Tropico 3 Review

It's like Fidel Castro in his Santa phase

There’s been a long running debate going through the community about the role of game demos.  One side (let’s call them “consumers”) are all for them, given that they allow a chance to try a game before opening their wallet.  The other side (tentatively labelled “most publishers”) usually see game demos as a threat, as they’d rather people purchase games first before discovering that they’re rubbish.

Well thankfully Haemimont Games had the forethought to offer a demo for Tropico 3, because if they hadn’t I probably would have missed this gem of a game.

Typically I’m not much of a fan of sim games.  In fact the last sim game I played and really loved was the original SimCity, where I cheated so often that my cashed-up utopia was frequently crushed by Godzilla.  But after countless hours of play, and several catchy calypso songs almost burned into my brain, I can honestly say that Tropico 3 has become one of my favourite games of all time.

The concept is quite simple.  In Tropico 3, you take the role of El Presidente, ruler of your very own Cold War banana republic.  In order to run a successful island you have to balance the happiness of your citizens with your financial and political ambitions.  Sound easy? Yeah, that’s what I thought too.

Tropico 3 is one of those games that is easy to learn, yet difficult to master.  Tropicans can be a fickle bunch, and alongside needing adequate healthcare, housing and food, also tend to get a bit demanding when it comes to entertainment, religion and education.  The game’s tutorial gives you the basics on island operations, but in many ways it falls short of telling you what to expect when you begin a game in earnest.

Quantity Surveying: The Game

Which is why the real fun begins the moment the campaign mode begins.  Players can choose from a variety of different Tropican islands, who each have their own unique needs and goals for victory.  Some islands ask the player to increase the base level of freedom and democracy, while others might simply ask that you lead them to prosperity no matter the circumstances.  Altering the triggers for success forces the player to experiment with different styles of play, and ultimately find a way that works well for them.

In this regard, much of Tropico 3 relies on the player finding a workable structure to their own rule.  Although there are plenty of prefabricated El Presidentes, from Eva Peron through to “El Pollo Diablo”, the ability to sculpt your own dictator is always going to be the preferable option.  Not only does it let you decide the most important choice (the size of your moustache and smoking implement!) but it also lets you alter your avatar’s history and personal drives.  Every El Presidente has to have with two positive aspects to their personality, such as excellent charisma or athleticism, along with two negative ones like self-infatuation or tourettes syndrome (which badly effects diplomacy, but grants extra money from the entertainment value!).

Anyone who’s played a sim game will be familiar with the top-down view, which seamlessly skips between whole island panorama down to a citizen-specific level of detail.  From here you manage construction and survey your island.  Players who like to micromanage can view their citizen’s feelings on most aspects on the island, along with the effectiveness of buildings and housing in any area.  To gauge what they have to work with, players are given access to a wide variety of statistical overlays (like the one seen just above), that can quickly display the appropriate crop for any given soil, level of pollution, tourism rating, crime rate and all sorts of other data.  While there is a certain (acceptable) level of clunkiness involved, the Xbox controller actually does a very good job of handling what’s obviously designed to be a keyboard and mouse affair.  This is primarily achieved through radial menus, but several useful button shortcuts help too.

This is where my El Presidente spent all his time

You are also granted the ability to speed up or slow down time, even bringing the entire island to a grinding help if you feel the need.  This removes some of the difficulty with using the Xbox controller, as you can give yourself as much time as you like to set any action in motion.  It’s useful when you’re under rebel attack and want to find out what’s going on before it’s all over.  Knowing that you’re in control at all times also helps to make Tropico 3 a more accepting and relaxing experience for the player.

Visually the game is nothing groundbreaking, although several very snazzy weather effects won’t fail to impress.  Nothing looks prettier than an island nation under a nuclear sunset.  And because the graphics aren’t cutting edge, there is little to no performance slowdown during the game.

Audiowise the game’ plays host to a positively brainworming Carribean soundtrack, that you’ll still be humming at work the next day.  This is interrupted every now and again by local radio host Juanito, who offers humerous (if sometimes a little repetitive) observations on the island’s operations.  What I considered a nice touch is that Juanito will even bring you up-to-date news based off the year.  Real world events like the Cuban Missile Crisis and JFK’s assassination make their way onto your radio waves, which helps illustrate the fact that time is moving on (something that may occasionally pass you by, as nothing in Tropico ever changes).

This sunrise was paid for out of the All Tropican Sunshine Tax fund

That’s something else I should mention.  Tropico 3 sports a sharp, fantastically dark sense of humour, which works it’s way through not only the radio broadcasts but also the interim written reports.  Downtrodden workers, rebel assassins, Tropican plague, there’s no subject that won’t bring a big, slightly evil smile to your face.  There are plenty of opportunities to make your own fun too.  Like leveling the no-rent shacks of your citizens to make room for huge marble statues of yourself, or demolishing all of your garages to enforce walking as the nation’s only travel method.  Don’t worry, you’ll rig the election and everyone will be fine with it.

But all this aside, what truly makes this game for me is that it let’s you play at your own pace, and has enormous replay value.  Once you’ve completed the core island missions, you can immediately jump into the online challenges.  Online challenges continually refresh to offer the player new goals, and also host leaderboards to dictate the hardest working Dictator.

This is a game so addictive that I had continual concerns about screen burn of the on-screen elements.  I could turn off my TV after playing such a long stretch that there, in the bottom left corner, would be a nicely ingrained after-image of the Tropico map.  It’s fantastic stuff, so viva Tropico, viva Haemimont and viva Presidente!

The Verdict:

Pros: Highly addictive gameplay and a fantastic sense of humour.  Although not perfect, the developers have done a nice job of tailoring the game to the Xbox controller.  Relaxed atmosphere and impossible to get out of your head soundtrack.

Cons: An autosave function would have been nice, as the game would occasionally hang and leave me high and dry.

Overall: I fell in love with this game from it’s demo, and the full version delivers everything I was hoping for.  If you’re a fan of sim games, hell if you’re a fan of gaming at all, then you’ll find Tropico 3 highly entertaining.  Just remember to give your HDTV a rest every now and again if you pick it up on console like I did.  4.5 out of 5.

This review was written in loving memory of my favourite porcelain cat, cruelly stricken down by an earthquake in the prime of it’s life.