Tropico 3 – PC Review

Reviewed by Henry Oz on November 14, 2009

Tropico 3 - PC Review  | read this item

It’s the big day. Ensconced within the plush surroundings of my fortified campaign bunker, situated deep in the bowels of my heavily guarded luxury palace, I’m starting to feel the pressure. Above me my citizens are deciding the fate of their humble little nation. The speeches have been given, parades have been marched and the streets are littered with promises and lies. I’m sweating. Finally, the radio blares for our attention; the results are in! A landslide victory to me, the glorious El Presidente, promising another long term! Of course, I wasn’t worried for a second – I knew the result weeks ago. It’s amazing what a little muscle and a lot of money can buy. Life is good when you’re in charge.

It’s thanks to Tropico 3, the latest instalment of the sleeper hit banana republic management-sim series that I’m able to unleash my inner dictator. Set in an unnamed (but heavily clichéd) tropical region during the early Cold War era, your mission brief is simple – survive. Beyond this, there are secondary objectives to accomplish such as increasing citizen satisfaction, earning money through exports and siphoning off enough cash to your private slush fund. Beyond the standard sandbox mode there are also fifteen challenge missions that make up the campaign. Here your focus is centred on a specific task relating to the history of your nation and how it fits in with the power struggle between the USA and former Soviet Union.

Having previously attempted (and failed) to build up my personal empire in the Civilization series, Tropico 3 was a refreshingly balanced and straightforward game to play. The limited space offered on each randomly generated island allows you to focus on the important aspects of your own city without having to worry over land disputes or expanding your territory. You still have to keep your neighbours abroad happy but this is done more through presidential edicts and speeches than minding where you step. Players are also able to choose how deep into the inner workings of their nation they want to go; you can start off simply with a broad overview of the key businesses and the overall happiness of the populous and, when you feel ready, delve further into the lives of individual citizens, affecting their livelihood, living conditions and even deciding whether troublemakers live or die. You can even take control of your custom avatar and pay official visits to any of your buildings, rally your troops in combat or just pound the pavement to let your adoring public know you care.

It’s definitely worth getting down to street level to have a good look at your island. One thing I really missed when playing Civilization IV was the lack of any real detail on the ground. Tropico 3 goes to amazing efforts to provide you with an accurate realisation of every aspect of your people, the buildings and countless little aspects that bring the world to life. Each individual person can be interacted with and scrutinised, buildings all have fantastic details such as waving flags, patrons sat outside bars and garages with cars that drive around endlessly searching for somewhere to park. The constant lively Latin music combined with the chattering of people, the roar of industry and the persistent whine of your advisers produce a world which, whilst not entirely authentic, is certainly engaging and entertaining to experience. While this graphical and aural oomph can tax some systems, developers Haemimont have released an update allowing players with weaker machines to play in “vintage” mode which keeps the lush 3D visuals but with a fixed camera to take some of the load off the graphics card; a thankful addition as strategy sims also appeal to a different crowd from the hardcore action-based PC gamers.

Unfortunately, the user interface isn’t as easy to navigate as the world itself. While the log book contains plenty of information with regards to how well you are doing, it makes troubleshooting incredibly difficult. Notifications will appear to let you know when a citizen has decided to become a rebel but there is nothing to tell you how to quickly find them and do something about it. The same issue persists when you get in to debt. Other nations will support you up to a limit of $10,000 but it’s difficult to predict how much cash will come in with the next cargo ship and how much will be spent in wages and upkeep before then. Building and road placement is equally bewildering at times, with certain constructions requiring easy access and others benefiting from a more remote location. This makes trial and error a large factor in the first playthrough but at least the sense of reward you gain from succeeding is increased thanks to the knowledge that you did a good job and managed to effectively maintain the local economy. Hopefully you made a bit to put aside for your retirement as well.

Tropico 3 definitely shines out as a polished, well designed example of management simulation. While the campaign itself is a little short, the real appeal is in establishing your own personal benchmarks, beating other players’ scores online and earning in-game accolades through achievements. With many ways to increase your score, you’ll soon find yourself working hard to become the best dictator possible, squeezing every last penny from the workers and optimising your output. The huge range of moral decisions that you can make also increase replay value as it’s always fun to tinker with your image and see how the public reacts. From allowing same-sex marriage to testing nuclear weapons, whatever you do, there is always at least one faction who will disagree with your stance and winning them over is possibly the greatest reward short of surviving your term of office and buying your next election. Early attempts will see you struggling to keep track of your finances but, once the economy settles down, you can push your nation to the limit and exercise your powerful will to see what your people are truly capable of. Just be careful not to push too hard or you’ll have a rebellion on your hands.

Tags: Cold War, Haemimont, Kalypso Media, Management, pc, PC Review, Simulation, Strategy, Tropico, Tropico 3