Tropico 3

by Kalypso Media

Product Features

• A Latin music soundtrack, as well as a variety of online-functions such as high scores or visiting islands belonging to other players.
• Comprehensive campaign with 15 different missions, and mission generator for random map creation.
• A variety of business sectors to dabble in, including: Tourism, petroleum, mining, agriculture, etc.
• A timeline editor allowing you to create your own fictive historical events or enter real ones and avatar functionality allowing players to wander the island as El Presidente and change the course of play.
• Interactive functionality including, political speeches, edicts and "other" means of influence, as well as a wide range of editing and modification functions.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002MCG8MI
• Item Weight: 6.9 ounces
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: October 20, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,832 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

Amazon.com Product Description

Tropico 3 is a single player simulation and strategy game for Windows based PCs. Packed with a blend of classic city building gameplay that requires both the decision-making expertise of a manager, as well as strategic elements that give the player political options ranging from winning the hearts and minds of your people, to crushing their will to resist, it is a twist on traditional city sim games that is not to be missed. Take control of the island of Tropico. View larger. Create a unique society. View larger. Diverse gameplay environments. View larger. Cinematic graphics quality. View larger. Story and Gameplay In Tropico 3 players take on the role of "El Presidente," the leader of a millitary coup that has recently taken power over the Banana Republic island nation of Tropico. Simulation aspects of the game play out in a heavy emphasis on civic, residential, millitary and institution building across the island, as well as resource management, with the player given the choice as to how to economically facilitate this growth. Regardless whether you turn Tropico into a vacation paradise, a police state or a modern industrial nation - you will always have to defend your actions before your people. Players wander through Tropico as El Presidente in order to intimidate political opponents, hold populist speeches or just to enjoy your country's own Caribbean flair. The strategy angle of the game requires players to keep a sharp eye on the dangers and side-effects of your absolute power. Built on the precedant of your own coup, danger lurks on every corner, be it militant revolutionaries plotting to supplant you, or the machinations of the superpowers USA and the Soviet Union, both of whom would like to see a more amenable ruler in strategically important Tropico. Within the game's 15 missions history takes its course with events such as the Cuba crisis, papal visits and other actual decisive historical events. The choice of the means of governing, and persuasion is entirely yours, and the only question is whether or not your vision of Tropico will survive to play a role in history. Key Game Features Comprehensive campaign with 15 different missions. A variety of business sectors: Tourism, petroleum, mining, agriculture, etc. A timeline editor allows you to create your own fictive historical events or enter real ones. Avatar functionality allowing players to wander the island as El Presidente and change the course of play. Political speeches, edicts and "other" means of influence. A wide range of editing and modification functions. Mission generator for random map creation. The cinematic, highly detailed graphics perfectly reflect. A variety of online-functions such as high scores or visiting islands belonging to other players. Latin music soundtrack. System Requirements: Minimum Specifications: Recommended Specifications: OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7 Processor: 2.4 GHz Single-Core 2.4 GHz Dual-Core RAM: 1GB 2GB Disc Drive: DVD-ROM drive Hard Drive: 5GB or more Video Card: 256MB DirectX9c, Shader Model 3.0 (Geforce 6 Series, ATI X1300) 512MB DirectX9c, Shader Model 3.0 (Geforce 8 Series, ATI HD4800) Sound Card: DirectX9-compatible Input Device: Mouse and keyboard

Product Description

Engage in a tropical power trip! Become the dictator of a remote island during the Cold War. Charm, persuade, intimidate, oppress, or cheat your people to stay in power! Are you a kind and generous leader? A corrupt and ruthless tyrant ruling with an iron fist? Turn your island into a tourist paradise or an industrial power. Make promises to the electorate or slander political adversaries to get the crucial votes for the upcoming elections. Send your avatar to congratulate the people, visit the island of another player, or just sun-bathe on the Caribbean beach. Play the Cold War superpowers against each other to your maximum advantage. Tropico 3 offers a tongue-in-cheek, light-hearted take on real world issues like third world politics, corruption and totalitarian regimes. Are you ready to rule your own banana republic? If you answered yes, then Tropico 3 is the game for you. Features: * A Comprehensive campaign with 15 new missions * Multiple ways to make money including Commerce, Industry, Mining, Agriculture etc. * A timeline editor to create fictional events or real ones * Avatar function lets you travel the Island as El Presidente - Each avatar is a customizable character that the player creates and controls - Choose gender and customize face, hairstyle, facial hair, hat, clothing, and additional accessories * Speeches, edicts and many ways to gain influence * A wide range of editing and moderation functions * Mission generator for random map creation, including unlimited Pesos, etc. * The Cinematic highly detailed Graphics simulate the actual caribbean * Visit islands controlled by other players * Online scoring against other players

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun, but short lived, November 22, 2009

By 

Pecos Bill (Gaithersburg, MD United States) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tropico 3 (DVD-ROM)

I never played Tropico 1 or 2, but I do enjoy Evil Genius, Dungeon Keeper and Dwarf Fortress. I love games that let me build up an empire and repel attacks without being completely focused on combat all the time as in a standard RTS.

This game has a lot going for it. Think "Sim City" with the additional need to balance out political factions and put up with rebels. In Sim City, unhappy sims would simply leave. In Tropico 3, they're more likely to pick up a gun and try to overthrow you directly.

That said, the game has some faults that are making it into a pretty short lived affair. I've put in maybe 8 full sandbox rounds and I don't think I've got many more left in me.

The problems I had:

* It's too easy. It's not hard to go through the whole game without a single rebel. Factions are easily made happy and the extreme measures of dealing with rowdy individuals available to a tropical dictator seem to be unnecessary. Even if I configure a custom game with politics as unstable as it will let me and with "Rebel Yell" turned on, which makes my citizens even more likely to rebel, I still find rebellions aren't that big of a threat. They're even less of a threat than the occasional invading party in Dungeon Keeper.

