Tropico

Developer: PopTop
Publisher: GodGames

 

System Requirements Pentium 200 Mhz, 32 MB RAM

Recommended Pentium II 350MHz, 64+ MB RAM, 17 inch monitor

Ratings
Code Issues Graphics: 9.0 - Nicely detailed, colorful, and lush. She's a real looker. Audio: 10 - While the sound effects are good, the music is perfect. I could not have asked for a more fitting soundtrack. Interface: 9.0 - Easy to use and nicely organized.	Pla Issues Solo Play: 9.5 - The game is incredibly detailed, allowing for a number of approaches to gameplay. Everyone will find a style of play they most enjoy. Multiplay: N/A Replayability: 9.0 - While there are a few scenarios, the real meat of the game is randomly generating an island. Thanks to a variety of variables, every game will play out differently. Learning Curve: 8.0 - This is one game for which you'll want to read the manual. While the interface is excellent, you'll likely miss out on some crucial things if you don't spend some time with it.
Other/Notes Documentation: 7.0 - Very detailed, along with some nice historical information. But why so many typos? Pros: Engaging gameplay, great music, and loads of variety. Cons: Can't rotate buildings, some other minor quibbles. Other notes: While there is bound to be people that don't like Tropico, they are crazy--ignore them. Overall: 9.2

You have to be a little jealous of Fidel Castro. Regardless of one's views on Communism or dictatorships, who doesn't want to sit back, smoke cigars and poke fun at the President of the United States-all with an army at your disposal? If that doesn't sound like fun to you, PopTop is going to change your mind faster than you can say "bay of pigs". Tropico, the newest game from the makers of the amazing Railroad Tycoon 2, has finally arrived. I had no doubts this game would be phenomenal, and luckily I was not disappointed. Tropico sets a new standard for strategy games-period. Few titles I can remember have been executed with such utter genius. Tropico is, in a word, a classic. If my gushing is not enough to make you run out and snatch a copy, then read on and see if you're not tempted to give it a try.

Let's face it, the city building genre is not exactly teeming with new additions. We've been lucky enough to have original titles like Pharaoh keep the genre alive, but like war games and flight sims, they generally take a back seat to more mainstream genres like real-time strategy or first person shooters. What Impression's City Building games did, however-imbue the Sim City idea with some much needed personality-Tropico brings to full fruition. In the game, you build a nation out of an empty tropical island. You have a full range of buildings to construct from tenements and churches to colleges and power plants. What makes Tropico so darn appealing is the way your island's population is depicted. Unlike the generally featureless denizens walking around your virtual communities in games like Sim City 3000 and Zeus, Tropico actually tracks every single citizen from birth to death. Each one has a name, career, family, and home. Make them happy and you'll be hearing their praises, but rule with an iron fist and they may be the next one knocking on your door-and they ain't coming for tea. Also, you can choose to play as actual historical dictators, or choose a portrait of one and name him/her yourself. Every time you play, you can choose from a variety of qualities, such as "capitalist genius", which increases the output of factories by 20%. You are limited to two, however, and these are balanced out by having to choose two flaws. For instance, if you're a compulsive gambler you'll lose a little money every year, or if you choose "flatulence", your diplomacy with the US and Russia is hurt because of, no joke, sensitive microphones. Increasing the variety, every time you play the game generates a new island. You can set traits such as vegetation, height, and water level to increase or decrease the difficulty, and also set the victory goals (happiness, wealth etc.) and any special challenges you want such as having increased rebellions. You can even set the length of the game--or just have it never end--and the difficulty of the game's economics. Simply put, the variety is astounding. With so many variables, every game plays differently and requires different strategies.

All citizens start off in shacks, unless you build some cozier dwellings like tenements (not that cozy), apartment buildings (getting there), or mansions (now we're talking). Besides shacks, however, every living space requires rent, which you as the dictator can set. In fact, you're free to adjust the levels of all rent, every job's wage, the cost of entertainment etc. All of this control helps you not only balance your budget, but also focus your Tropicans' efforts towards your bigger goals. For instance, if the people are lacking food, you could increase the salaries of farm workers so that they may work longer hours, or build more farms and increase the salaries of the constructors to speed up the process. Of course, while every citizen has basic needs like entertainment, food, religion etc., they won't have anything unless the cash is flowing in. There is a multitude of moneymaking ventures in Tropico that have to be used to offset the costs of wages and building upkeep. You can convert farms from growing corn to growing coffee or tobacco for export (disappointingly, no drugs can be grown), build factories to turn that tobacco into fine cigars, build mines for gold, or in true Caribbean style, create a flourishing tourism business, complete with tours of pyramids, beach houses, luxury hotels, and souvenir shops. Of course, to expand that far you'll need to build an airport, a power plant etc. Simply put, the peasants won't cut it in these jobs, so you'll need to expand your education system by building high schools and universities (of course, you can just import college and high school workers from foreign countries and keep your people ignorant, just how I like it) Of course, with higher education levels comes higher demands-better housing, finer restaurants, and most annoyingly, more liberty. All citizens, no matter what age or education level, needs some sense of liberty. This is where the biggest decisions as a dictator comes into play. You can choose to deny them liberty by building police forces, expanding your army, and even constructing guard posts in the forests to guard against a rebellion. Or you could build expensive radio or TV stations to let them broadcast their complaints. Your citizens will even call for free elections, which you can choose to deny them or hold, at the risk of being ousted if the people aren't happy with your rule. There is even the threat of a military coup if you don't keep your soldiers well paid and build them a cabaret for entertainment. In other words, your rule is fraught with danger that you must address, while at the same time expanding your island and even putting a few bucks in your Swiss bank account. Further pressure comes from the US and Russia, two nations that you can trade with, pay for benefits, or even get overrun by if they are none too pleased with your rule. Features like diplomacy are handled by what the game terms "edicts". Basically, there is a choice of about two dozen edicts that let you do everything from assassinate or jail people speaking out against you (evident by the burning flag above their heads), set up a trade delegation with a foreign country, hold a Mardi Gras to appease the people, or get money from construction put into the 'ol Swiss account. As evident in my somewhat lengthy description of the gameplay, there is an incredible amount of detail. There are so many things I'm leaving out, such as the fact that your population consists of factions like capitalists and communists, all with different demands, but I think you get the picture.

