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caution

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: March 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

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..

Dictatorship 101

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: May 27, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Tropico is a game about politics. Though the game may appear to be about buildings and resource management, at its core is a very sophisticated AI that has its voter registration card and isn't afraid to use it.

From the very beginning, you are constantly faced with the age-old political challenge, being all things to all the people all the time. Six political factions, each with their own (often mutually exclusive) goals, are persistently pushing and prodding you for satisfaction, and sometimes they can push very hard. Managing the games dynamic political landscape is what this game is all about. Using all of the methods available to you, like buildings, decrees, bribery, religion, and rigged elections; you are eternally struggling to stay ahead of the next protest or uprising. The amazing detail that goes into each one of (unfortunately only) 500 citizens makes the game a true test of your management and social engineering skills. Because each citizen's opinion can influence the attitude and opinions of those around them, the game is constantly changing. That means that unlike most other strategy games where you hit a point at which the game becomes predicable and boring, in Tropico you always have a new challenge to keep the game interesting.

I highly recommend that you play the tutorial that the game offers, because the amount of information offered by the game can be overwhelming at first. Once you have an understanding of how the interface works, and how the information presented to you relates to what actions you have taken, you will be able to fully enjoy Tropico. The game menus are a little hard to work with, but after a little practice, and a patch (v1.2) that gives you some very useful hotkeys, the interface works amazingly well. My only major complaint about the game is the inability to rotate the buildings. Not being able to rotate the buildings can often lead to wasted space or awkwardly laid out villages. Another minor flaw is that the population of the game is limited to 500, although this does limit your ability to build a truly massive nation, it doesn't really detract from the game play.

If you are looking for a strategy game that is about more that killing, Tropico is for you. Although, if killing is your thing, there is always the assassination edict.

Addictive... fun... a few problems....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I have had a great deal of fun with Tropico in the last week, playing almost every night. The premise is interesting, and appeals strongly to the power-mad. I *like* being in charge! Others have said much about how the gameplay goes, so I will not address that in this review.

With near-infinite replayability (try different parameters on your island, or different characteristics for your avatar), this one will likely stay on my hard-disk for quite some time.

There are a few worms in the apple. The documentation that comes with the game is poorly written and poorly edited. The strategy guide from Prima isn't much better. Still, they suffice to get you started - I went through the tutorial and then struck out on my own, using the manuals as a reference. This worked pretty well, but I've still got some unanswered questions about gameplay.

I have a PIII-500 with 128 Meg of RAM and a 16-Meg video card. On this system, the graphics looked excellent, but were slow and jerky much of the time. Turning down most of the hi-end graphics allowed to game to speed up, but at a definite cost in quality. The graphics engine is the one used in RRTII, and it shows its age.

The music (a sort-of latinesque) fits with the play of the game, and doesn't distract. The voice-overs are fairly well done, but can be annoying if things aren't going well.

This is not a game for impatient people who want to do everything at once. It requires planning and forethought. It's a good game, with some interesting lessons in politics and economics.

At long last - a long overdue dictatorship simulation

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: March 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

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.

I'm now ready for my own island

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: December 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

A friend introduced me to Tropico about 5 months ago and I really haven't been able to stop playing or thinking about game strategy since. As sad as this may sound, this game has become such a part of my thinking that aspects of the game regularly find their way into my daily conversation. In fact after a visit to the Big Island on Hawaii, which although isn't a Carribean nation run by a dictator, has much of the same feel -- I found myself analyzing the tourist trade there to see if I was missing anything.

There are quite a few quirks in the game and as some people said a lot of clicking. You do really have to study the nuances of how the game works. It's not too hard to pinpoint people and have them killed or bribed like someone else said, all you need to do is to pause the game. I have noticed at times that Tropico decides to boot me out of the game and I believe this is a video card issue (nVidia TNT2) or maybe something to do with Window's '98. I've tried the game on the same machine and Window's XP and haven't had any problems.

Aside from some strange quirks I have to say Tropico has been one of a most enjoyable games I have ever played period. The music is extremely catchy and really sets the mood. The subject matter is excellent, especially after playing one of several different real life dictators in the game.

On a special note, the expansion pack to this game is supposedly coming out in January 2002 and I absolutely cannot wait.

Needless to say, I need to get out more.

I think I have sand in my hair

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: May 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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.

Personally, I loved it.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 24, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I'm glad I bought this game. The graphics are awesome. You can zoom in very far. Every Tropico citzen is different, making them seem more real. My dad is Colombian, so he found the game very amusing. Growing up in the States around his music, the soundtrack for this game was great. Well, even if you aren't familar with Spanish music, the soundtrack was VERY welldone. Balancing your dictatorship out takes strategy. I like that you can make tv stations, radio stations, newspapers, and control what they watch, read, and listen to. You have to balance between favoring the United States or Russia. You have to make sure your people have food and the industry is going well. Graphics and music and strategies will only entertain you so far, though, if you get bored easily. There's not much variety in building. It's not like Sim City or The Sims in that you can build masterpieces of cities or houses. The more cities you build, every thing just seems to be repeating itself. But if you buy the game, you have to remember that it isn't about building so much, it's more about dictatorship. "You rule." 5 stars for graphics, music, strategy. And maybe I should give it 4 stars for lack of building variety, but I didn't buy the game for that. It met my expectations. Personally, I loved it.

For anyone who ever wanted their own Carribbean island

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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.

Politically incorrect and addictive...I love it!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 10, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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 !

Not bad, but not great either

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

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.

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