Posted December 02, 2009
Tropico hates you and wants you to lose.
Not my words, but those of PCzone in a recent review of Tropico 3. But, in the case of Tropico 1, they are so, so true. Even if you wrote them in 50-foot high letters and illuminated them with twinkly lights they couldn't be more true. It's all due to balance.
Tropico is a political game with all the trappings of an economic simulator. And it's here where the balance thing comes in. In Tropico, to succeed, you have to do stuff. Quite a lot of stuff. But the inhabitants of your island are picky, and --everything-- you do will annoy some of them. It's dead easy to set up a glorious communist state, but the capitalists will get angry and vote you out. Are you a pacifist? The watch out for the military. And don't even think about annoying the revolutionaries!
It's strategy on a knife edge. Tropico 1 comes with loads of scenarios, even before you add in sandbox mode or start thinking about the Paradise Island expansion. Some are easy, most are hard. But in all of them need you to run a successful economy, keep everybody happy, and think about a little extra on the side for your Swiss Bank Account. Add in some great music and tons of detail about your Tropicans(which you can ignore if you want to) and you have an involving, entertaining - and sometimes even tense - strategy classic.
The Paradise Island expansion adds in a few more buildings and loads more scenarios - trust me, you'll never finish them all - and patches the game. The patch was a big deal back in the day, as the original release was just too punishing. Now, it's just about possible to build an airport on your island if you plan for it. Before the patch, you could forget it. Incidentally, my retail copy of Tropico will only run from the expansion disk, so if you're after trouble free-gaming, I'd say the GOG version is the one to go for.
Which just leaves Tropico 2: Pirate Cove. Replace Tropicans with Pirates, remove the politics and what do you have? A scenario-based economy builder. It's good, but lacks the superb balance and nail-biting elections of the original. I've not got a bad word to say about it, but I prefer the cut and thrust of political life. Tropico 1 for me.
So, Tropico hates you and wants you to lose. And my Tropicans are an ungrateful rabble. But I love them all the same.
Not my words, but those of PCzone in a recent review of Tropico 3. But, in the case of Tropico 1, they are so, so true. Even if you wrote them in 50-foot high letters and illuminated them with twinkly lights they couldn't be more true. It's all due to balance.
Tropico is a political game with all the trappings of an economic simulator. And it's here where the balance thing comes in. In Tropico, to succeed, you have to do stuff. Quite a lot of stuff. But the inhabitants of your island are picky, and --everything-- you do will annoy some of them. It's dead easy to set up a glorious communist state, but the capitalists will get angry and vote you out. Are you a pacifist? The watch out for the military. And don't even think about annoying the revolutionaries!
It's strategy on a knife edge. Tropico 1 comes with loads of scenarios, even before you add in sandbox mode or start thinking about the Paradise Island expansion. Some are easy, most are hard. But in all of them need you to run a successful economy, keep everybody happy, and think about a little extra on the side for your Swiss Bank Account. Add in some great music and tons of detail about your Tropicans(which you can ignore if you want to) and you have an involving, entertaining - and sometimes even tense - strategy classic.
The Paradise Island expansion adds in a few more buildings and loads more scenarios - trust me, you'll never finish them all - and patches the game. The patch was a big deal back in the day, as the original release was just too punishing. Now, it's just about possible to build an airport on your island if you plan for it. Before the patch, you could forget it. Incidentally, my retail copy of Tropico will only run from the expansion disk, so if you're after trouble free-gaming, I'd say the GOG version is the one to go for.
Which just leaves Tropico 2: Pirate Cove. Replace Tropicans with Pirates, remove the politics and what do you have? A scenario-based economy builder. It's good, but lacks the superb balance and nail-biting elections of the original. I've not got a bad word to say about it, but I prefer the cut and thrust of political life. Tropico 1 for me.
So, Tropico hates you and wants you to lose. And my Tropicans are an ungrateful rabble. But I love them all the same.