I’ve always loved building and management games from the moment I tried out the SNES version of SimCity. I’m not sure if they love me back when my entire population starts complaining about too much or too little police presence, but I always keep coming back to them. There’s something inherently artistic about turning a small cluster of houses into a sprawling urban empire. The Tropico 3 series has always appealed to me because it literally takes a vacation from building standard New York City or Chicago city skylines in favor of a banana republic scenario. Let’s see what the third vacation is like.
Disclaimer: This game was provided by Kalypso Media.
Developer: Haemimont Games
Publisher: Kalypso Media
Genre: Building simulator
Console(s): PC, Xbox 360
The verdict: This fun and engaging building simulator goes far beyond the usual “build to make money” formula. Its environment is creative, its political commentary is surprisingly astute, and the replay value will keep you coming back for more.
The Tropico games have a fairly creative history behind them. The first Tropico was one of the most significant games to delve into building and management in a banana republic, featuring a lot of social commentary but also a lot of humor. Tropico 2 actually explored a pirate island setting; it wasn’t bad, but it didn’t quite capture the charm of the original. Tropico 3 demonstrates what can be done when you go back to the basics, and it feels like a true successor to the first Tropico game. It’s also an excellent title all around; the game’s setting, commentary, and humor have been built on and expanded into a wonderful grab for any building game fan.
An island to call your very own
As Tropico 3 begins, you’ve just seized control of a Caribbean island and you now rule as El Presidente. What immediately stands out about Tropico 3 is the genuine sense of connection that exists between you and your land and people. There are customization options not present in most building games where you can design your own leader or pick an existing dictator. Your Presidente has positive and negative traits that will affect him throughout the course of the game regarding political and economic matters. You aren’t just a nameless mayor or amusement park owner; who you are and what your Presidente’s traits are will determine a lot of things in this game.
Consolidating your power
The dictator feel is also hit very nicely in the game proper. You start off in office as immigrants are dropped off, exports are picked up, and you have a relatively small seat of power. As always, you’ll need to balance people and jobs and ensure maximum efficiency in your city by creating houses and apartments, farms and factories, roads, and so forth. However, there’s a dynamic political element that isn’t present in most other building games. There are a number of factions you’ll have to consider: Religious zealots, nationalists, and communists are among various groups on your island that you’ll have to carefully balance and maintain so that one group doesn’t rise up against you. Then there are international issues: You’ll have to consider being caught between the United States and the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, importation and exportation issues, and immigration to name but a few.
The political aspect of Tropico 3 helps the game transcend the usual “make buildings, earn money, make more buildings” formula found in a lot of building games. The game feels much more interactive and you have much more control over society than you do as a SimCity mayor. You’ll have a lot of political, economic, and social issues to juggle, and they will frequently tie back to what kind of personality your dictator has or what sort of policies you decide to enact. At the same time, you have as much direct control over your island as you would expect being a dictator: You can control the press, raise or lower wages and rent, give speeches to rally your people and raise morale. You’ll have to consider what industries can be utilized to maximize profit and you can issue edicts that have various ramifications, like a same-sex marriage edict.
The complexity of dictatorship
In a way, this political element also becomes a problem if you haven’t played the first Tropico. The tutorial is brief and very unhelpful towards helping players understand the subtleties of the game, instead focusing on basic things like in-game controls. You might be bewildered when the nationalists rise up in revolt without realizing what you did wrong, or not realize a particular trait of yours is negatively influencing another group. You’ll literally have on the job training as El Presidente, and it can get frustrating at times. Despite this, like many building games there’s a sense of satisfaction when you appease people while simultaneously making tourism into a lucrative industry that generates a tidy profit for your island. All you need to do is not be too distressed when your first attempt at dictatorship doesn’t go smoothly.
Tropico 3 also has a litany of gameplay types to offer. The single player mode features fifteen missions with creative goals ranging from simply hitting a population goal to trying to manage your island while putting down constant riots. These are a lot of fun and offer you a lot of diversity for a single player building game. There are sandbox islands you can have fun in, and you can customize the difficulty level of these by adjusting economic and political settings and events. There’s also a fairly in-depth editor and you can even play challenge maps via the Internet. In a nutshell there’s a lot to do in Tropico 3, and the ever-persistent political element of gameplay only enhances the replay value.
The game runs fine but building as your island thrives can turn into a hassle. The camera gets a little wonky and you’ll need to spend time wrestling it into position so that you don’t mess up your infrastructure because of the overlap problem. Technically the game runs fine otherwise: The frame rate is smooth and on roughly the recommended system requirements there was no slowdown. Graphics beautifully capture the banana republic atmosphere; sunny environments and vibrant colors are all put to work nicely here.
Conclusion
Ultimately the complaints are just blemishes in a very solid, entertaining experience. There’s a lot to do in Tropico 3 whether it’s fiddling around in a sandbox or trying to reach a population goal in one of the main missions. Tropico 3 updates, refines, and hones the formula set forth by its predecessors to be a very rewarding experience. Rallying your people with speeches and pacifying political factions has never been this much fun.
Leave a Reply