Tropico

by 2K Games

Product Features

• Start out small, building a few cities, planting sugar cane, and building support amongst the people
• Create factories, mines, and add to your bank account as the people improve their lot
• Build what you need to attract tourists
• Use your position to bribe and trick the leaderrs, to keep yourself in power & add money to your pockets
• Keep the people happy, or risk a rebellion or uprising

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004U8KO
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: April 28, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (104 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,646 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

Amazon.com Review

Tropico gives you the reigns of a banana republic, letting you shape the island nation in practically any way you like. Whether you've always wanted to create an utopian paradise or a ruthless dictatorship, Tropico will go anywhere your imagination leads. The game offers an unprecedented amount of political detail, as the island's various factions always scrutinize your actions. Focus on a strong military and you risk angering the intellectuals. Build a robust industrial economy and you'll please the Americans while risking alienating the communists and environmentalists. Every decision comes with consequences, and if you anger a faction or the population too much they will attempt to oust you from the island.

Tropico differs from most "sim" games in the level of long-term planning it demands. Money is relatively easy to come by, but can be spent in a staggering number of ways. The fact that structures are not placed on the map immediately after buying them makes planning even more important. Construction workers only put up one or two buildings at a time, and they have to flatten the ground beneath the structure before they can even get started. Once something is built it must be staffed--usually with educated workers--and the process takes time. After all that, it takes even more time for the building to become productive. Farmers must plant, raise, and harvest their crops. Industrial buildings like the cigar factory must get raw materials from the farms, then spend time processing them. Finished products must be hauled to a dock, where dockworkers slowly load the goods into freighters, and you finally get paid. Years can pass between the time something is built and the time it becomes profitable.

Fun and challenging as Tropico is, there is a little trouble in paradise. The game's manual has practically no hard information, and it's left mostly up to the player to figure how everything in the game interrelates. The interface is another problem, as it takes up a lot of space on the screen and what little information it provides is scattered all over the place. Experience with the game will let players overcome most of its shortcomings, and Tropico is definitely a game worth playing. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Lush graphics designed to look great at multiple resolutions
• An absolutely perfect soundtrack
• Open-ended gameplay

Cons:

• It's difficult to tell how to appease all the political factions
• Interface could be better

Product Description

Tropico is the newest management strategy with a twist -- you're the dictator of a tiny Caribbean isalnd and must build it into an economic power Eight great scenarios plus a game-generation tool to keep the game moving Can you turn your island into a paradise, or will you be ousted in a bloody coup?

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very fun sim, yet lacks some important bells and whistles., May 10, 2001

By 

Jayson (Rancho Santa Margarita, ca, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tropico (CD-ROM)

Tropico: Imagine a sim in which you play a 3rd world island dictator that places you in a large presidential palace where you govern the native inhabitants, immigrants who come to your country looking for work, tourists looking for that perfect beach vacation, political regimes wanting to be your friend, building an economic empire all while making sure you avoid a coup.

In an obvious tongue and cheek version of playing Fidel Castro governing Cuba from the early 50's to present day and beyond, I am totally amazed at the depth of your decision making progress. While the graphics are very strong, and the music soundtrack will have you humming for hours to a latin/salsa beat, you will want to play this game over and over (especially the random map generator and setting winning conditions) in figuring out the best way to manage your island. The game, at its most basic core, is modeled after a very sophisticated economic engine. Depending on what you pay your inhabitants at their jobs, the placement of certain money generating industries, the level of housing quality, what you can provide as entertainment, religion, schooling, healthcare is incredible. The placement of buildings on terrain, elevation, and proximity to other structures is very critical! Also staffing those buildings and making your people happy while also maintaining a good relationship with capitalists (USA) and communists (USSR) is just as important. You also have to be very wary about weather conditions and pollution. Again, you will be amazed at the level of depth this economic engine runs.

