is this a hard series of games? I have never played before but I am wanting to play 3. But I don't have any idea how hard the game is. I so suppose my question is twofold. First, how hard is the learning curve? I prefer things to start off easy then gradually get harder as I learn how to play better as opposed to learning by failing over and over again. Secondly, how hard is it to actually succeed once you know the mechanics. I read somewhere that someone described it as, "The island wants you to fail miserably."

It's a difficult question to answer because it's so subjective. Hard compared to what?

I've played 1, 2, and 4, and I would say 2 is harder than 1 is harder than 4.

2 is also quite different from 1 and 4 because it's about pirates. 4 is like a vastly updated version of 1 (but not necessarily better in all ways).

The difficulty comes mostly from the different campaign scenarios. It gets tricky when you have to achieve goal x within a time limit, or with limited resources. The scenarios guide you through the different game mechanics step-by-step. For example, you might start out with a scenario about food production, and that will be your focus. Later you'll be focusing on tourism or mining or law enforcement or whatever.

If you play sandbox mode I wouldn't say Tropico is all that hard. You encounter problems, of course, but once you understand the methods of solving those problems, you can usually figure out a way to deal with them.

Tropico is one of those games where losing can be fun. You can decide to play a crooked dictator who tries to steal as much of the nation's money as he can get away with before getting ousted from office.

Overall I would say the Tropico games have a moderate difficulty level. I don't know whether or not that helps you.

Personally I like the atmosphere and tone of 1 the best, I like 2 for its uniqueness, and I like the mechanics and ease-of-play of 4.

Ok, thanks for the information

Why, exactly, did you find 2 harder than 1 ?

Don't know if original Tropico is more difficult to play than Tropico 2, but at least Tropico 2 takes you gradually into the game mechanics through the (nice) campaign.. - that becomes hard, yes.. at some point - while Tropico 1.. brings you into the game abruptly .. with no idea or clue on what to do and how to start managing your island and its economy .

Tropico 1 it's very confusing when you play it the first time.. you had to experiment a lot and read the manual .. while .. I had absolutely no problem (nor need for the manual) with Tropico 2 .. it's straightforward, the Campaign teaches you everything you need to play.

And everything is much more polished and more intuitive .. building .. understanding how the economy works.. you never get to a point (like in Tropico 1) when you don't have any idea on what to do to progress... Never played 4, but I agree on the rest..

Tropico 1 is still great (once you learn its mechanics).. with it's "tropical" atmosphere, thanks to its wonderful soundtrack too.. one of the most beautiful and fitting I've found in a game..

Tropico 2 is absolutely original and unique, very different from both its predecessor and successors, a very well designed game.... funny, challenging, brilliant .. I love it !

I jumped into Tropico 1 right away with no trouble. Tropico 2 surprised me because it's so different and I didn't know it was about pirates.

I like them both too. I agree with you about 2 being interesting and unique. It's got a lot of character.

The early games difficulty can be all over the place. I've played 1 through 5.

Tropico 1 is very early, depending upon the scenario it can be moderate to hard.
Tropico 2 is very much an updated tropico 1 with a polished gameplay. Again it is a much older game and its gameplay can vary from moderate to hard. Due to the nature of the pirate raids you can get lucky or unlucky. It is much more random.
Tropico 3 was created by the new developer after poptop went bankrupt after a long pause between the games. They have basically been developing the same game since then. It's difficulty was light to moderate. I mostly won the games.
Tropico 4 is a lot more polished than 3. It is also a very easy game. I've never lost a game. It is very much a builder in that it offers a few moderate challenges but it allows you a great deal of freedom and offers a lot of tools to solve problems including a controllable avatar on the map in El Presidente.
Tropico 5 is even more polished than 4. It also went in a slightly different direction kind of like 2. It is also much harder than 4. I've lost more than I've won. The split the game up into different time frames, introduced multiplayer, and took away some of the tools that helped you win in having a controllable avatar on the map. They also introduced RTS elements and made the combat much more difficult with combat units having different abilities, hp, attack, and defensive towers that you can place on the map.