Tropico

"Ehh... not so good for my taste. Here is why. . ."

Introduction

This game is a sim genre game like SIM City, where you have to build a city, town or country and govern it. This Tropico is like that, but instead of some wealthy country, like utopia that everything goes perfectly fine, this game setting takes place in some third world country, contrary to most sim genre game.

Story

You are the President of a new third world country. The people are poor and the last president didn't do a really good job. Your goal is to improve this country and bring elation to the play. You exercise your power in this game to bring wealth and happiness to the citizens of this small third world island.

Gameplay

You get to select a bunch of different candidates initially - take your pick, because all the characters have different attributes which affects the belief of the citizens on your. Or you can customize your own candidate and play the game.

You start off with a limited (or infinite, depending on the option you chose at the start of the game) and a small (or big) island in the third world country filled with Spanish people. You have to govern them, build structures and create employment to bring elation to this nation and make it a 'developed' country. It is your duty to perform this task.

You start off with building small houses for the citizens of the country to live in, or else they build little shacks of their own. Then you get to build other things such as hotels for tourist to live in during their stay. You also get to build ports for new immgriants to arrive or tourists.

This is important because they tourists provide you with the income you need to expand the country.

You're not only limited to the tourist industry, no, you can manufacture items such as tabaco, fruits and raise domestic animals to export to the other countrys. Again, this is vital because it provides the source of income you need to expand and keep the citizens in a state of bliss (or else they'll leave this country!)

In addition to governing the people and building a good, healthy economy, you have to engender rules for the people to live by or else this island will be in chao. You can pass legislation such as no trashing and no littering the island so you can keep the island keep. You can also pass the law there there should be export agreement to the Russians and the US so you can expand how far your exports go.

Graphic

The graphic of this game is rich, full of textures for your eyes. The people are distinct because you can tell if they're kids, men or women; big, small, young or old. The structures of the buildings are distinct and colorfull, which doesn't lead to mundanity.

You get your camera to rotate around the island in 360 degree, therefore you get to see all the angles of the island which is a good thing because you want to see all the facets. In addition to the rotating, you can zoom closer to the island or far (really far, like as if you're looking at the island in a plane with your naked eyes)

The trees and water around tbe building is nice affect to the game. So you can conclude that the graphic for this game is modern and up to par with the current technology.

Sound

There is sound tracks of Spanish songs that are played through out the game which is fine. It isn't pleasing to the ears and it isn't banal either; its just fine.

There is the ocassional laughters of children and mooing of the cows and chicks. There are the chain saws of the lumberjack if you're in the area of the foresting industry - it can be heard. But if you're far away when they're doing their jobs you cannot heard it. Pretty cool, eh.

Buy or Rent

I say you rent this game for like a week and have some fun with it if you want to govern some poor, third world country and want to feel like god. Otherwise, then don't rent this game at all. I hope this helps!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/24/03, Updated 07/24/03