Interrogation: You will be deceived
Interrogation: You will be deceived
Game
Game2020
For the People
Developer Brezg Studio
For the People is a mix of a political management sim and a visual novel, putting players in the shoes of an idealistic young state official tasked with shaping the future of a communist factory town. Will the party provide for the people, or are the people just cogs in its machine?.. From the Steam store page
177 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Nov 5, 2026 · last updated Nov 6, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
62
Fresh
94 positive · 58 negative
95% range 54–69%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 94 | 58 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 17 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 8 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mixed
103 of 169 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
61% recommend · 97 yes, 61 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 158 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mostly Positive (602 of 822 positive).
Players praise the game's unique setting and political themes, calling it a rare sympathetic story of reformism. [1][2][3] Many reviewers note the game is very short, with some finishing in under five hours. [4][5][6] Some players criticize the resource management as shallow and the UI as clunky. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [7]
EDIT: After a month passed since I finished this game, I saw it in my library. I can't remember a single plot point. Nothing sticked out. Take that as you will Is it a decent game? Of course. I really wish i could give a neutral review. Alas, I dont think it is worth the current price and there were couple of gameplay aspects that annoyed me: * The story itself is fine for the most part, although the forced romantic …
- [8]
Very poorly translated into English, lots of spelling errors or sentences that just don't make any sense or just cut off early, The story isn't bad but it's annoyingly difficult and unless you do everything near perfectly you'll find yourself having to restart mid game, It's attempt at resource management is awful it adds nothing to the game and is really just a nuisance, The developers would have been better off …
- [1]
The game deserves praise for making a rare attempt to create a sympathetic story of reformism, based one generation into a revolutionary socialist society. Rather than lazily using Communist Dictatorship tropes and implying villainy of the system and of the government, the game treats the revolution as both successful and necessary. This allows the developers to address the very real contradictions that would exist …
- [10]
The game is very well-written, it has humor and atmosphere in it. Characters are interesting and story is intriguing. To cut it short, it's like Papers, Please meets parts of This is the Police. Highly recommend to all fans of visual novels, and resource management games!
- [4]
Good game but why is it so short? it took me less than 4 hours to finish it...
Summarised from 34 of the 175 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
For the People sits at 62% positive across 152 opinionated reactions from 3 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Reactions
60 of 177 · most liked firstThe game deserves praise for making a rare attempt to create a sympathetic story of reformism, based one generation into a revolutionary socialist society. Rather than lazily using Communist Dictatorship tropes and implying villainy of the system and of the government, the game treats the revolution as both successful and necessary. This allows the developers to address the very real contradictions that would exist in the society they've created. A critique of meritocracy is a core theme of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The disaster is already happening. Grow a pair, don't let them bully you into caving. Stop being a coward. It's on them, stand up for THE PEOPLE. Don't vote for their piece of garbage. There's already a GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN. Mitch McConnell knew how to play the game haven't you.
neutral · AI labelView post →EDIT: After a month passed since I finished this game, I saw it in my library. I can't remember a single plot point. Nothing sticked out. Take that as you will Is it a decent game? Of course. I really wish i could give a neutral review. Alas, I dont think it is worth the current price and there were couple of gameplay aspects that annoyed me: * The story itself is fine for the most part, although the forced romantic interest didn't sit right by me and it did feel a bit short * The resource…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →---{Graphics}--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ Paint.exe ---{Gameplay}--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It‘s just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Starring at walls is better ☐ Just don‘t ---{Audio}--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ Earrape ---{Audience}--- ☐ Kids ☐ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Human ☐ Lizards ---{PC Requirements}--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☑ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boiiiiii ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →CONGRESS FOR THE PEOPLE, AND EXPOSE YOUR RIGGED "LITTLE GAME." MY "PERFECT MAPS" ARE MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN ANYTHING IN TRUMP TOWER (WHICH MANY SAY SMELLS WEIRD). @STEVENCHUENG47 — EXPLAIN THIS DISASTER!!! ENJOY YOUR FLIGHT HOME, DONALD — YOU’RE PUTIN’S PROBLEM NOW. I’M AMERICA’S SOLUTION. — GCN
neutral · AI labelView post →Extremely important news for the People of Game community, of which I am not a member. *GRAND THEFT AUTO VI IS LAUNCHING NOV 19, 2026 FOR $79.99
neutral · AI labelView post →IN A WORD: MAYBE IN A NUTSHELL: WHAT TO EXPECT: Stylised visual novel. Narration oriented Choose Your Own Adventure. Heavily scripted story. Bureaucratic simulation. Aspects of social management. Laced with political intrigue. Communist/Coldwar era aesthetic/ambience. Contains several endings. Designed for some replayability. Requires lots of reading. Single-player only. ACHIEVEMENTS: A GOOD MIX. STATUS: COMPLETED. WHO FOR/WHEN TO BUY: FOR FANS OF THE SUBJECT MATTER. A MINIMAL SALE AT LEAST.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Introduction For the People is a mix of a social and political novel with simple strategic elements. The game puts you right in the shoes of a young state official in a fictional country with a communist regime. Your task is to maintain and make the future better for your town and satisfy your superiours by all means necessary. And while For the People manages to deliver an authentic and immersive experience with its political setting, its story is rather uninteresting with forgettable…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →1st game of WBC is For the People from @gmtgames.bsky.social I am playing as the Union with Mike as the CSA.
