here, but I just can’t. I’ll list a few problems I have to cut it short:

1. The variables feel like they do nothing outside of passing the Green New Deal and like 2 unique ending slides

2. No matter if you have the worst presidency known to man or one that rivals the best of the best, you’ll still wipe out Josh Hawley, which leads me to my 3rd point:

3. There’s not really a point having the candidates listed as their parties if you can never get anyone besides Hawley, Ricci, and de la Cruz. I’ve seen a few counter arguments for this point elsewhere, but imo it feels like false advertising

4. Circling back to point #2, this mod gives off a ton of “nothing ever happens” vibes, in the sense that Trumpism almost always comes back to reverse whatever you did (unless you cheat for a 538). Sure, the Samsara ending does kind of address that, but your administrative success should be factored in to a further extent than is seen in the mod.

There’s more that I could list, but I’d like to talk about some of what makes this mod good:

1. The Variable tracker, along with most of the UI, is well designed

2. The music choices are solid, no notes

3. I can see the heart that the creators put into the mod in the Further Reading section, so kudos to them for their effort

So in conclusion, I’m sorry to say that this mod doesn’t feel like it achieves what it sets out to. As someone who isn’t familiar with writing long critiques like this one, please let me know if I’m misunderstanding something.

And to the creators, I’m sorry to bash your work like this, but I think at least some of my opinions on it are grounded.

Thank you and have a good day.