Tropico 5 Review

Tropico 5 has put me, as a reviewer, in quite an awkward situation. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game and will probably be sinking plenty more hours into it after writing this article. Yet despite this, most of my ‘journalistic thoughts’ are centred around the single phrase: ‘this is basicallyTropico 4’. Of all the cash-grab sequels we’ve seen over the past few years, this has got to be, like a fat bloke stealing from a sports shop, the most blatant one yet.Tropico 5 has a serious lack of progression going on, yet I can’t help but love the damn thing. It’s easy-going, filled to the brim with content and an excellent antithesis to the stuck-up nose of SimCity. Of course, that was true of just about every Tropico game ever made. Does that lessen the quality of what is undoubtedly the best game in the series to date? Not really. Yet does that lack of development make it a questionable purchase? Most certainly.

The core principal of Tropico is here and unchanged: you play the dictator of a caribbean island, one El Presidente, and it’s your job to build your way to success. This means you’ll be catering for your workforce, or people as they prefer to be known, whilst developing the various forms of income available to you. Whether that be mining, production, tourism or the new (!) trade system. All the while there are other elements to consider such as military invasion, missions and the endless nagging of Tropico’s various factions. An interesting new addition to the game is introduced right at the beginning of the story mode and one that mixes up the faction system seen in Tropico 4. Rather than just appealing to the same groups throughout a game, the march of time sees four somewhat different eras play out, each with their own factions, buildings and challenges.

A standard game, and the story mode, begins in the Colonial era where your actions are constantly guided and scrutinised by the nondescript home nation. You essentially have a certain period of time to declare your island’s independence; it’s a clear attempt to make the early game a little more interesting than merely waiting for the serious cash to roll in. It’s semi-successful, but in reality this era rarely lasts long enough to be of much interest. The World Wars era is much more engaging. With the Axis and Allies battling away in the background, it’s your job to pick a side and make the most of the conflict. It’s also the point at which the more interesting buildings become available and the key to success in Tropico remains to be the ability to combine your buildings into an effective production chain.

A new research system is probably one of the best additions to the formula. Rather than buildings simply unlocking with time, the player has to decide which options to research, thereby unlocking buildings and various other perks. All the while, placement of research-themed buildings like libraries and observatories allow you to research items quicker. It’s a very basic system, but it makes it a lot easier to follow the gradual development of building types. In previous games it was easy to overlook many of the buildings simply because you hadn’t noticed they were available. The World Wars era also gives access to one of Tropico 5’s other new features, the constitution. It’s a small addition as well, but like most of the further new features, it adds little to the game: essentially just making slight changes to the background calculations of your island - more freedom or cheap soldiers, for instance.

The final two eras are also pretty interesting. The Cold War era will be the most familiar for longtime fans, as well as the point at which the most interesting buildings can be researched. Tourism and a lot of the more cost-effective industries become available during this period, two mechanics that are still great fun to play around with and watch develop. The Modern era closes the game, and although there are less options available during this period, it does feature some of the game’s coolest and most useful buildings. This constant timeline is a brilliant addition to the series, giving each game a sense of time and place; your island doesn’t just develop in size, but also in technology and synergy. It makes each island all the more special and the time-specific challenges help sell the whole system.

What’s interesting about Tropico is that, unlike SimCity, it is possible to create an island that focuses on just about every element of income. That’s not so great for replayability, but the game provides plenty of other options to keep you playing. The story mode is very similar to that found in Tropico 4 (with, mercifully, less Penultimo), which means levels centred on achieving one core goal while completing other smaller tasks. This time, however, the levels are all based on two islands which you will develop separately over the course of the story. It sure beats starting with a new island every time (as per Tropico 4), and gives the campaign a nice sense of continuity and ongoing development. Haemimont Games has noted that this mode should take between 13-15 hours, but in reality it’s more towards the 10 hour mark, particularly for experienced players. Still, it’s good fun and something that the most recent SimCity sorely missed.

Of course, one thing that SimCity certainly didn’t lack was online multiplayer capabilities. Tropico 5 marks the series’ first implementation of multiplayer, both in a co-op and vs format. There’s not a whole to say about the mode other than it’s the same as the basic game, but better alongside friends. You’ll be building different cities with up to three other players and while you can play in a friendly environment with a game-enforced no combat rule, it’s a lot more fun to play your own Cold War scenarios with the improved combat system. The military aspect of Tropico 5 is still somewhat lacking, but with a better array of available units (including tanks and bombers), it can be fun, especially online. Other than blowing the crap out of each other, there’s also the option to play competitively by completing a certain number of challenges. All in all, online multiplayer is a good addition to the game and one that is sure to rope in a lot of new players - who, in reality, are the people who will enjoy this game the most.

There are a few more new features, but none that add all that much to the game. Rather than constantly using one Presidente, you can now create a whole dynasty of family members with whom you can do various rather boring things. These include sending them on missions, assigning them to manage (and therefore improve) buildings and even selecting them to become the new Presidente. There’s not a whole lot of reasons to become invested in your family, so most players will probably ignore this mechanic as best they can. There’s also a new trading system that develops on from the ability in Tropico 4 to import goods for your factories. You can now assign special trade ships to import and export goods to and from other powers. In theory, it’s possible to base your entire island on the trade mechanic, but as it all works out of sight it’s not a whole lot of fun to do so, even as a small part of a normal game.

While at least a few elements have been jigged around on the gameplay front, Tropico 5 is almost exactly the same visually as its predecessor. That’s not to say it doesn’t look good, it certainly still does, but it’s a shame that after three years there hasn’t been much in the way of technological development. The slightly cartoony visuals are still expertly matched with the tongue-in-cheek presentation and the distinction between buildings is clear and well thought through - although I was sad to see that visible building upgrades have been removed. Afterall, it’s those sort of little details that make Tropico such a satisfying simulation game. Thankfully, there are plenty more cool little things to make you smile and chuckle. The classic silly Tropico humour is still firmly in place.

I’m just going to state the obvious to round things up: this is basically Tropico 4.5. There simply isn’t enough variation from the previous game to justify its development, let alone the full price tag, so I simply cannot score it too highly. Yet, as mentioned, I can happily recommend Tropico 5 as a game in and of itself. For essentially all the same reasons as 4, it’s a great city building title despite falling into some of the same issues: a moronic building system, an impending sense of repetition and generally simplistic gameplay. Despite this, it’s still great fun, and that’s hard to disagree with as a reason to buy. For newcomers to the series the inclusion of multiplayer, the eras system and some decent general balancing work make this the best iteration of Tropico yet. For series fans however, it’ll be difficult to see past the lack of innovation. In all likelihood though, like me you’ll still have a great time playing it, and isn’t that what’s most important.