neutral · AI labelView post →The game is very well-written, it has humor and atmosphere in it. Characters are interesting and story is intriguing. To cut it short, it's like Papers, Please meets parts of This is the Police. Highly recommend to all fans of visual novels, and resource management games!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love u guys I'm doing either comic or game art (or, rarely. Very embarrassing selfship art). Hoping to have something for The People after cooldown tomorrow 😭
neutral · AI labelView post →If you don't mind a lot of reading then you're in for a well written visual novel. The city management part of the game is pretty oversimplified though. Check out our video review here!---v https://youtu.be/MO6siIAutjQ
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Despite the poor reviews I wanted to support the developers on this type of game so I bought it on sale. The game starts off well. You have a seemingly large budget, you make some obviously good decisions, spending a little money. Soon the game removes ALL your budget money with obligatory 'decisions' and you have to ask Regional Committee for a handout. Not good. Soon it becomes apparent the game is not going to give you any more money no matter how good your previous decisions were. This…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game, especially if you are a fan of Paper, please or Beholder! I like the parts where you need to assign agents on the missions and respond to complaints. We need more games like this where your actions actually matter, at least for now it seems so.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very very short. Went through it 3 times in 5 hours. Achieved probably all major outcomes. Most of the the decisions don't make any sense and the branching of the main story is very limited. Good thing I got this one on summer sale and didn't pay the full price because it's not worth it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →vr mech game where you pick up fps protagonists and smush them for The People like what if iron giant but understands paradox of intolerance
neutral · AI labelView post →[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6142328/]Like this Review? Follow The Cpt Froggy Club Curator Page for plenty more! “My name is Francis River, I’m 26. I graduated with honours from the Corvinton Institute of Management and National Economy and, after that, joined the CUWP (Com-Union Working Party) - I've been an active member of its Altstadt Department during the last three years. The phone suddenly rang on the evening of September 11th. The Central Committee of the CUWP was…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Toooo short. I thought it would be at least twice longer
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Annoyingly short and not worth the price
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very poorly translated into English, lots of spelling errors or sentences that just don't make any sense or just cut off early, The story isn't bad but it's annoyingly difficult and unless you do everything near perfectly you'll find yourself having to restart mid game, It's attempt at resource management is awful it adds nothing to the game and is really just a nuisance, The developers would have been better off making this a proper choices matter visual novel rather then trying to add…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good game but why is it so short? it took me less than 4 hours to finish it...