The characters are very amusing to watch, and their thoughts will help you make other decisions. But I guarantee you will always be questioning yourself. Was placing the church here a good idea, or should I have put the cabaret closer to the tourist area. Should I have planted coffee or corn on this plot of land, or should I start a timber industry and raise goats instead? Very serious. The most fun I had so far was quelling a coup where a few of my soldiers betrayed me (I guess they weren't to happy) and fled to the hills, only to come and try to storm my palace later. My loyalists then began a gun battle downtown sending the native and the tourists running.

There is not enough space in this review to tell you about all the myriad of building and characters available. But one really neat and realistic feature is the creation of your dictator. Before starting the game you need to set attributes to your character and depending on what you set people, industry, tourists, foreign powers will react differently. In addition, YOU MUST chose 2 faults, whether you are a womanizer, boozer, have tourits syndrome, compulsive gambler. etc....These also affect how the world reacts to you, so you will never play the same game twice!!

Okay, now the downsides: 1) The manual is vague in areas and you will want a better description on how things interact. 2) The manual has a few blatant errors. Pictures do not match text. 2) Some buildings, not all, cannot be rotated (this is truly unacceptable with today sims), 3) Your peoples explanations on how they are feeling are vague at times and there is no immediate feedback on decisions which can prove to be difficult for new players, and finally 4) There is already a patch 1.01 available for download at the main website POPTOP.com.

But don't let these few minor annoyances detract you this game. It has a great educational value and humor to it. The graphics and music are amazing, and the re-playability factor is high. Now bulldoze that shack, build an apartment building for the masses, grow some pineapple, and build that hotel on the beach!

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Preview, April 13, 2001

By 

John (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tropico (CD-ROM)

Tropico. Some have heralded it as the best strategy game of the year, and some have even said ever. Better than Civilization some say. If you like The Sims or SimCity you will like Tropico. Why? You're an island dictator of a small Latin American island. You custom make your dictator, you pick traits (leftist author, biblical scholar, miner, there's over 30 of them), flaws (kleptomania, alcoholic, womanizer, over 30 of these too), rise to power (booze baron, communist rebellion, socialist election, coup, etc)and then start. You start off with a nice tropical island, about 30 populants, your palace, a couple of civic buildings, and a dock. Each citizen has their own political opinions, wants, needs, names, jobs, and desires. There can be up to 700 of them. There are six island political parties:

Communists- made up of the poor and the laborers, they want equal wage, collective housing, and to be well fed.

Capitalists- made up of bankers, buisinessmen, etc. They want security, upscale housing, low taxes, trade revenues, and tourism.

Intellectuals- made up of Professors, journalists, etc. They want libraries, schools, etc.

Envrionmentalists- they want to keep the environment sound

Religious- they want churches and church edicts

Military- want high pay and strong military

Along with that there are over 90 buildings, such as: rum distillieries, apartments, churches, spas, cabarets, resorts, restaurants, pubs, nightclubs, barracks, mess halls, etc. Each political party has a charismatic leader, and bad things can happen if they don't like you. On the bad side of the military? Watch out for a coup. On the bad side of the communists? Watch out for a revolt. On the bad side of the capitalists? Watch out for a slacking economy, etc. If you don't like a certain individual, you can always brand them a heretic, arrest them, deport them, bribe them, or assassinate them. It's all up to you.The graphics are nice and there's a strong economic system. Looks to be a great game, best of the year.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An inspired sim made with the Railroad Tycoon 2 engine., August 14, 2000

By 

Geoff Kerr (Alton, IL, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tropico (CD-ROM)

Imagine that you're the leader of a small South American country. Now you have to attract tourist, keep your citizens happy, set up industry, and help save the rain forest. That is the basis of Tropico. I liked Tropico because of its deepness and graphics. The game is much like an onion. It keeps adding layers to the basic core. For an example, each citizen has more than 50 characteristics, not to mention, a job and political convictions. Every person is different. The graphics are also top notch. The outstanding Railroad Tycoon 2 engine has been totaly redone. You see such details as clouds in the sky and people moving around. I recomend this game to any sim fan. I don't know if it will appeal to sports fans or not. Well, any way this game is a must get.

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