Cost Of Life is one of the best political web games released in 2006, right up there with The McGame and the comic genuis of Airport Security. Unlike most games with a political message, like September 12th, or 3rd World Farmer, CoL has a strategy that works buried in a heap of faulty (and revealingly so) tactical blunders. This is most telling in the balance of the game's stochastic elements, where health risks can be marginalized and hurricane disasters are actually quite rare, unlike 3rd World Farmer's frustratingly even spread that ensured you'd lose everything every few turns.
