Tropico

Rating:
Summary: Where's the feeling...
Review: Alright, this is a very fun game, and I loved making the the perfect paradise(or a military dictatorship, depends on what kind of mood I'm in). The only problem I found was that after awhile it just got boring. Even the different scebarios were mostly the same.

Rating:
Summary: Fun
Review: This game has so many options and choices and different ways to play it never gets old. It is ver creative and you can adjust the difficulty and even the goal of the game to suit your liking. An excellent simulation, the only problem is that the sequel from what I've heard has nothing to do with the original game

Rating:
Summary: Become El Presidente
Review: Tropico is an excellent simulation game! This game allows you to build a backward tropical island of 35 people into a thriving nation of 300+ people. The AI is the best that I've ever encountered. The detail is excellent! You can see what each of the island inhabitants is thinking at any time.

Rating:
Summary: Great Game
Review: This game is very good and very fun. You get to be the dictator of a small carribean island. You can play a regular game or a scenario. Just in a regular game, your goal is to build up the economy with and make money either with industries like cigar factories and canning factories, or raw materials like lumber mills, farms, mines, or fishing docks. You build all sorts of entertainment facilities from a sports complex to a pub. You can also build different kinds of residential buildings like apartments, or luxary homes. If you want to you can build up the tourist industry, make an airport, or a power plant. While your population relies on births inside the country, which occur very often, you also must rely on immigrants, which come in droves, if there's work.
But thats only half of it. You must also please the different political factions so that they don't rebel, plan a coup, or demand an election and vote you off. You can bribe the faction leaders of appease the factions by doing what they want, ex: Build a church for the religious faction, or improve housing for all for the communist faction. The music of the game is great and helps add to the feel of the game. If you have ever wanted to play a game where you are a dictator, this is your chance.

Rating:
Summary: Your country awaits, El Presidente...!
Review: Wow...!

I rarely have time to play games so when I do, I'm very picky about what games I choose and I tend to shy away from games that I know will draw me in. Well, Tropico is the temptation I couldn't resist. And let me tell you: this has got to be one of the coolest games I've ever played!

You play El Presidente of a Caribbean island -- you pick your good and bad character traits and even how you came to power. Ever wanted to lead a military coup? No problem.

As El Presidente you have complete control of your island. Well, almost. About the only thing you can't control directly are your citizens, who have minds of their own. But...you can influence them. And, if they become a threat, you can just have them imprisoned or executed. Don't like the Intellectuals challenging you? No problem, El Presidente; you can just have a book-burning party and virtually wipe out the Intellectual faction. Tired of elections? No problem, refuse to have them. Or, better yet, accept one and then rig the election. Or, just knock off your opponent or declare martial law. After all, El Presidente, you are in charge, yes?

The first time I played the game, I started with the tutorial and decided I'd be a capitalist, pro-American, peace-loving benevolent leader -- and I lasted about 37 years. My people loved me!

The next time I played, I tried the same approach but wasn't so popular. So, I refused to hold elections. My people hated me. I had a coup attempt by a faction of my military within the first 5-10 years: I only had two soldiers, so it was funny watching the traitor and the loyalist running around the streets shooting at each other. Luckily for me, the traitor was killed. Unfortunately, he was one of my few educated citizens and I really needed him.

I could go on forever about the things you can do in this game -- er, simulation -- but when I say you can do anything, I pretty much mean it. If you've ever thought you can run a country (or would like to try it), here's your chance. Ever want to be a ruthless dictator? Ah -- here's your chance. You'll be forced to deal with various factions (Capitalists, Communists, Intellectuals, Environmentalists, Religious, etc) and learn to appease them (or eliminate them) in order to remain in power. Educated workers are important, but aren't as easy to control either. After all, educated people are harder to fool -- and they won't be content to work menial jobs. Tourism is a cash cow, but tourists are picky and sometimes up the crime rate. Getting an idea of just how involved this game is?

One of the coolest features of the game is that you can zoom right down to individual citizens and watch them go about their lives -- much like the Sims. You can bring up everything there is to know about them -- family, allegiances, concerns, job, age, education, etc, etc. These are your constituents (if you allow them to vote). At the least, they are your source of income. Actually, they are also threats to your power, because if you make them mad they may just arm themselves, and attempt to overthrow your government (better increase your military and police presence, eh?).

So that's that. Stop reading this review and go buy the game already. The replayability is very high because you have a choice of pre-defined scenarios or endless random maps with different goals, character traits, etc. It's a definite great value for your money. The only downside is that once your reign comes to an end, you'll realize that several hours have passed by while you were glued to your computer and you won't be able to rely on servants to bring you your dinner.

