“If Castro can do it, so can I!” This is the statement you probably want to think about before installing this wonderful paradise building simulation game. First coming out in April of 2001, PopTop Software developed Tropico, a game where it let the player build an island of paradise where they ruled the people. Following up that release, they came out with Paradise Island, the expansion in February of 2002 which gave more buildings and different NPCs to roam your island of production. But everything has a catch, and this game certainly follows the trend. You do indeed rule the people, but you can’t really tell them what to do, you have to make it worth their while before they pick up a hammer and leave their house to build the city you want. The game takes place around the 1950s so buildings and structures will look a little older than modern buildings, but it only adds to the style and flavor of the game. Differentiating itself from any other game in its genre Tropico and its expansion, also known as Tropico: Mucho Macho Edition in a bundle package, set out to give the player an atmosphere they’ve never experienced before in creating their own island of production and tourism. Which one you’d like to achieve more success from is your own choice. From the main menu, you’re able to choose your route of play, either playing through the numerous scenarios which provide a nice healthy challenge, or play in the sandbox mode where you can try to rule your people for around 70 years and see what kind of a final score you get at the end. Both styles of play are fun and provide hours of entertainment considering the amount of scenarios that are packaged in the Mucho Macho Edition, but most players will want to start from scratch their first time and see how good of a ruler they are. From a list of different historic rulers, you’ll be able to pick and choose the qualities you want as a ruler and will then have to work off those personalities during the game whether they’re positive or negative traits. But that’s just starting off because from there, you’re able to choose how large of island you want, the elevation different between each coast, the vegetation, and also the amount of mineral deposits there are where you might be able to extract precious gems for money. There are just so many ways to make money on your island either through production of many different goods including food, furniture, and gems, but also through large amounts of tourism that you can set up on your little villa of paradise. But will this island build itself? Nope, of course not and neither will your workers unless you give them motivation enough to do their job. You better pay your workers enough, or give them a nice enough living area for their family whether it’s an apartment or their own luxurious home. You’ll be dealing with a large family structure in Tropico, because of your inhabitants having children and relatives and so on and they talk, oh yes. They all have their opinion of different aspects of the island including entertainment, health, and religion so you better keep track of who’s happy and who’s not. This may seem like a lot of micromanagement, but through large and easy to read charts, you’ll find keeping your residents at least ‘content’ with you can be pretty easy. You just need to please them. But hey, if you don’t, that’s okay because they’ll just vote you off. Yup, every now and then, some inhabitant on your island will run against you in an election and if you lose, you are deported from the paradise or hell you created. But, there’s always ways to change the vote, but there could always be repercussions of getting caught. And of course, some jobs on your island are meant for a higher level of education than what the mothers on your island are providing, so if you want to fill those jobs on your island meant for more intelligent people, you’ll either have to bring in people from far off countries which can be costly, or you can build high schools and colleges and educate your people yourself. You have the choice in Tropico and that’s what makes this game so replayable. The different ways to play each time. But tourism is something that every dictator/president should invest time into because that’s where you’re going to be making your money, and ultimately be how you’ll fill your Swiss Bank account for your retirement after being the president. But be weary, because if your inhabitants believe they’re not getting their share of the money, a high enough wage, they’ll let you know and begin to get irritated with you and your dictatorship. There are many ways to keep your people happy with many different political, economical, ecological, edicts that are available to help bring your popularity up before each election time so be rest assured you can pull out a few extra votes before everyone goes to the election boxes. Tropico is a very in-depth game, but with the amount of material, finding the right buttons can be difficult in the interface, but once you learn the different buttons and how to find certain items, you’ll be fine. The graphics are of course a little old even though the game came out in 2001, but the ability to zoom in to look at your little inhabitants and follow them around all day is great and then being able to zoom out to get a full view of your island is amazing. The buildings are nicely detailed and there are many of them to choose from to place upon your island, but one thing that might have been better with the buildings is letting the player be able to rotate all the buildings to fit on their roads and alleys in the direction they wanted. Only about half of the buildings can be rotated to fit their surroundings so this can be a hassle if the player wants to create a perfect city on their island. You can build roads across your island, but if it isn’t the shortest route to and from their place of employment, your inhabitants won’t take it. NPC models in the game are nicely detailed and help provide more atmosphere along with the building structures, but graphics aren’t the only thing that places the player in the role of creating a tropical setting, the music truly illustrates the relaxing feeling of being on a white sandy beach watching the crystal blue waves role onshore. From the time the first cinematic movie starts on your computer, you’ll be listening to Latino pop/folk/dance music that’ll put you in a relaxing mood wearing your beach shorts and sipping on your margarita drink as you scroll your mouse across the different sections of your island, whether it’s your farms producing pineapples, corn, bananas, tobacco or over your ‘business’ district of your furniture factory or rum distillery. You’ll just be in a laid back mood as you build up not only your island, but the morale of your followers/slaves, whatever you’d like to call them. This game should have come with a soundtrack to listen to when not playing the game so fans could feel that atmosphere of the sandy beaches, small markets, and palm trees, but you’ll just have to keep playing, but most people won’t argue. The overall experience you’ll have with Tropico: Mucho Macho Edition is what you make of it. It’s not like most other sim-building games where buildings just instantly build themselves or you how there’s no competition for leadership in the city. You’ll have to give employees motivation and then some to make them happy enough to keep you on the island and this feature of the game can be difficult and frustrating for some players of regular simulation games. You can be the leader you want, but the leader you are plays a large factor in how long you spend on your paradise island. With the amount of scenarios in the game and the ability to play through in a sandbox mode creating your own world of paradise, Tropico: Mucho Macho Edition is definitely a game that can last you a very long and fun filled time.
Sitting behind a big desk in a tropical climate, dictating the daily running of an island nation has got to be one of the more enjoyable jobs in life. Look at Fidel Castro: he did a similar job for so long, eventually on... Read Full Review
I can't entirely explain it, but for me at least, this game has INFINITE replayability. There are very, very few games I can play for more than 40-60 hours total and I almost never go back and pick up a game I've finish... Read Full Review
