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For all those who are aimlessly looking around for a decent game to keep you company for many weeks to come..
The third edition of the tropico series has recently been added to my steam Library. And I'm absolutely glad it did.
Although I have never played the original version nor the second release, this piece is a refreshing change from the grim city building simulators or political strategy games.
The tropical setting, original game approach and the chance to become a ruthless dictator made this game appealing even from the screen shots.
The main components of the game can be broken down into:
Gameplay:
This is not another city builder.
This ... is ... TROPICO!
The game starts out with a rather quick and superficial tutorial that gives you a tiny glance at what the game could be about. A few instructions on feeding the population, developing buildings and dealing with some micro-management.
The first choices of campaign missions allow you to grow in expertise and increase your knowledge of the game's mechanics.
They appear to have been made less challenging to avoid bringing you to immediate failure in your first approaches to the game.
The downside of making the first missions easy:
most people will think the game will keep being easy and monotonous. Wrong. The game quickly becomes challenging as your missions and objectives become harder to complete.
The enviroment is "sandbox"ed and allows the
democratic dictator (you) to choose between several strategies, perhaps political, economical or military, to obtain the same goal by different means.
You'll always have something to do in this game, buy a spare mouse if you need to.
In other words: The game has gameplay. And tons of it.
Graphics:
Considering the genre of this game, I believe the graphics to be of the medium-high range. The tropical settings have been developed greatly and the vegetation and local fauna is absolutely satisfying on the graphical side. Character models do their jobs rather well.
As long as the player does not zoom into a few physical inches from the local population or your on avatar, viewing the population and building from a mediocre distance cannot be dissappointing.
You will need a fairly decent machine to grind this game in high settings, but if you do manage to play it with at full throttle, I doubt you'll be dissapointed.
Sunsets and sunrises are spectacular and the water is just.. inviting.
Just this once, you will not have to chose between graphics or gameplay. You get both.
Audio: Even though the game seems to be lacking a major influence in the sound effects area (the game does seem rather silent without the musical theme), the in-game radio is absolutely spot-on! Latin-American soundtrack and spot on radio host comments contribute in an important fashion to the player experience. You will not need an extra set of speakers, but this is a game better played at a decent volume.
Price: Anything decent under $20 is practically a good deal. I got this at under $10!
Final words: Get it. Get it now. Do it. Who doesn't want to be a dictator on a beautiful island?!
