Tropico

Rating:
Summary: GREAT idea, good clean fun, "Okay" reporting...
Review: There is no denying that I've spent hours in front of my PC ignoring my loved ones over this game, but a few things annoy me. For instance some buildings just seem to lack electricity even though you have a sufficient amount of power plants. The advisor cries "Your people suffer from lack of medical treatment", "Your people starve, grow more food, quickly", and "It appears that some people find your rule unpleasant" Even though you: have plenty of clinics and hospitals, own plenty of farms, and have brought the happiness rating up from 50%. Is this game worth the money? Yes. Will you lose track of time with the fun details? Yes. Will you win the scenarios? Buy it and find out!

Rating:
Summary: Not a "bad" game, but not fun enough either.
Review: Okay I waited a long time for Tropico to come out and overall I've been a little dissapointed with it.

The game is fairly complex which is fine, but the game manual is lacking in lots of hard data required to base good game decisions on. Also has quite a few horrible copy editing errors in key passages so as to render it nonsensical.

Gaining information during gameplay can be tedious as the interface is a little bit of clickfest through many pages on information. It takes quite a few hours of play to work out where to find everything. It also lacks some obvious info like "underemployment" as well.

The other issue I found troublesome is the graphics. Yes it is "lush and beautiful 3-D" but frankly after 2 minutes of play I was missing the simple 2-D look of RollerCoaster Tycoon. The buildings in Tropico are "to scale" which means if you want to see a useful view of the buildings all the people disappear. Likewise if you want to see the people up close and personal you can't see much more than a wall of one building. I never found a relaxing viewpoint to play the game from. Damn hard to find a particular individual person to throw into jail, bribe or whatever too.

Much of the pre-game hype was that it was an amusing game, but nothing really tickled the old funny bone. Maybe I just needed a more powerful computer to see the the individual animations or something. Also the whole election process is very anti-climatic and I nearly stuffed the disk back into the box after I had my first election.

The good news is that the game seems to be very stable and I had no bug errors to deal with. Overall the game seems to have an interesting socio-economic model to play with, I just never warmed up to the game.

Rating:
Summary: dont buy this game
Review: Why? because apparently the makers of this game were in a rush to make it to the top sales chart to get their $$$ as soon as possible. If they worked on it a bit more, the game woulda rocked. Too bad money got to their heads. Here are my reasons why this game is terrible:

The workers/builders are too stupid

It takes 20 years for 50 workers to finish building an airport(these guys waste 15 of the 20 years digging grounds)

Time moves too fast, people move too slow

Playing on a big island is terrible. You gotta watch these slow... move around because their are no vehicles(takes one person 3 months to walk at a distance of 2 miles)

People are always unhappy

... always bug you

There are many more!!!!!!!!!!

Just don't buy this game, im serious... its not worth your money

Rating:
Summary: This game is Ok...
Review: Although I like games like this I found this game hard to follow at times. The graphics are amazing but the downside to this game is that it is way too much like Sim Isle. I thought in the game Sim Isle it was impossible to make some kind of profit, this is almost the case in this game too. I also don't recommend this game to people who have slower computers. This game will make your computer freeze all the time. I give this game three stars because its a hard game. I like having fun during a game and this game doesn't really offer fun... it offers a headache at times and people aren't looking for this in computer games.

Rating:
Summary: Politically incorrect and addictive...I love it!
Review: This game is so captivating that you can just lose all track of time. The stereotypical setting of this game is funny only in the fact that it is a stereotype and not reality, but let's face it, it's a game. If you ever played Postal, you know what I mean. The music is great, the game is funny. The creators left a lot of room for expansion packs, and it shows. There are very few choices for housing and military. The only fault I see in the game is one I read from another review and that is the fact that time moves quickly, but not much progress happens during that time. I guess that might be intended due to the stereotype idea that nothing ever happens quickly in Latin countries, but it does slow the progress of your gaming. Politically incorrect -yes Fun - YES Worth buying - Y E S !

Rating:
Summary: So far, so good, a few minor problems though
Review: I just received this game, and I've been playing it for a few hours now. It seems like a really fun game. The graphics are quite good, although things are rather slow moving. The attention to detail has its ups and downs. While it seems like the creators tried to make this as detailed as possible, they missed a few things. For one, somehow on Tropico, your priests can get married...I know it's minor, but it's not logical. Secondly, you're only allowed to build dirt roads, and some of the building is really limited (perhaps this is due to the tropical locale, but nonetheless...) While I've only been playing the game for a few hours, it seems pretty difficult...not a bad thing, but a little frustrating to start off. Other than those minor points the game is great, and I look forward to playing more of it. Hmmm...Study for finals or play Tropico?

Rating:
Summary: I think I have sand in my hair
Review: First thing people think, not another Sim City like game, but this time their thoughts are wrong. Yes, you do build a city, but if you mess up, you can be removed from office in many different ways. I was removed by my army this morning.... The political system is unlike another other I have seen in a computer game. The idea of rebels and the people have real personality. Almost a hybid of the Sims and Sim City. So, for everyone who enjoys a good game, this one is for you.

Rating:
Summary: Good idea, not a great product
Review: This city building idea certainly has significant visual qualities, there's just too many over sights that make this game difficult to get into. First of all, it move very slowly. I run a P3 with 550 mhz with all the graphics rendering and it is very choppy. Another major dissapointment is that you don't have control as to the direction to place most of your buildings. I personally like city building games to create a certain aesthetic feel.

This engine might have worked just fine for Railroad Tycoon II, but that game didn't involve human characters. Lack of improvement to there existing engine causes the game to move too slowly for satisfying play.

Time moves fast, but the people move slow. Maybe they wanted to capture the feel of real Carribean life, unfortunately it's tough to get things done. That may not be a negative for some people.

The graphics are fantastic, the music is great and the characters are interesting. I still like to play the game, but probably not for long. I just can't get over how slow it is!

Rating:
Summary: For anyone who ever wanted their own Carribbean island
Review: A solid builder with a really fun premise. This game is really a power trip. You literally own your own island and hold the lives of it's citizens in your hand. The micro-managing can get a bit tedious once your island is moderately built up. The game gives you a LOT of control over individual buildings (how much rent to charge, what kind of classes your schools will teach, what sort of news your newspaper will feature.) If you are really into these details you could get bogged down, but things generally run just fine on the default modes so it's up to you. The music is really entertaining. Rather than playing the same few bars of a song over and over again incessantly, the game fades in and out several complete tunes which, by the way, are very catchy.

The documentation could be better. There are a lot of typos (it says the purpose of the cigar factory is to make coffee) and It would be nice if they included a production tree. Therefore, it takes several test runs to figure out what works and what REALLY doesn't. Also, I wouldn't mind seeing more public transportation options. You can build dirt roads, but no cars, busses, trains, boats, etc. other than to get on and off the island. These are minor flaws, however. I still spent about 4 hours playing it the day I got it.

Overall, a very fun game.

Rating:
Summary: Great Game- A Must Buy....
Review: My copy of Tropico arrived at my door yesterday morning....so far I have missed one class and seriously considered calling in sick to work.... LOL.... well okay, I wasn't considering calling in to work- I just brought the game with me :) The game is easy to play, but with enough levels to be fun and challenging for all. If you like the Sims, RollerCoaster Tycoon, SimCoaster, Civilization II- you will enjoy Tropico. I have read some have complaints about the graphics, but I couldn't disagree more- the graphics are great, and the music is very entertaining. Go out and purchase a copy immediately- well, if you are student, purchase a copy after finals week is done :)