Rating:
Summary: Wanna be Castro?
Review: This is a great simulation game and very well done. If you've ever wanted to be the leader of a banana republic here's your game. There really aren't any problems with the game and despite the cons above, there are ways to appease the various factions if you're willing to micromanage and I found the interface to be fairly easy to use. Some recent patches have corrected some problems/complaints: population is now unlimited and worker's productivity has increased. One of the big complaints I've seen from others is the fact that buildings are so slowly constructed. Well if you've ever been to a south of the border resort town you'll see that constuction is slow and the construction workers have a laid back attitude (I can only assume that productivity is at a min. when you aren't paid very much) so I think this is part of the realism of the game. If you're a fan of Simcity, Ceasar III and the like and/or love the lush graphics offered by Railroad Tycoon (same company, very similar graphics base) you enjoy this game as well. I even found myself laughing out loud at some of the antics that occur!

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but not great either
Review: You are el Presidente, dictator of a small island nation. You have your faults your strengths, and an island to govern. Better get started.

I like Tropico, it's a different approach on a city building game. You can set your own scenarios, with strengths and weaknesses, favors, time limit, money and other things that make it so you never have to play the same scenario twice. You can also play one of the pre-defined scenarios, but there are only a few, and most of them are rated hard, which doesn't make them all that appealing to the beginner.

I didn't mind the game, but after a while it got to be old, you didn't know what you needed to do to make your various factions happy, and I never figured out what relations with the US and Russia were meant to do. It really struck me as a way to play Fidel Castro in Cuba, but with different shaped islands. The novelty wore off after a couple weeks, and I went in search of a new game. If you tire of a game quickly, I don't' suggest this game.

Rating:
Summary: caution
Review: this game relies heavily on a red-green scale for the placement of industries, farms, and the like.. .. colorblind people (like me) will find that frustrating..

Rating:
Summary: At long last - a long overdue dictatorship simulation
Review: Tropico modestly bills itself as a "Caribbean simulation", but in reality, it is so, so much more. You play the role of the recently installed dictator of the obscure Caribbean island of Tropico in the year 1950. You can play the "hall of fame" dictators like Rafael Trujillo, Fidel Castro or Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, or create your own, choosing your past, rise to power, etc.

Once installed, it is up to you to consolidate your power and placate your enemies. The political factions on the island will be heading to the hills to join a rebellion if you are unresponsive to their desires. Perhaps you will choose the path of the enlightened despot, buidling schools, hospitals and housing for your people. Perhaps you will rule as a tyrant, and have your enemies thrown in jail, chased off the island, or simply shot down in the streets. In either case, your military will always be watching for the opportunity to sieze power in a coup d'etat. To make things worse, you must carefully consider the Cold War considerations. Cozy up to closely to the Russians, and you'll have the Marines landing on your shores. And let's not forget your most important consideration - skimming the public funds into your Swiss bank account!

The heart of Tropico is a building game, like Railroad Tycoon II or Sim City, however, for those with the patience, there's an even bigger game to be played keeping an eye on your enemies, and working to bribe or eliminate your enemies. There are plenty of scenarios, as well as a sandbox mode where you can simply play without fear of going broke.

There are flaws, some of which are adequately fixed in the "Paradise Island" expansion pack and various patches from the PopTop software website: some buildings can take over 30 (!) years to build, for example, and you will find yourself wishing you could just plonk buildings down SimCity style.

The graphics are of the 2D variety, but well done. And the music ... Tropico features authentic Caribbean merengues (in Spanish) by studio whiz Daniel Indart, and is easily the best videogame soundtrack I've *ever* heard. It complements the feel the developers are trying to immerse the player in. It's so good, in fact, I had to buy the CD.

As previously noted, however, there's a great deal of depth waiting in store after you scratch the surface. It's the most fun you can have with meaningless medals and epaulets on.

Rating:
Summary: Hard! But Fun!
Review: Tropico is a great game but one with difficulties and flaws. First of all, the soundtrack to the game is great and can really relax you. That could be one of the best parts about the game. Everything is really realistic and done well but sometimes, the game moves slowly without many events happening. Also, I found it nearly impossible to biuld a lot of things for my island. Things cost so much money and the lazy carpenters take a long time to finish buildings. And then the Armory part is real tough. You can't build an army because an armory only employs 8 soldiers and not many armies can dig with 8 soldiers. And plus, when you have the armies, they dont do anything unless you want to kill someone which I find pretty fun. I haven't played this game much but I sure hope a lot more trouble arises in my land and I can be a good Presidente and try to rid the trouble. But this game is very cool!