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this is anything but a visual novel and is hardly a political sim. Its a supply chain simulator, like Sim City the trailer on the store page is nothing like the gameplay visually, in game all scenes are static pngs, not moving elements the UI is clunky too, everything is spaced too close together and in terms of tooltips there are no tooltips
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game isn't BAD, but it's *shockingly* short. I had initially started a playthrough last year, but then didn't get around to finishing it. On a whim, this morning I decided to boot it up again, restarting from the beginning. Even though I started completely over, I still finished the game on the same day, in maybe five hours... The gameplay isn't great, which is expected from a visual novel, but still, the UI could be made less clunky. It was annoying to have to manually allocate…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →For me this game falls short of its promise to offer an immersive political simulation. With lackluster visuals and hand holding, the game didn't engage me. Limited player agency and shallow characters make for a frustrating experience. Unless you enjoy bureaucratic headaches, it's best to steer clear of this one. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3257431890 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3167019552 Unlocked all achievements!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Rep. James Talarico said it best: “The only minority destroying America is the billionaires.” Hard to argue with that and even harder to ignore the truth. 💙✊ #BlueCrew #ProudBlue #TaxTheRich #DemocracyMatters #ForThePeople
neutral · AI labelView post →Agent stats are all hidden, decision outcomes are not visible and can be unintuitive/nonsensical, i.e. you can sign 10 orders and then get a score for the day with no idea which of those orders gave -10 to party happiness sometimes. This makes every decision and outcome seem effectively random. You could reload to choose option B and see how that changes your scores, but that would be really tedious and from what I saw the scoring didn't always make sense. Please add more transparency on…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →it's not a bad game, just simply depends on your play style. i didn't really feel like i had much choice in a lot of the dialogue etc, i was hoping for another suzerain and this just doesn't really live up to my expectations.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good game, there are better alternatives in its niche though. Suzerain mainly. I still recommend it since there is so few games of its kind and I wish it all the success. And I do not regret my purchase at all but its flawed - One thing I really disliked in this one is the 'playing detective' parts, where I had to guess culprits for a crime. Yeah totally not what I was reading this for. I am quite dumb and not into mystery so seems like I got most of these wrong. I didn't feel like that fit…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Stalin, please, forgive me for being such an incompetent manager... (If you don't want to read it, just go to the last paragraph that you will understand my point) I'm sorry. I got this game through a 2 in 1 bundle, was very interested in playing the other one, so this one cost me... 1 dollar? So yea, it was pretty cheap. And the premise looked rather interesting to be honest. Some kind of visual novel with management and strategy elements? Alright! Looks worth it. Anyway, after a couple…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game isn't too bad just some grammatical errors here and there along with the resource management being an extra hassle that doesn't really add much to the overall game play. I'd only buy the game if it's on sale for 50% or more because if you make mostly right choices then the amount of game play will only be around 6 or 7 hours which isn't worth full price in my opinion. I'd suggest a game like Suzerain instead if you want someone similar to this but better imo.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Normally i would love a game like this, i quite enjoyed suzerain. However this game just feels clunky mechanically, it does not explains it's mechanics well (if at all) half the time it is a guessing game. Personally it felt closer to a puzzel game of figuring out the games mechanics or what the people in the story where even trying to communicate, it feels as if the game was translated without explaining cultural touchstones or analogies and they where simply translated 1 to 1. I hope you may…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"For the people" is set in a fictional Soviet Union during Khrushchev's reforms. The game seems to take inspiration by a question: what if those reforms fully worked? You play as a local party leader who has to run a city. The gameplay consists in making decisions and paying attention to the plot, as you read reports, answer phone calls, chat with various characters and receive letters. Interesting dilemmas, inspiring characters and multiple endings are guaranteed. How will you react to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you discriminate against other nationalities you end up getting arrested and you aren't allowed to be sexist. Why even bother?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like it, but I don't recommend buying on full price. Maybe on a large discount. The game is very short and the gameplay mechanics are poorly explained, if at all. The budget seems terribly desinged to me. The agent's description is not helpfull... Most choices didn't seem to have an actual impact. However, it's a nice story and I liked it overall. It seems I got a (very?) good ending in the first try. Overall, I would say it's a nice game, but it could have been much better.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I found For the People was a good simulator/rp of how a centrally planned economy might work on a local level. This game follows a parody of the de-stalinization era of the Soviet Union with the main character being a young minister appointed to lead the new wave of reforms. The city you oversee known as Iron-1 is a diverse and corrupt metropolis reliant on a steel mill as its primary source of income. Without revealing much based on your actions you can either be the savior or downfall of your…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You launch the game thinking it will be a manager-theme like. And it's just text for hours and hours and hours This isn't a game, it's lore with interaction
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Like Suzerain but much much worse.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the most frustrating aspects of the game is selecting agents for missions. Choosing the right agents is unnecessarily difficult, to the point where I had to check Steam guides just to understand their stats. As for the story, I understand that it is meant to focus on bureaucracy and political decision making. While that theme has potential, the narrative feels weak and fails to make the political elements engaging or meaningful. Overall, I would not recommend purchasing this game at…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →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…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Finished the game in three hours. Smh. Only buy with a very high discount. Otherwise, exceptional production by the developers. But, I felt the entire game played out more like a demo than a fully written & interactive game. No significant depth to the game's storyline nor the avenue for any player-driven content. A straight forward basic story with some buttons to click and arbitrary policy decisions to sign albeit beautiful artistic work and robust coding.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The themes, the graphics and story are compelling, but the gameplay and mechanics are very opaque and needlessly complicated. The game can't decide if it wants to be a choice based story game, or a complicated strategy and resource management simulator. It can be extremely frustrating and while the story elements are quite compelling, the game slows right down when additional boring mechanics crop up. There is a lot of potential, but in its current form I would not recommend this game
