I think I’m just looking for some hope or catharsis lately. What’s a good game where I can see some success as a communist group, country, etc?
Would playing as the USSR for Hearts of Iron IV work? It sounds super satisfying to defeat the Nazis in a war, but the game also sounds extremely complicated - well, the one time I tried it (and found a 6 hour tutorial or something like that on YouTube, then gave up).
What do people think of that game? Are there other alternatives to scratch that itch?
There’s the recent game where you play as the Mensheviks or Bolsheviks post USSR Revolution in 1917, but I’m still figuring out the German SDP version of the game. My brain isn’t ready to learn all the nuance of a new version of that yet, I don’t think lol.
Stellaris if you want to do space communism. easy to become the Culture or United Federation of Planets or maybe something more militant
get Government Variety Pack mod for wide varieties of socialist governments (pretty sure made by a leftist because it’s not too brainwormed. a marxist-leninist state aka “socialist plenary” is an oligarchy but it mentions strong democratic control at local level. also has market socialist, classic worker’s republic, syndicalism, and siege socialist types. even simulates leftist infighting if your tendency is different then someone else’s, like you’ll still like each other but there will be a smaller friendly bonus because of “misguided comrades”.)
and of course the base game has "shared burdens’ civic aka fully realized socialism
stellaris 4.0 is kind of bonked at the moment tho so you either have to run beta patch or wait until late august when they fix it
This sounds like one of the most promising answers so far. Is it like Victoria 3, a game someone else said, in space?
the recent update has made it kind of Victoria 3 lite as far as economy goes. no dynamic markets but similiar building system (employ civilians (peasants) by building districts/buildings, specialize planets based on local resources, automate some processes as tech goes up)
but it’s more like a standard 4x, basically space Civilization, but with lots of customization (more customization built in then probably any paradox game). even without mods you can design your own empire how you like, and custom build every potential rival or ally and flag them to be in every game or random.
there’s also the bones of Master of Orion type space strategy games in there (ship design, rock paper scissors space combat)
oh and lots of post-human(post-alien) stuff. there are paths around it but you will eventually transcend biology either through biotech, cybernetics, synthetics, or psionics