China: Mao's legacy similar games & best alternatives

China: Mao's legacy

Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac • 2019

Should you play it?

Year 1976, the stormy Cultural revolution has died down, hard times of hongweibing and public critics are coming to an end. Old and sick Mao Zedong will soon leave China to his comrades from CPC. The Cold War is coming into a new phase...

What works

  • Deep and historically rich political simulation
  • High replayability with multiple paths
  • Developer support and frequent updates
  • Complex party and economic management
  • Fair price for content depth

Things to keep in mind

  • Steep learning curve and opaque mechanics
  • Poor ui and lack of tutorial guidance
  • Language and translation issues
  • Limited map and interaction with some countries
  • Lack of multiplayer or social features

What to play next

Top picks

Games that feels the closest overall

  • Democracy 3

  • Ostalgie: The Berlin Wall

  • Democracy 3 Africa

  • Egypt: Old Kingdom

  • Fate of the World

  • Crisis in the Kremlin: The Cold War

More dominating

Games that feels like China: Mao's legacy but with more domination over others

  • Plutocracy

  • Capitalism 2

  • Spinnortality | cyberpunk management sim

  • Quarantineer

  • Supreme Ruler 1936

  • Hearts of Iron III

More violent

Games that feels like China: Mao's legacy but with more combat and destruction

  • Supreme Ruler Ultimate

  • Hearts of Iron 2 Complete

  • Never Second in Rome

  • Arsenal of Democracy: A Hearts of Iron Game

  • Darkest Hour: A Hearts of Iron Game

  • Shadow Empire

More competitive

Games that feels like China: Mao's legacy but with more competition against others

  • The Political Process

  • Precipice

  • Evil Democracy: 1932

  • Computer Tycoon

  • Gary Grigsby's War in the East 2

  • King's Orders

Choose your own criteria ->

Similarity map

How to use the graph

Similarity map

Each dot is a game placed from its motivation profile relative to this page’s game. Direction shows which motivation differs most; distance along that axis shows how large the gap is.

  • Purple star: this page’s game at the centre — everything is relative to it.
  • Direction: each axis is a main motivational difference vs this game (e.g. more / less competitive).
  • Distance on an axis: how large that difference is (ring scales show +/− points).
  • Coloured chips: click to highlight games that mainly differ on that motivation; click again to reset.
  • Dotted line: link between this page’s game and the one selected for comparison.
  • Hover a dot to preview that game in the panel on the right; click to keep that comparison.
  • Scroll or double-click the chart to zoom.

How to read the map This is a polar difference map: direction = which motivation differs, and distance = how much (same units as the sidebar deltas).

China: Mao's legacy: Less representative of its motivational profile, with noticeable differences. Motivations that often define this kind of title include Violence, Fantasy, Story, Thrill. Here, the score leans higher than usual among comparable games on Leadership, Survival, Story.

Last update: 03/08/2026