* Combat is too forgiving. You don't really have any control during combat, which is fine, really, but the mechanics of it are still rather silly. When the rebels do finally show up, they will try to sabotage a structure and run away -- except before they do this, they will politely stand near it until literally your entire army has shown up. Consequently there's no reason to plan out how to distribute your guard towers to deal with threats quickly. Just build all your military stuff in one place and put a parking garage nearby. The rebels will wait until you show up, no matter how long it takes to get there.

* No "win" condition + no persistent scoreboard for the sandbox missions. Although the campaign has victory conditions, in "sandbox mode", which lets you play a randomly generated island, there's no victory condition. You rule for a set period of time and then the scoreboard comes up. The only measure of whether you did well or not is your score, and it doesn't save your score, so you have nothing to compare it too short of writing down your previous scores. So I love that there's an ability to play randomly generated maps (something I wish more games would do) but I think it could be implemented better.

* The foreign invasion is literally just a "game over" mechanism. I once played the game aiming to annoy the US because I wanted to see what it was like when the US invaded. Could I make a big enough military and fight them off? No. The scoreboard just pops up. You lose immediately. Rather anti-climatic.

But it's not all bad news.

The game is beautiful. 3-D, high degree of zoom-in and zoom-out, individually modeled citizens are roaming around and clicking on them shows you all sorts of useful information: what does this citizen think about their job, their health, crime, freedom, etc? What's really annoying them? What are their thoughts? (Thoughts are a good quick way to see if people are missing something in particular, e.g., "I wanted to go to church but couldn't" -- you may not have a church or you may need another one or you may just need more priests for the churches you already have.) The level of detail involved in managing your workers keeps you busy too. Tropico is not an equal opportunity employer. Some jobs only take men. Some only take women. Some take both. Sometimes you have to fire the men working on the farm to make room for unemployed women while the man go off to fill out the lumber camp. You have to deal with education because some jobs require high school or college to work there.

So there's plenty to play with in just running your town.

Basically I think this is a fantastic "sim tropical island" and if you want it for that, well, look no further. If you enjoy Sim City type games you'll definitely enjoy this. I was mainly disappointed over the lack of depth to the combat. Not that I was expecting a full on RTS but I definitely expected more than the rather weak and unstrategic rebel elements the game has.

I'm still holding out hope that they might change how combat and politics works with a patch. There needs to be more room to up the difficulty. It could be a great game with just a few minor adjustments.

As it stands, I rate it 4 stars for fun, because it is fun, but 3 stars overall because it just isn't something I got a lot of longevity out of.

46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars NO NEW TRICKS FOR EL PRESIDENTE - BUT STILL GREAT FUN!, October 22, 2009

By 

NeuroSplicer (Freeside, in geosynchronous orbit) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tropico 3 (DVD-ROM)

Every regime turns old and stale. Every banana-republic runs out of national resources to sell-out for kickbacks. And every dictator can hide only so many populist aces up his sleeve. So in the end he calls for ...degenerate capitalist image-makers to reinvent his persona and make the beard hip again. It's the same old story.
Power corrupts - and absolute power corrupts absolutely. True - but aren't you tempted? Not even a little?

The original Tropico and its expansions were of those rare RTS games that manage to blend absurd stereotypes with classic gaming genres and reinvent them with humor. From the old Dungeon Keeper to the unsurpassed Evil Genius most of these games are hard to fail. And how could they - what is there not to like?

The economy must be tended to: from agriculture, fisheries and tourism, to oil and mining, you must decide on how to keep your regime solvent and well into the black. On the other hand, neglect the well-being of your citizens at your own risk. Both superpowers as well as brewing guerrillas are always at your heels, ready to dispose of you and install their puppet in your boots.
So make sure to strut around and let your subjects take a good hard look at their leader. If that is not enough to discourage dissidents, making a long-winded populist speech surely will. Push come to shove, you can always rig the elections of course...

This installment's sin is that it offers little new besides improved graphics and minor gameplay touch-ups. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing.
If new to the series, buy all means buy it! Not only will you greatly enjoy the gameplay but you will also experience it in its best incarnation. If you already have experienced the previous installments of TROPICO, I know you have to see what the original game looks and feel like in 3D and Shader Model 3 graphics.

The game comes free for any intrusive DRM nonsense. Neither online activation nor any limit on installations, just a serial key. What you know, even ruthless tyrants have more sense than game publishing executives...

Thwart those insolent revolutionaries before they gain traction!
Send them for cultural re-education to the banana fields.

RECOMMENDED!

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars From someone who loves Tropico: It's Tropico 1 + Expansion Pack in 3D, October 21, 2009

By 

Game Geek - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tropico 3 (DVD-ROM)

If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Calypso has created Tropico 3 to the full extent of the maxim.

Other than the different scenarios and the new ability to customize your own avatar, Tropico 3 is essentially a Tropico 1 + expansion pack with 3D rendered graphics.
However, I'd hasten to add that it's still as fun as the original and you will spend countless hours managing your banana republic.

THE GOOD:
- Still as fun as the first one
- Graphics have been updated
- Ability to Customize Avatar

THE BAD:
- It's still as fun as the first one...because it's almost identical to the first one plus the expansion pack...gameplay is identical.
- ...in fact, it has lost a few of the cool little features (i.e., the little videos that followed the issuing of an edict are now gone :()
- Tropico reloaded, the bundled pack, is available for download at much better value, it's not in 3D but Tropico has always been about gameplay and not graphics.

5 stars for fun, but 3 stars for overall value. Imagine if Civilization 4 was simply Civ with 3D.

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