At first glance, Tropico 5 seems
dangerously similar to its still-recent predecessor, Tropico 4,
and you can be forgiven for wondering whether developer Haemimont games didn't
just tweak the graphics and slap it in a box. The music, the characters, most
of the gags, and the art are almost indistinguishable. That feeling of deja vu
is misleading, however, because Tropico 5 improves on Tropico 4 in one key way:
it's a more challenging and engaging city-builder, one that does a better job
of making me feel like the tin-pot dictator that I’m supposed to be.
As a city-building game,
the Tropico series has historically emphasized fun and style over challenge.
That's not necessarily a bad thing: it's generally let you get on with the fun of
building without tearing your hair out over finicky optimization games like the
(also excellent) Annoseries. You slap down a few
plantations, start exporting bananas and coffee to the rest of the world, and
then get to work expanding your shantytown empire — all while taking in the
lush sights and sound of a slightly debauched tropical paradise.
Tropico 5 largely sticks
to that formula with a couple key changes. First, it now unfolds across a
series of eras, each with their own associated buildings (unlocked via a simple
and almost meaningless research tree) and world events. You start in the early
20th century and work your way up to the modern era, though the art doesn't
convey the changing eras very well.
The march of time also
escalates the challenges you face. The early Colonial Era gives way to the
World Wars, where both Axis and Allies are furiously buying up supplies and
vying for your affections. It creates some basic risk-reward decisions, as
getting cozy with one gives you the most favorable trading offers… but could
also get you swatted down by the other power.
That pattern continues
through the Cold War era, at which point your problems are starting to become
more economic and political. They also get more interesting. Each new era
brings more factions to the forefront, while your own efforts steadily strip
your island of its resources. From the Cold War into the modern era, you have
to be thinking about making the switch into a more developed import/export
economy, lest you risk stagnation.
It also creates tricky
and demanding re-development challenges. The slapdash plantation town you built
at the start of your game begins to get pretty creaky as residents demand
better living conditions and utilities, but nobody likes having El Presidente
just demolish his house to build a modern apartment complex. Suddenly my island
was divided between gleaming apartment towers and shantytowns, and the
desperate have-nots were starting to join the rebel movement.
I do wish Tropico 5 did a
better job of showing you what's happening, and why. There's no clear display
of what the coverage area of a police headquarters actually is, or why people
in one block are happy with their local entertainment options, while the next
block are seething with boredom and resentment. There are a few useful overlays
in Tropico, but I was dying for SimCity's awesome arsenal of infographics.
Tropico is particularly
abysmal at helping you map out your economy. In the late game, when your mines
are depleted, your forests have all been clear-cut, and high-output farms have
drained the soil, you need to start importing basic commodities and exporting
intermediate and finished goods. But Tropico doesn't give you a clear sense of
what's coming in and what's going out. That's a big problem since the late-game
economy is entirely about managing that exchange of resources.
On the other hand, that
might actually be why Tropico 5 stays interesting. Its economy is dead-simple.
Commodities don't really change prices, so you don't need to worry about being
plunged into poverty by a sudden collapse in the price of bauxite or tobacco.
There really is always money in the banana stand, but that's not really how the
world works. Tropico 5 could do with a more dynamic economy, one that throws
more curveballs your way. Especially in the endgame, when you unlock buildings
and technologies that basically make every problem disappear.
Nevertheless, I still had
a tricky and rewarding time just trying to evolve my island without wrecking it
or getting deposed. From time to time, people expect an election, even a rigged
one, and most voters identify with a few opposing ideologies. Those ideologies
change with the development of the island, however, so you always have to keep
an eye on the balance of political power and know where to put your thumb.
Fortunately, even if the
endgame starts to let you down, there's a pretty entertaining multiplayer game
here. You and some friends start together on an island and immediately start
trying to fulfill challenges for points, like see who can export the most
cigars and who can be the first to build a drydock. Since you're all competing
for land, eventually you start to run into each other, and you can even begin
sending your armies out to fight and destroy each other's buildings. It's
Tropico as an arcade game, and it's a nice addition, even if it doesn't totally
address Tropico's issues as a city-builder.
THE VERDICT
There is a lot that I
like about Tropico 5, and it will probably hold my interest far
longer than Tropico 4 did. But at the same time, it's rough edges are a
continual annoyance. The larger issue is that while Tropico 5 definitely
introduces some new challenges and ideas, it's still a dangerously simple
city-builder. That's always a threat with this genre: a well-run city doesn't
really require much from you. But Tropico doesn't give me enough reasons to
keep playing once I've finished the tech tree and reached the end
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