If you’re a new player to the Tropico franchise – the sixth instalment is a good place to start if you like a challenge. Tropico is a city building game that allows you to roleplay as the leader you want to be. Whether it be a tyrannical dictator who rules the people under a well-polished military boot, forcing them to work gruelling jobs for no money; or a benevolent president who provides free housing and healthcare for all and runs free, democratic elections - you’re free to create your Tropico. That is, if you can stay afloat with the new economy changes.
Visually the game looks great, as you’d hope for a Caribbean island simulation. I really enjoyed the tiny details, such as ship wrecks in the sea and ancient markings carved into the mountains and volcanos. But despite the calm look, the game throws a lot at you very fast and as an inexperienced player, if you can’t find the balance to keep your people happy and your economy in check - you may not be able to enjoy it for very long.
One of the main changes in Tropico 6 is the size of the maps. It seems Limbic listened to our cries and added extra islands, with new boat mechanics and bridges. Although this prevents sacrificing buildings in the modern era (endgame), it does create issues with the fundamental idea behind Tropico’s economies, getting resources from A (a mine or plantation etc) to B (the dock) as this distance can be much further. Let’s say you want to set up a gold mine but the only deposit is on the other side of the map? It will be a while before you start seeing any gold being sold and it won’t get exported very regularly. This is taking to account some questionable</b> path-finding from the in-game citizens - who I found would often ignore the nice convenient tavern or health clinic I had built next door and travel across the island(s) in search of a doctor or a drink.
This isn’t the only system that’s been shaken up. Limbic have ditched the dynasty system from Tropico 5, which added family members with custom traits and an extra slice of customisation and replaced it with a much simpler trait system. I enjoyed the new customisation system which locks some cosmetics behind achievements, although in my playthrough I did find some bugs.
(Un)Pharaoh?
Some older systems have been given a new lease of life, such as the political speeches from Tropico 4 which enables Presidente to praise certain factions and make promises in exchange for support in elections; as well as the era system from Tropico 5, which allows players to play right the way through from being a colonial governor in the late 19th and early 20th century to running a modern civilisation with nuclear weapons and killer drones. My favourite new feature is the raids. You can build bases for gangs of pirates to plunder the seas, ‘find’ resources and ‘rescue’ new citizens for your island, as well as a HQ for an elite squad of commando soldiers to raid major world powers and crush your local rebel forces. Did I mention they can also steal world wonders?
The (stolen) Statue of Liberty sits proudly in the bay welcoming ships and tourists
I loved watching a group of helicopters paradrop buildings onto my island and the humour that Tropico is so well known for fits this perfectly (for example, a player may have to produce a large amount of pork or ‘bratwurst’ to distract the Germans with if you attempt to steal the Brandenburg gate).
Overall, Tropico 6 feels like a nice definitive edition as it takes all the best features from the previous games and adds a few new ones as well as some quality of life features, which are fun. However there is so much going on, especially in the campaign missions, without much explanation it can be overwhelming. I found my economy spiralling into negative figures with little or no advice on how to fix it, as well as huge numbers of citizens rebelling despite satisfying all the political parties and having decent happiness levels, which wasn’t fun. The uniqueness of Tropico sets it apart from other city building games and has kept the series successful for years, but it is clear here that this can also alienate new players. It is a good play and long-time fans of the series will it enjoy it, but new ones might struggle without a lot of time invested and should perhaps pick up the earlier games as a tutorial.