But while Tropico has a great amount of detail and realism in terms of cause and effect, the game has a huge funny bone. The people are caricatures and the game keeps things lighthearted. Even when you assassinate someone, there is no gore, and when you click on his or her body you hear quips like "So sorry, muchacho". The game succeeds, however, in juggling realism and humor. The feeling of complete control you get from being a dictator is just as strong as if this had been a more serious simulation. The moments where you just sit back and laugh and the moments where you are really absorbed by the game's detail are well balanced. Besides, you need a bit of humor after you just sent an entire family to jail, assassinated your political rival, and spent all your cash building an airport for ungrateful foreigners.

Luckily, the interface is excellent. While there is a summary book like in Railroad Tycoon II, where you can view a summary of your finances, the people's wages, standards of living, and their approval of your rule, most information is available in a bar at the bottom of the screen. Click on a Tropican and you can see his occupation, who is in his family, his happiness, food, and entertainment levels-all the information you need. Similarly, all the building options and edicts are available right in the same spot. From this bar you can also turn on a number of color overlays to view the liberty level of areas of your island, or how good the land is for mining or growing a certain crop. Another great feature is a small circular window next to the interface bar, with which you can "lock" the view on a certain citizen you may want to keep an eye on. There are also hot keys to access the important features, but make sure you read the manual carefully. In my first few games, if I wanted to raise the wages for all my farms, I was clicking on each and every farm individually to do this. Flipping through the manual I learned that you could just hold ctrl when you adjust the wages and it does it throughout the industry. Speaking of manuals, besides all of the pertinent gameplay information, the Tropico manual has short biographies of quite a few dictators that make for some interesting reading. There are, however, numerous typos, suggesting the manual did not get the once over it should have-but now I'm just splitting hairs. Let me get down to the real complaints.

The biggest oversight is not being able to rotate buildings. Some of them, such as the fishing docks, need to be faced towards the ocean, so you are able to rotate it. But the majority of buildings cannot be rotated. While this has no real impact on gameplay, it really interferes with the aesthetics. You can decorate your island with a variety of flowers, trees, and even a statue, so it is evident the designers knew people would want to beautify their island. Also, you can rotate your view of the island, so multiple views of all buildings were in fact made. So why can't we rotate them? Another issue is the way the game handles roads. For one, they take way too long to be constructed. In the time it will take your constructors to build a strip of road, you could have already put up a college and a power plant. Also, while the manual states that they decrease the travel time of your citizens, the effect doesn't seem to be very substantial. I would have liked to have a system of roads similar to that of the Settlers series, where the most used eventually become paved, allowing for even faster travel. Or where are the bikes and cars? Surely not everyone is content on walking everywhere for his or her entire lifetime. I know it is supposed to be a "rugged" island, but come on, let us at least join the twentieth century. Some other minor problems, like airports taking too long to be built, have already been addressed in a patch, and I'm sure we can look forward to a great deal of support from PopTop (or an expansion pack? Wink wink, nudge nudge).

In terms of graphics and audio, the game excels. The island, building and inhabitant graphics are as crisp and clear as Caribbean waters. There are multiple zoom levels, and these are used to great effect. Zoom out enough and beautiful clouds wisp over your island. Or zoom in all the way and be treated to an amazing level of detail. Since everything is to scale, you can watch as your Tropicans enter their homes or the local pub, or just wander around the island. It really makes you feel like you're a part of the Tropicans' lives. Further increasing the atmosphere is an incredible soundtrack of Latin music produced my LMS records (http://www.lmsrecords.com/LMSMusic.htm thanks for the link Steve) Some tracks are upbeat and make you want to jump up and do a salsa, while some are soothingly beautiful. I guarantee it is the best game soundtrack you'll hear all year.

Honestly, Tropico is now on my top ten list. It is immediately evident that a ton of innovation and dedication was poured into this title. I recommend it without reservation to anyone who is a fan of ingenuity and pure creativity.

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Reviewed by Anthony Micari