Tropico

"Simply the best PC strategy game ever made."

2001 was a great year for PC gaming. Rattling off the list of titles, I see Civilization III, Black & White, a couple of different expansion packs for The Sims...and this little entry from Phil Steinmeyer and the boys at PopTop called Tropico. Guess which games got the great sales...now guess which game's the best in the bunch.

In case the box didn't completely give it away for you, Tropico's a ''Caribbean Simulation''. Steinmeyer described it as a ''banana republic game'' in his column for Computer Games Online. At its core, it's equal part management sim (think Rollercoaster Tycoon) and city-builder (think SimCity 3000). You could even argue that the city-building elements have more in common with a game like Capitalism II, since your island's treasury is an ever-present (some would say overriding) concern. It might even be a relative of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri because of the factions. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Your role in this game is one of El Presidente, who can be named whatever suits your fancy. You can be Fidel Castro, Evita Peron, Ralph the Wonder Llama...literally whatever suits you. You go through a setup screen where you can choose various attributes for your character, which (and this is a nice touch) actually affect the gameplay. If you want the Church to like you, you're probably not going to want to play as an alcoholic compulsive gambler. If you're after the Intellectuals, you'd probably want to steer clear of being a Moronic Religious Zealot. There's something here for every personality, no matter how weird you (or your simulated alter-ego) may be.

Fancy setup screens do not a game make, however. You've gotta actually go about building and ruling your island. Fortunately, you're given a great interface to work with. Everything's on one screen (a nice touch for those of us who suffered through Railroad Tycoon II's multiple-screen ''where the hell am I?'' control nightmare). Even the stats almanac (which is as comprehensive as any hardcore management gamer expects) appears on the main screen, simply as a book over the island. You never have to endure the disorientation of shifting perspectives. Anything you could possibly think to roll your mouse over brings up a brief description of what it is and/or what it does along the foot of the screen. Roll your mouse over a person, and the person's name appears on the status bar. Click on the person, and your main info box displays everything you'd ever want to know about that person, including their opinion of dear El Presidente. You can even click on a tab and read their very deepest thoughts...useful for deciding if a person's due for a trip to jail...or an all-expenses-paid ticket to meet their Maker. Click on a building, and it's overload time as you learn everything a Presidente would ever want to know about the building, its profitability, its workforce, and whom (or what) it serves. Steinmeyer et al clearly play a lot of management strategy games, because they know instinctively what their audience wants. I like that.

Graphically, the game is beautiful. 3D modeling is done with a virtuoso's touch. From the grass to the buildings to the trees to the people, you've got an immersive experience in paradise. Since management gaming often includes a large ''wait and see what your changes bring about'' element, having something pretty to look at, or a cool scene to watch, gives the gamer a sense of being ruler of an actual world. Those little peons going about their daily lives are at the mercy of you, their leader, so it helps that the developers didn't add any annoying graphical elements that would otherwise make the player quite homicidal toward his own charges. In other games with more annoying graphics and controls (Caesar III leaps immediately to mind), I found myself deliberately withholding vital services like health care just to watch the sources of my aggravation wither and perish. On Tropico, I see someone die, find out inadequate medical care is to blame, and make damn sure I build a Clinic so it doesn't happen again. Especially on an island that's been running for awhile in open-ended mode, where several generations of a family have flourished under your rule, you'll feel a certain connection to the little sprites traipsing about your viewscreen. You're Big Brother to them, and you can indeed just watch this game unfold. The graphics are that good.

Music's another strong point. Daniel Indart and the Latin Music Connection have provided over an hour of music for your listening pleasure, and it's all perfect mood music. This is the music that will bring to mind the Latin Caribbean. If you've ever been to the Caribbean, or even driven through an ethnic neighborhood stateside when a fiesta's been going on, you'll see the authenticity at work. You'll never grow tired of it unless you REALLY hate Latin music, in which case you simply rip tracks from your favorite CDs and rename the tracks to the same names as the files in the music folder. Either way, you're going to love the music. MP3 format sound is so versatile that it nearly renders the ''music'' portion of reviews for PC games moot.

On top of all this brilliance, Tropico is literally the ONLY game I've seen where the unit pathing is absolutely PERFECT. You think I'm kidding? Ever play Caesar III and found yourself ready to hurl a brick at your monitor because the units wandered exactly where you didn't want them to go? On Tropico, every walker is generated with a destination, and s/he knows where that destination is and how to get there. It's like the guests in Rollercoaster Tycoon once they've been provided with park maps...except less prone to idiot mistakes. If your Tropicans need medical care, they will make a beeline for the nearest clinic. If they need sleep, they know where they live. Your people also have a very nice tendency to actually inhabit the housing you build for them near their jobs. They're not stupid enough to spend most of their productive time walking to and from work. I've even had housing available that people working elsewhere on the island outright ignored, choosing to build shacks close to work rather than live in apartment housing near the beach. When I built apartments near the workplace in question, and the available rooms immediately filled up...with my workers and their families. It was a thing of beauty that most players probably don't even realize is happening as they play. Common sense plays a role, and any time you don't have to try and figure out what an AI wants you to do, so much the better.

Some of you may be wondering about replay value. There are so many different ways to play this game that it delivers on the promise of ''never the same game twice''. Want to build a tourist paradise? Go ahead, there are plenty of tourism goodies (and may I recommend the expansion pack, ''Paradise Island'', because it's a tourism lover's dream-come-true). Want to be Fidel Castro and run a brutally repressive communist regime? ¡Muy bueno! You can do that too. Want to run an economic powerhouse, producing everything from fine jewelry to cigars to hoolihan-inducing spiced rum? Feel free! Want to create an idealist's concept of intellectualism? You can have the best-educated citizens in the whole Caribbean, who will, in turn, be available to make money and power for their benevolent Fearless Leader any way you direct them to. You'll lose a lot of sleep on the ''one more strategy to try and then it's bedtime for REAL'' model.

I'm not kidding when I say EVERYONE should play this game. This is one of those genre-transcending perfect titles that will thrill management sim fans and make converts out of the non-believers. It's better than Civilization III, better than Black & White, better than The Sims, and better than Rollercoaster Tycoon. This game is simply the best PC strategy game ever made. I'll proudly stand by that opinion.

That's the news and I am out of here.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/14/02, Updated 02/14/02