Imagine you’re supreme overlord of the world. What you say, goes. Every decision you make, however, has consequences. These consequences can come back to bite you, and some bite pretty hard. Your people can turn against you, banishing you from their lands. They can kidnap and kill your workers, throw rebellious protests right outside of your office and make the world a very hostile place for you to work. All you tried to do was make life better for everyone...
Fate of the World (FotW) puts you in the position of head of the GEO (Global Environmental Organization), a company with goals of world stability and safety from the elements. One of the main goals is to prevent global warming while still meeting the world’s energy needs. It goes deeper into individual regions, involving welfare and technology as well.
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This is a game with a very high learning curve. The game loosely (very loosely) guides you through the first scenario, but it can still take multiple attempts to beat it. It’s overwhelming amount of charts and graphs, news reports and numbers all add up to a confusing mess...however, once everything is understood, and the player realizes what graphs are more important at given times, and how to respond to various news reports, the game turns from a daunting mess of technicalities, into an entertaining and mildly educational game. 
At first glance it seems like it should be classified as a simulation game, but after an hour or two, it feels like a puzzle game more than anything. Managing the world takes the form of Cards, each card representing various changes that you can make as head of the GEO. Cards range from such tasks as beginning a job sharing initiative, or helping save the rainforest. Each card costs money and a GEO agent to play. The Agents are your little helpers that you place within each region, and for each agent, you may play a card in that region every turn...provided you have the cash. Where the game gets interesting, is when a region has such dis-like for your policies, or lack there-of, that they capture your agent, thus leaving you in an even more difficult state.
For the game’s complexity under the hood, the interface is well designed, allowing for easy navigation to find any of the game’s many many charts or graphs. Seeing a well rendered planet earth circling in the background at all times is not only a good way to feel in control, but also is a helpful map for finding which regions are having what issues. As the Earth spins, day and night cycles show on the planet, and seeing the regions lit up during the night is quite pretty. All of this, of course, is merely cosmetic, as the game isn’t meant to be eye candy.
FotW feels more like an educational tool than a game, though. Somehow this feels like it should be put into classrooms of a 9th grade social studies or government class. Because of its dry, factual look and cartoon-like graphics for news reports and such, it reminds one of older educational games. Perhaps a teacher looking to pick up something more interesting for their students than another boring book or video, FotW would be a pretty good purchase for a classroom. Aside from that, there’s little appeal to be had, unless the player is really into environmental issues or politics.
