Rating: 
Summary: A fun romp in a new sim world
Review: Tongue is planted firmly in cheek in this game. It rather reminded me of a funny 80s movie called Moon Over Paradour. You are a banana-republic leader who was just elected. You can choose a pre-plan scenario or design your own with a leader who has both positives and negatives, supporters and detractors. You have an advisor who warns El Presidente of potential problems or uprisings.You quickly find out that you can please some of the people some of the time, but almost NEVER all of the people. And everyone is so demanding! The communists want free housing and equality in job pay. The religious want plenty of churches. The military wants a police state. And you...you would like to put a little of the building fun for a rainy day (in Switzerland)! And the nerve of these people--they want elections periodically! :-) Of course if you're running behind in the polls you can get a little help from friends to *ahem* assist in the counting. So while you're trying to attract tourism or banking and exporting goods, you've got people to provide housing (at a reasonable rent, of course) and feed your population. Also you need to educate your them so they can be employed in these industries and you don't have to import expensive help from overseas. And churches and clinics must also be built to keep your people healthy and fulfilled. The the game speed can be set from normal to fast. It's still a fairly slow paced game and basically a relaxing day on the beach. And the hours of play slip by. Eventually it does get old--this isn't like The Sims where you can look forward to adding new objects. I was somewhat surprised that there wasn't any calamities of nature, like hurricanes or earthquakes to spice up the game. But after some time away, I found myself going back to play it when I wanted something not so fast-paced. The music lends wonderful flavor, although it does make me hungry for some of our local Tex-Mex. No kidding!
Rating: 
Summary: addictive
Review: I love this game. I don't even play during the week or I'm off to bed late and then late for work the next day. I like all the different scenarios and I can't ever seem to get everything done that I want before the time limit on my reign runs out. This is ok, since you can keep playing, or you can start over. Hours of fun!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Tropico
Review: Well, I can describe this game as one of the tourists describes my island on the game. A nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here. This is a very entertaining and fun game for a while, but the novelty wears off too quickly. It's just not much fun after your first few games.
Rating:
Summary: Addicting
Review: Extreamly Addictive Game that made my play for hours and hours after I layed my eyes on it. Though, it becomes dull afterwords, but is a good addiction if you have no life.
Rating:
Summary: Great game with a few cons
Review: I love this game. Not the best i'e ever played of course, but definetly worth buying.
In Tropico you play the role of a dictator for a remote island called Tropico. It's very challenging, as you have several political factions to please all at the same time (communists, capitalists, militarists, enviromentalists, intellectuals, religious something faction) and the enviromentalists are in my opinion, hard to please, especially when you have a casino (Gawd those things eat up SO MUCH POWER) and NEED the 10 power plants.
I reccomend this game to fans of Age of Empires (hey, it's similar!) SimCity and it's sequels, or other games of this genre.
However, there are slow spots. Sometimes I'd set the speed to max and read until my buildings finished.
If you get this game, read the manual thoroughly, and...good luck :)
Rating:
Summary: best strategy game in some time, but still a bit lacking...
Review: Civilization ruined it for all of us. The breadth, width and complexity of the Civilization series has yet to be matched in a strategy game. So maybe I'll never give another strategy game five stars because Civ spoiled me. Tropico, though, comes close as you can get. The interface will look familiar to fans of Railroad Tycoon II, so much so that it's kinda creepy. Half the time I started hearing train whistles and banjo music. But the comparisons end there. Tropico puts you on an island as dictator to reek as much or as little havoc as possible. The basics are all here for you to provide: food, shelter, trade, military; but the micromanagement is almost nil. Your computerized peons do the work for you! Your job is to set wages, rent and build, build, build. One of the best things about Tropico is (like the only good part of Black and White) it doesn't make value judgements based on whether you're capitalist or communist, intellectual or religious, etc. It just passes judgement on whether you're a good one or not. The down side is the lack of military involvement, unless you decide to be a complete jerk to your constituents. Also, the maximum reign for score-keeping is 70 years (although you can continue on or start in sandbox mode and just build), and there are no scientific or industrial improvements during that time. In other words, the buildings you can build at the beginning are it. Bottomline, Tropico is a good game well worth the initial price, but it's no Civilization!
Rating:
Summary: Taken Over My Small Game Collection
Review: I just started playing this challenging game. Just when you think you've figured it out...the population boots you off the island. So many factors to take into consideration. Not the type of game a beginner could breeze threw easily.
It would be cool to have El Presidente survey the island and people. It could increase the morale of the populace, while adding an element of fear for the leaders safety. With armed gaurds from the palace and advisers scurrying around him/her at every turn makes it that much more realistic.
You can probably tell i'm still trying to master the random maps before I jump into a set scenario. I'm not even going to look at them untill I feel comfortable with the intricacies of this game. Enough said...just BUY THE GAME!
Rating:
Summary: Awsome!
Review: Ive been a simcity and roller coaster tycoon fan for years and I never liked any other game, until Tropico came out. I first saw it in my magizine and i was freaked about this game. I imediatly bought it and i lived up to my dreams. Swiss bank accounts,inqistion,propaganda,and the ability to control a hole island was a wonder i never thought possible. With a wonderful sound track and over 50 buildings this is a great game!
Rating:
Summary: Awsome!
Review: Ive been a simcity and roller coaster tycoon fan for years and I never liked any other game, until Tropico came out. I first saw it in my magizine and i was freaked about this game. I immediatly bought it and i lived up to my dreams. Swiss bank accounts,inqistion,propaganda,and the ability to control a hole island was a wonder i never thought possible. With a wonderful sound track and over 50 buildings this is a great game!
Rating:
Summary: Tropico Rules
Review: Tropico is one of the most enjoyable games I've played in a while. The premise - playing the dictator of a banana republic - is just plain fun. The game looks really good, and has a great soundtrack.
Tropico differentiates itself from other games in the genre in a couple of areas. One is obviously the setting. Another is that compared to other games (e.g. Pharaoh), it's easy to figure out what needs to be done to improve your country, which greatly reduces frustration. It does, however, require a great deal of advance planning, since buildings aren't built immediately, and even after they are built, you have to wait a while to have it attract employees, and even longer for the building to have an effect. The political game thus comes into play, since you have to be able to identify trends and identify problems early on.
The game loses a star for a couple of reasons. One is that the middle of the game can get pretty slow, since you basically just sit around waiting for buildings to be take effect. I frequently found myself letting the game run and leaving the room. Another drawback is that the scenarios included with the game aren't that compelling, so I found myself almost always playing random maps.
If you like games like SimCity, Caesar, and other city/empire building games, you'll like Tropico. If you're new to the genre, Tropico is a great place to start, since it's so much easier to learn than many of it's competitors.
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