Tropico 6

Review

Have you ever dreamed of living on a beautiful island, where the land is fertile, the surrounding waters are filled with delicious fish, and where you have access to the most valuable and needed resources in the world?  It just happens to be the most popular tourist destination on Earth. In a nutshell, a paradise. But for whom? For the residents or for the head of state. Interestingly, you have won the presidential election on this beautiful island, known as Tropico. So, El Presidente, what type of a leader will you be? A do-gooder or a dictator! Only time will tell, in Tropico 6.     

Tropico 6 is a simulation/city builder/strategy game developed by Limbic Entertainment and published by Kalypso Media on the 19^th March 2019 on Steam.

The game consists of 15 missions, a sandbox and a multiplayer mode.

Each of the missions can be played on an easy, normal or hard difficulty level, and each level has a specific task to complete in order to win a scenario. If you decide to play the missions, you’ll have access to the first 5 scenarios and will need to win a minimum of three maps to unlock the next 5 levels, 6 to unlock another 4, and 9 to unlock the final mission. And let me tell you my friends, it will take you quite a while to do so. If this is the first time you’ve played a game from this franchise and you’re not quite sure what to expect, there is a great tutorial for you to learn the basics of the game.

As you launch a mission, you’ll be greeted with a Tropico postcard and facts on dictators and/or game tips while waiting. Then a short intro will outline your tasks and you’ll start your presidency.

Each scenario will start at a certain point in the 90’s and as soon as the intro is done and dusted, your loyal military aid, Penultimo, or one of the important individuals from the Tropico community factions, will start giving you tasks. Some will have a time limit, while others not. Depending on the main goal (to win the level), you can choose to either take on the task or dismiss it. Bear in mind that each completed task will have its reward, which is usually either money, additional immigrants, blueprints or positive points toward a community faction. For example, if you complete a task for the military faction, you can take 5 positive points to increase your popularity for that faction.

On the top left of your screen, you’ll have a tab where you can see your population, your approval rating, as well as how much money you have in El Presidente’s coffers.  The bottom left corner will show the current year and month, and the option to accelerate/decelerate the game.

As the tasks come in, you’ll be using the interface which is centred at the bottom of your screen and has 12 tabs, of which you’ll use Construction, Research, Trades, Raids and Broker the most.  You’ll find yourself building industries, plantations, residences and roads within Tropico. Not only that, but you’ll have to make sure you keep the standard of living for your citizens at a certain level; you’ll face unemployment, as well as attacks from rebels and enemy forces.  There’ll be a new election every ten years, so making sure you have enough people on your side is crucial to staying in office. This will also require that you research and implement policies that will either positively or negatively impact the lives of your citizens.  It will also help you to acquire blueprints for major structures.  This research will take time and may be part of a task, and it can be tricky at times to choose which research to do first.      

The Broker is an interesting fellow as he can sell you all sort of things, such as blueprints (at a far better price), faction points, research and other interesting things which I’ll let you find out. You have to have a building permit in order to open a Swiss bank account and deal with the broker.

Once you do, all the building costs will increase, and you’ll be able to take 2 percent for yourself to put into your Swiss bank account.  New purchase options will become available through the broker on 1^st January every year.

The other thing that can help you is to build a Pirate cove where you can organise raids on enemies, find loot, or send commandos to heist landmarks (Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower) for example.  You can even rescue castaways (or choose to rescue only the smart ones)!

It will take you hours to complete a scenario and if you are like me, you might find yourself playing the same scenario again and again before winning it.  It is a very fine line to achieve success in this game, but it is extremely fun.

In the sandbox options, you decide all perimeters (size maps, funds, climate etc) and off you go.

One of the things that makes this game so cool is the regular funny comments throughout your playthrough. As far as I am concerned, it’s magic and magnetic.  But wait, there is more . . . the soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal, and you might find yourself suddenly standing up and dancing in front of your screen while your minions are working. I must warn you to be careful about dancing in front of your screen with a wired headset; it’s fine with a cordless one!

Splendid graphics (3840 X 2160 on ultra-settings) and the game runs extremely well. You can even customise El-Presidente, which is a lot of fun.