Review: Tropico 3, Viva La Revolution!
by Steven Wright - November 2, 2009
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“How do I review Tropico 3?”. Thats a question I have been asking myself a little bit too much. It’s such a huge, immersive game, that to put everything into words would take days.
I went into this game with no knowledge of Kalypso’s previous Tropico games and was daunted by the depth. You take control of an island, akin to Cuba, starting out in the early 50’s you have to build and manage your population. Sounds simple but when you factor in poverty, rebellion, tourism, religion, politics, disease and weather then it suddenly becomes more of a challenge.
The tutorial mode will be the first place you will visit in Tropico, teaching you the basic controls and menu navigation that is key to you staying in power.
The finer points are told to you by your head advisor, an amusing voice over that sadly does not feature in the main game. Taking my basic knowledge I boldly head out onto the sunny shores of Tropico’s campaign.
You get to choose which island to play, each one dropping you into a different unpleasant situation. After choosing your island, you choose your avatar. You can choose from various well-known leaders or make your own. Like everything else in the game there is a huge range of options available to you. Have you ever wanted to create a flatulent, ugly pirate who was placed there by the CIA? What about a Tourretes Syndrome suffering, militant pop star? Every choice affects your leadership.
If your flatulent then your relation with different factions will suffer and palace guards will require a higher basic pay rate. I have just listed the comedic traits but there is a whole list of different advantages and disadvantages, so many that you will struggle to create the same character twice.
The first island my avatar set foot on was filled with ripe ground for farming and good relations with the US and USSR; if your friendly with these chaps then you will get financial aid which is a lifeline in your early years. I was trundling along with mixed success, somehow keeping the faction happy. They complained about healthcare, I built a clinic and hired a foreign doctor.
They complained about immigration, so I close the doors, but wait, now we have no people to work in our mines. Open the doors and the whole complaints cycle started all over again. The local DJ loves to remind you of how bad you are doing with his little quips and put downs; although annoying at times he will genuinely make you laugh.
However keeping your people happy is no laughing matter, you have to keep them well fed, housed, entertained and give them a job. Building ugly tenements only keeps your citizens happy for a few years, soon they’ll be demanding apartment blocks and houses. Trying to build up the housing, as well as workplaces, schools and government buildings, is quite a stressful affair. You can set the priority level on each building but there’s not much of a point unless you have a large workforce. I found myself putting every building on high priority (maybe thats why my people hated me so much). If you want to speed up the build then you can fast forward time. The first speed is the one you will find yourself playing the most with the highest being rarely used.
If people are really unhappy then you will want to fast forward their moaning. Sadly you can’t, instead you get to see them protesting and waving their banners as a little angry crowd forms around them.. You can try and meet their demands and improve their life or, if you’re an evil little sod, have them assassinated right there and then.
Other options include silencing them with the secret police, paying them off with the bank, each needing their respective buildings. It’s your standard flowchart method of progression, each building giving you new avenues to pursue, the more modern they get, the more sinister.
Sadly I tried to ignore these little ant sized protestors and they quickly became rebels. Rebels will launch attacks against your buildings and if you continue to lose, try and destroy your palace. This is an instant game over, as I found out on my third island. I tried to bolster my military by building an army base and a weapons depot but I was constantly outnumbered. Even as I write this I have no idea how to manage the military. With Tropico, the more you play the more you find out; you will lose a lot of games, make many mistakes but have great fun doing it.
When rebellion does not work, expect to be asked for an election. In true Tropico fashion you can rig the election, refuse it, or choose an uplifting speech to please the affronted faction. My almost game-ending mistake was destroying the church when the religious faction asked for a cathedral. I now know that they are two very different things. Beginners mistake. Somehow I managed to scrape through the election, buying up all the votes I could get.
You better get used to your budget being small because managing an island is not a cheap thing to do. You can generate income by building farms, lumber yards and mines, selling off the lands resources. A ship regularly visits your sleepy little island, dropping off immigrants and experts while taking your exports. If your stuck on an arid rock then you will have to find other ways of generating income. If nuclear testing is a little too hardcore for you then you can try your hand at tourism.
To attract tourists you have to build either an airport or a tourist dock. Once you have these, you have to house them and keep them happy. I found this quite easy, even with shacks popping up faster than I could demolish them and rebels bombing the hell out of my buildings, they still seemed satisfied. I would have loved to have continued this game to see how far I could have went with the tourism, but sadly the rebels intervened. You can eventually have Mardi Gras, spring break and huge rock shows; I wanted to turn my little haven into a party island.
After spending a long time struggling by on Tropico I feel like I have only scratched the surface. So many things have been left untouched, so many things I have not used, so many buildings I have not built. I was overjoyed to see a sandbox game mode, now I can spend many hours playing with my little Tropicans.
It’s a joy to sit and watch your playthings going about their day: protesting, tending the fields, driving around. All the animations are spot on and help create this sense of life, the whole island buzzes away whether your involved or not. The graphics are very polished, everything ticks by with no noticeable frame rate issues.
Kalypso have created a living, breathing, complaining little life simulator. Give it the patience and time that it deserves and you will get a lot of game-time for your money.
