Tropico

Tom's Comments: I have lost entire weekends to PopTop's Railroad Tycoon II. I similarly lost the better part of last week to PopTop's Tropico, which is in some ways every bit as good as Railroad Tycoon II. But in some ways, it may turn out to be less compelling than Railroad Tycoon II, partly because it's a completely different style of game. My main concern with Tropico is that it may not have Railroad Tycoon II's nearly limitless replay value. Nevertheless, Tropico is still a deep rich game with a lot to recommend it.

Tropico isn't unique. The basic mechanics are almost identical to Maxis SimCity and Impressions' Caesar/Pharaoh in that you plan the placement of buildings and then stand back to see what effect they have. The most significant difference is Tropico's contemporary banana republic setting, which works its way into every corner of this clever and imaginative game. It's steeped in a crisp clear atmosphere, with detailed buildings (what artwork!), various human motivations tugging every which way (what detail!), entertaining animations (how clever!), and an appreciation for the complexity of politics (how addictive!), all brought together on a beautiful Caribbean isle. The approach is entirely light hearted. There's no torture or drugs. There are, I suppose, death squads and repression, but it's still very light-hearted. "Adios, muchacho," my advisor crows when my soldiers mow down a rebel. There is squalor. It takes a while for industry and electricity to arrive. Prosperity is elusive and shantytowns are the norm.

There's a lot of detail here, but is there really that much choice? Railroad Tycoon II was wide open to player choice and no two games played alike, but Tropico seems to call for a fairly uniform course of action. Namely, make everyone as happy as you can. Of course, I make no claims to having mastered the game's nuances, but so far I've had little luck with repression. If I ignore religion or housing, for instance, my presidency comes tumbling down. This is partly because some soldiers get upset if you don't provide religion and housing. Ironically, I've also had problems with soldiers who demand liberty for the people. Unhappy soldiers lead to military coups. In my later games, I plan to screen the military of bleeding hearts and using a cadre of soldiers who can be kept happy and loyal by appealing to a few select motivations.

This is actually where Tropico is a very rich and deeply satisfying game. The motivations of the people are laid bare. In RollerCoaster Tycoon, it's cute to be able to figure out that Guest #131 doesn't like your rollercoaster because it's too intense for his tastes. But in Tropico, 58-year old Analisa Bonilla dies of pneumonia in a banana patch. Her body lies face down in the sun. She leaves behind two children, Juan Carlos and Rogelio. She had worked as a maid and then a farmer. Her last thought was, "I'm dying". On many different levels, Tropico is a great story game, much like X-Com and Europa Universalis, games that don't tell stories so much as give you stories to tell. You'll come away with a veritable soap opera about your island. It's not unlike a game version of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. Love in the Time of Tourism. Fifty Years of Solitude. The General in His Armory.

 

Cont'd