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Finished the game one step from being fired. Proud af. Now I'm an unholy mix of Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game was kinda short in my opinion which kinda ruined it for me. Other than that it's a good game. The gameplay consists of reading letters, reports etc so keep that in mind before buying. There is a little bit of strategy with resource allocation for the whole city. There's an insane amount of lore about the country you're in which brings me back to how short the game is. Why make all that lore just for a short game. I hope they continue making games in the same universe. Good game, buy on…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unless its up for less than 4 euros, then do not buy. Unlike the trailer, you will form zero connections with your staff or the citizens. The resource management is a joke, it just has no impact on the game whatsoever, and that basically sums it up. Nothing you do or chose has any impact on the game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wanted to like this game, I've done 10 playthroughs now and unless you make a perfect decision on every turn you can not progress the game at all.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Firstly, it's not noir. Secondly, it's boring. Yes, the game about Brant was also dreary, but it was literature, of all things. And here, you have to read loads of letters from schizophrenic whiners non-stop, who love to write first about their family, then about their childhood, then about their work, and only IN BETWEEN THE LINES briefly mention that the neighbor is stealing gas at night. And yes, they finish the letter with "lively stories" from their youth. Just like reading a Leetcode…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've played for 4 hours and I played the game through to the end two times. I've read everything in the game. It has nice art and is well written but it just is too short and lacks branching and meaningful decisions. I'd only recommend it if the price is heavily reduced in a sale.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's rather short, and can best be summed up as a series of unconnected mini-games, none of which are better than mediocre. Certainly not worth the full price, and not quite worth the sale price.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Short, meaningless game play (I don't think there's anyway you can lose). Story barely makes any sense and isn't well translated to English. Random murder mystery in the middle of it that has no impact on anything else. It's a mess of a game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Thumbs up for capturing the atmosphere, corruption and life destroying maliciousness of a government driven by left-wing ideology.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game, I am enjoying playing it so far, there are some typos in the text, but does not affect the gameplay. Also, it works perfectly on Linux, which is one of the reasons that made me buy it :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am giving this a negative rating because the content is shallow. This game is said to be a political sim but the gameplay mostly consists of reading walls of text with only 1–2 lines contain useful information. Most choices require zero political thinking, they involve clearing streets, upgrading an orphanage, providing aid to the poor and injured... These are not political issues just basic common sense for daily life and I don't need to read to make decisions, and I'm through around 1/2 of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gameplay was so short I didn`t have the time to enjoy it. The choices kinda felt too basic, consequences were either too shallow or non-existent. Maybe I expected too much, I was really hoping this is another suzerain but it wasn`t sadly. Art design was great tho. I don`t remember the soundtrack tho, maybe because it was mid.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'll be honest reading all the reports and documentation gave me a headache, and then you throw names at me, and then you throw the barter system at me, on top of an agent system and then a murder mystery plot? I'm fine with political intrigue but sensory overload took over and gave me a hell of a headache, especially when your squinting and skim-reading documents.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I thought that this game will mock communism but it glorifes it. Despite story problems, gameplay is confusing and repetitive and so are the game mechanics such as that awful barter system. Do not buy this even at a discount!!!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm not really into visual novels but I loved the cold war aesthetic and the idea of a young eager eyed reformer suddenly being thrust into power and trying to find a way to balance his socialist idealism with the realities of the bureaucratic government he stands to take the reigns of. The strategy felt a bit shoved in but overall this game is a great but if you can snag it on a sale and makes an afternoon fly away.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I beat the game in 7 hours and enjoyed it. Never played anything quite like it, but it plays a bit like a political drama where you as the main character have a significant amount of leeway in how you handle (or fail to handle) events. It's quite easy to end up in a tight spot where you need to start resorting to shady deals and violence to stop the city from falling apart. Overall I would have enjoyed a longer game, and a bit more branching of a story. I dislike how the romance seems…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Story starts well, worldbuilding is OK ... And when you start to get an interesting gameplay ... BOOM GAME OVER YOU LOST. There's no foreshadowing, nothing you can do. The ending is just 2 frames, a small text, and credits. Extremely disapointed.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I liked the charm and detail of this hybrid political management/VN/choice driven game, but in a way there's too much and too little here that makes it very confusing for someone who is looking to get into these kinds of games. I would give it a try without expecting too much if you're interested, as the resource management, character and request interactions, along with its short playtime (a few hours), with a lot of reading, make it have some merit (just not exactly what I had in mind).…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Short, simple, enjoyable. What's not to like?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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