Review | Tropico 3

Format: PC/Xbox360 | Genre: City Building | Publisher: Kalypso Media | Developer: Haemimont Games | Release Date: 13/11/09 | RRP: £29.99

By Jennifer Allen

Secretly, we all want to be the dictator of something. Whether it’s giving orders around the house or complete control of an international superpower, we all want to do it, really. It’s why dictator-based sims such as Tropico 3 are popular. It allows us to fulfil our secret, sordid dream of domination. Admittedly, a small island in the Caribbean wasn’t enormously high on my dream dictatorship list (the USA sounds good to me, I like to aim high), but having played Tropico 3, I’m tempted to reconsider…

Of course, this was never going to be a serious look at just how awful dictatorial rule can be. Although there’s plenty of evidence of shanty towns and a fair few hints of suffering, it’s all rather tongue-in-cheek, practically a parody of Castro’s rule of Cuba. Look no further than the music, some of the most uncharacteristically cheery you’ll ever hear in a game, for proof of that.

On the surface, Tropico 3 a is standard city-building affair: build houses for your people to live in, farms to feed them and mines to provide work. But there’s an extra layer of depth to affairs with the addition of politics. Besides keeping your locals happy (or at least keeping them working hard and not starving), there’s also a need to keep the various political factions happy, and less than keen to rebel. You might need to keep the immigration rate at a steady level to ensure you have plenty of workers, but you don’t want it too high for fear of upsetting the nationalists. The same is true of other factions such as the religious zealots and the environmentalists, who all have their own aims in mind. It makes for a challengingly potent combination, with plenty to concentrate on when planning ahead.

//A revolution is not a bed of roses
Unfortunately, the political focus is a little vague at the start of play. The tutorial focuses more on the controls than the actual intricacies of the game, making it somewhat overwhelming when you suddenly realise just how much you control. The pacing is slow at times, as well, but there’s still plenty to focus on, and more thought is required than simply placing buildings in any old fashion. It makes a lot of sense to ensure that houses are near workplaces and hotels are near tourist attractions, for example, otherwise things just aren’t going to work very well – a seemingly obvious point, perhaps, but one that so many games of this ilk have missed before.

Besides a sandbox mode, the campaign provides the bulk of the content, with 15 varied missions on offer. The early ones go some way to rectifying the gaps of knowledge that the tutorial leaves, but the campaign swiftly becomes challenging.

//History will absolve me
Some of the scenarios require simple solutions, such as exporting a certain number of crops or attracting a certain number of tourists, but as things progress it becomes increasingly more difficult. One level, which involves surviving for a number of years without going bankrupt, proved a particular challenge. It sounds simple written down, but when you’re being heavily taxed by various superpowers around the world at the same time, your funds dry up quickly.  Tropico 3 is a constant balancing act between turning a profit, and appeasing your people to avoid an uprising. It works especially well thanks to the varied missions on offer, and the fact that there are always multiple options as to which scenario to undertake next. It never gets old, which is fortunate considering the lack of multiplayer functionality besides a glorified high score board.

Tropico 3 might lack the complex technology trees that the likes of the Civilization and Age of Empires series offer, but the political element fills the gap perfectly, making it a fairly unique proposition. It’s a shame the tutorial is so unwieldy, as there’s a chance many players could fall at the first hurdle. But stick with it until you’ve grasped the concepts, and you’ll find a well balanced game that provides plenty of entertainment while it lasts.

7/10

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