The game is a Nostalgames (formerly Kremlingames) classic. It’s a bit more complex than “Ostalgie: The Berlin Wall”, but far easier to manage than “Crisis in the Kremlin”.

All their games essentially put you in charge of a late 70s to mid 80s socialist country and from there on out, you manage it yourself and kinda steer the course.

You make decisions based off of popups where they are kinda multiple choice and a few (/a lot in “Crisis in the Kremlin”) menus for stuff like the economy, diplomacy (a world or regional map where you click on countries to make decisions like trade deals or (re)establishing diplomatic relations, tough both are also done through popups from time to time), seeing statuses and a few political tabs where you can influence the dynamics within your CP and with other parties, as well as laws and such.

In the case of “China: Maos Legacy” there are a few paths you can tread:

• Radical Maoists, I.e. the gang of four. Essentially continuing the cultural revolution, but without excesses and learning from previous mistakes. This can lead to you changing to a "1937-USSR-style constitution, or just keeping the old one.
• Conservative Maoists: I think in-game their leader Hua Gofeng, you phase out the cultural revolution and essentially just try to follow the “Two Whatever’s”. Like staying with State Capitalism or switching back to a proper planned economy (can lead to a "1924-USSR-style constitution or 1976 style or just keeping the old one)
• Moderates: Chen Yun and the idea of the “Birdcage”, moderate liberalisation without excesses
• Reformers: Deng Xiaoping 'nuff said (though you can influence stuff like Soviet relations. like in none of those paths you are really forced to adhere to them strictly) (idk about this one in terms of constitution)
• Outright Liberals: idk who is the in-game leader. But they obviously favour full liberalization in all spheres of society

The difficulty of even getting to these paths can vary a lot.

I’d recommend you start without any DLCs though, as they just add content (read: complexity) and make the learning curve even steeper.
They have been really ironing it out with their latest release (a remake of the 2017 “Crisis in the Kremlin”) but in general their games have a reputation for a certain jankiness and rough edges here and there. But let me tell you, it is so worth it do actually go through with it! And they have been taking good care of their older games recently, so it should be an easier journey.
Their games are some my most played on Steam and collectively I have like 600+ hrs in them I think.
They also teach you a lot about historical contexts and various personalities of their respective regions and time or rather enable deeper Wikipedia rabbitholes (in my case).

It’s one of those games that I bought thinking “someday I’ll have the time to play it”, then after starting it up and having no idea what i’m doing AT ALL, it has remained pretty untouched

You’re talking about Red Star Vanguard (https://www.rsvg.org/).

I’ve been really considering putting in an application but they are pretty discord-heavy from what I’ve seen and a guild that requires you to have one is a no-go for me even if they are the most based guild in Tyria.