Review: Tropico 3

Secretly i have always wanted to own my own island.  In so many respects there is a lot of appeal to being the ruler of a 3rd world island nation!  First, you make the laws, but you will also have to enforce them once you do this.  If the island isn’t colonized, where will your people come from?  Import L.A’s Finest?  Everything will have to be imported, except maybe the bananas.   Bah, in reality the logistics only begin there and go on for days, so let me scale back this great endeavor a few notches and settle for Tropico 3:  The video game version of my real life end game!

Fact:  RTS games are fun, but mostly, we know what to expect!  So let’s be real for a sec, this game is really just like all the rest.  Build a town, city, or nation and make sure you have the proper coverage of healthcare, food, entertainment, religion, education and so on within the housing boundaries else an uprising is sure to develop.  It always amazes me when mal-content citizens lash out about the quality of their surroundings when 15 minutes ago you were living in a shanty, but i digress.

Tropico 3 is in essence the same game as Tropico-Mucho Macho Edition.  However, it looks fabulous, and the gameplay has advanced significantly to include excellent diplomatic possibilities between the USSR & USA.  At first i thought, “well you played one, you’ve played them all” and skipped the tutorial.  However, after getting overthrown quickly twice, I decided to go back and studyup!

Controls are simple enough but gameplay is yours to discover, even in the tutorial!

That being said, this is the law school of tutorials!  You will be better off just jumping right in and making mistakes. If you have already played previous versions of  Tropico, then the deviation isn’t too different from what you’ve experienced.  Likewise, if you have no experience with the previous versions of the game, take solace in the fact that you’re an expert at this!  If your not an expert at RTS games, well, here’s you’re chance!

I gave them a steady diet of bananas & pineapple. Not sure where i went wrong:P

Most RTS games turn into a click fest quick, and in some respects Tropico 3 is really no different.  I have yet to beat the game, but in my 4 failures to date I danced the line that makes too many entries in this genre an exercise in city planning and spreadsheet management.

So the game begins with you selecting which of history’s supreme dictators you would like to be.  I choose El pizza face himself, (coined that because he looked like shredded mozzarella cheese) none other than Manual Noriega,  vanquished dictator of Panama who is really a boy scout compared to some of the other hose bags on the list.

Being El Presidente isn’t easy as with most RTS games, everything involves a tricky balancing act.    What’s unique to Tropico 3 is you have to play the USA and USSR against each other as both are trigger happy and looking to invade if you favor one over the other too long.  There are homegrown factions like rebels, communists, and  nationalists at play and I even stirred the masses with my passionate balcony speech rallying the citizens to my cause-weak minded fools.  In addition, from time to time you will have to make policy edicts about minor matters such as education, emigration, and littering.(All in a day’s work) Toss in the constant attempts at bribes and corruption and there seems to be more layers here than Sybil Dorsett at a congressional investigation.

Viva Manual!

Still, that is how RTS games work.  A lot of maintenance and upkeep.  In Tropico, El Presidente’s stats can be found in his Almanac.  Here you can see where you are thriving and where you are falling short.  Expect to have to restart a few times at first but you should be taking advantage of your ability to manipulate game speed.  Pause the game to build multiple buildings and plan your strategies.  In the 15 mission single player campaign, difficulty will increase as each mission is completed.  In addition to single player campaign there is “Sandbox” where you can get your build on, and “challenges”  where different scenarios are thrown at you like being hosed by every major power where you are hit with tariffs and natural disasters to the point your people revolt daily but you have to remain alive and in office for 20 years!  One thing i found weird is placing items.  I couldn’t for the life of me place a fishing wharf.  It is total trial and error in the placing buildings department.  The game makes suggestions for the next logical building to be placed.  It is trying to help you so following the suggestions is a good thing.

All in all, I give this game an 8.0. I liked it, it was fun, and i could see myself hooked on it for approximately another 2.5 to 3 months before the monotony was too much to bare. With a nice break (2 months)I could go back and play it again. I wouldn’t spend 49.99 on it, but the minute i saw it drop to the 29.99 to 39.99 dollar range, i’d scoop it up! Enjoy!

El Presidente's Almanac