Tom's Comments: I have lost entire
weekends to PopTop's Railroad Tycoon II. I similarly lost the
better part of last week to PopTop's Tropico, which is in some
ways every bit as good as Railroad Tycoon II. But in some ways,
it may turn out to be less compelling than Railroad Tycoon II,
partly because it's a completely different style of game. My main
concern with Tropico is that it may not have Railroad Tycoon II's
nearly limitless replay value. Nevertheless, Tropico is still
a deep rich game with a lot to recommend it.
Tropico isn't unique. The basic mechanics are almost
identical to Maxis SimCity and Impressions' Caesar/Pharaoh in
that you plan the placement of buildings and then stand back to
see what effect they have. The most significant difference is
Tropico's contemporary banana republic setting, which works its
way into every corner of this clever and imaginative game. It's
steeped in a crisp clear atmosphere, with detailed buildings (what
artwork!), various human motivations tugging every which way (what
detail!), entertaining animations (how clever!), and an appreciation
for the complexity of politics (how addictive!), all brought together
on a beautiful Caribbean isle. The approach is entirely light
hearted. There's no torture or drugs. There are, I suppose, death
squads and repression, but it's still very light-hearted. "Adios,
muchacho," my advisor crows when my soldiers mow down a rebel.
There is squalor. It takes a while for industry and electricity
to arrive. Prosperity is elusive and shantytowns are the norm.
There's a lot of detail here, but is there really
that much choice? Railroad Tycoon II was wide open to player choice
and no two games played alike, but Tropico seems to call for a
fairly uniform course of action. Namely, make everyone as happy
as you can. Of course, I make no claims to having mastered the
game's nuances, but so far I've had little luck with repression.
If I ignore religion or housing, for instance, my presidency comes
tumbling down. This is partly because some soldiers get upset
if you don't provide religion and housing. Ironically, I've also
had problems with soldiers who demand liberty for the people.
Unhappy soldiers lead to military coups. In my later games, I
plan to screen the military of bleeding hearts and using a cadre
of soldiers who can be kept happy and loyal by appealing to a
few select motivations.
This is actually where Tropico is a very rich and
deeply satisfying game. The motivations of the people are laid
bare. In RollerCoaster Tycoon, it's cute to be able to figure
out that Guest #131 doesn't like your rollercoaster because it's
too intense for his tastes. But in Tropico, 58-year old Analisa
Bonilla dies of pneumonia in a banana patch. Her body lies face
down in the sun. She leaves behind two children, Juan Carlos and
Rogelio. She had worked as a maid and then a farmer. Her last
thought was, "I'm dying". On many different levels,
Tropico is a great story game, much like X-Com and Europa Universalis,
games that don't tell stories so much as give you stories to tell.
You'll come away with a veritable soap opera about your island.
It's not unlike a game version of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel.
Love in the Time of Tourism. Fifty Years of Solitude. The General
in His Armory.
Cont'd
