Hidden Agenda is a clever game available for the political science buff who’d like to get a feel for what it would be like to be sitting in the catbird‘s seat in a post-revolutionary South American country. Chock full of graphics and sounds, HA is an intriguing Dungeons and Dragons type of game that lets you be the newly elected presidente following the downfall of a facist regime in a fictional country called Chimerica. Because of its ingenious Rengine, you don‘t really know what is going to happen next. To play a game, you must first select a cabinet from a rather diverse cast of players. If you expect to last a while, carefully study their dossiers before making any decisions. They can be consulted later when a crisis situation crops up, and although you
may choose to heed their advice, it may or may not help. The object of the game is to avoid being deposed or assassinated. You may read the newspapers to check out how
you‘re doing, consult with your advisors, have encounters over the phone with influential citizens and foreigners, read your logbook (handy if its been a while since you stopped by the national palace), or just sit there. You can be sure something will happen. If at any point during play you wish to stop and take a break, you can save a game in progress only to return to it later. One unusual aspect of the game that impressed me the most was how you could look over extensive progress indicators. By clicking on buttons, you can examine graphs to help you find
out if export crop production is increasing, if the national debt
is decreasing, how the infant mortality rate compares to the U.S.