Tropico 5 Review - Rule By Any Means Necessary

It feels strange to say the name Tropico 5. Only 13 years ago the first Tropico debuted. During that short length of time the series would accumulate five total releases. SimCity? That had three—remember SimCity Societies? Even Anno was only able to rack up a total of four installments during that time. So yes, Tropico knows how to pack in the releases.

As a result of the short spacing, some fans were disappointed by Tropico 4. Don’t take that the wrong way, it was a good game, but its minor additions to the previous iteration weren’t substantial enough for a lot city building experts. Haemimont Games took note, and thought of some clever ways to make 2014’s release, Tropico 5, a proper evolution of its premier construction and management game.

Tropico 5 is by no means a real-time strategy game, so let’s get that out of the way. You will be the only person building structures on the island unless you play online. All interactions come in the form of dialog and invasions that randomly appear on your doorstep. The feeling of macro-interaction comes solely from faction affiliation and trade where you can see what nations populate the world and use them as import or export friends.

With that out of the way, this is arguably the best Tropico game from a gameplay standpoint. There are a few new additions to the franchise, most notable of which is the era system. You’ll begin your timeline in the Colonial age, and through main objectives will progress through the World Wars, Cold War, and eventually end up in Modern Times. Each of these periods have distinct visual differences, as well as being critical to progressing in technology. Want an Aircraft Carrier to defend your capital city? You better get to work. This is something that really helps to mix things up, although it makes additional playthroughs less interesting. I mean, who wants to play during the Colonial Age again?

Perhaps its greatest success is in producing a world that, while moderate in size, feels alive. You’ll be bound to an island landmass—it definitely beats SimCity 2013‘s miniature plots, for the record— that’s inspired by countries such as the Domincan Republic, with all citizens fully simulated. Yes, that means all 500, 1,000, or more people that live in your country have jobs (hopefully), a home, and an opinion. You can follow them through their daily routines which can consist of contributing to society with work, or building shacks and making a slum out of your empire. These citizens are dynamic, and have their own interests. In some cases that might mean they love you and your leadership, and in other cases they want to overthrow you.

Tropico 5 is a constant political balancing act. As the almighty El Presidente you can make a nation that’s free with democratic voting open to everyone. Eventually, those who would prefer a socialist way of life will oppose you. You can try everything you can to make your preferred style satisfy everyone, but ultimately there will be pushback. You then have the choice to either let those who aren’t happy with your leadership run around negatively impacting your approval rating—and if it goes lower than 50% you could actually be tossed out in an election—or do some good old fashioned dirty work. Using assassinations, bribery, and other tactics, you might show a political dark side that you never knew you had.

This political side of the game is its most interesting asset, and is the major selling point of Tropico over other games in the genre. The only problem is, as with several other elements of the game, the way it presents information to you is cumbersome and limited. Fumbling through menus results in basic information that at times is difficult to understand, and as you might guess analyzing this information is critical to being successful as El Presidente.

The campaign suffers from similar presentational issues. The game teaches you how to play with a very helpful tutorial, but if you quit during any of its multiple stages you’ll lose all of your progress. The missions of the campaign aren’t laid out at all and instead you have to just assume that you’re doing things correctly. That said, the campaign eases you through each of the four eras and presents a variety of objectives that serve as investment-worthy tasks. It’s well worth a playthrough if you’re new to the Tropico universe.

If you’re a true fan of the franchise, you’ll get the most entertainment out of playing a custom game, where you can select from a variety of islands, or play online. Custom games have a variety of options for tuning your experience. It’s easy to get lost in world of Tropico 5 as you spend the handful of hours required to go from the Colonial Era to the Modern Era. That time will be full of evolution politically, economically, and visually. In terms of online, up to four players, including you, can converge for co-operation or competition. Given the abundance of time it takes to get anywhere in games like this you’ll only really want to hop on with friends and when you have a couple hours to spare, but if you happen to get into a good game you’re in for a very good time.

If you’re new to Tropico, the gameplay is as complex or simple as you make it. Ultimately, it’s about utilizing the resources around you, including coffee beans, bananas, iron ore, fish, and much more. With the currency you earn from exporting goods you can build structures which are even more numerous than the resources you use to fund them with. You’ll place buildings like restaurants and factories. However, most of your time will be occupied providing homes to new residents, facilities that harvest resources to earn you income, and occasionally major structures like churches and universities to improve the quality of life of your citizens. As with the political side of the game, it’s all a balancing act. Too much or too little of anything is inefficient.

There’s also a military side of the game, but it’s very simple and non-interactive. By building military installments you are supplied with more units, including soldiers, tanks, and more. When you’re invaded, these units will defend your civilization automatically. All of the interaction comes in the form of building structures that increase the size of your military. It feels underdeveloped, and although Haemimont Games say that they made it this way to prevent the game from becoming an RTS, interaction at some level would probably be better than watching units stand around while your water-side structures get obliterated.

As with previously entries in the franchise, Tropico 5 has plenty of humor. The writing is sarcastic and witty. The voice acting is well delivered and punctual. This doesn’t necessarily mean the gameplay experience shouldn’t be taken seriously, though. The game behaves like a mature construction and management simulator.

Playing as El Presidente you’ll create a lineage of family members that have unique traits. They’ll walk around your town, provide some minor bonuses, and hopefully accrue money in their Swiss Bank Account. These funds are the ultimate prize as they increase the wealth of you personally, and are treated as your score at the end of the game.

Unlike the rest of the game, the character customization in Tropico 5 is a step back for the series. The options are limited and result in a rather boring look of family members unless you enjoy having them run around in astronaut suits. This ultimately impacts the fun of building a dynasty of rulers.

Playing the PC version I was happy with how the game looked. There are the noticeable details such as huge patches of colorful trees and the bustle of your city as hundreds of citizens go about their daily tasks. Then there are the small things, like how construction facilities will deploy trucks that drive to a new building and build it, and even the visual adjustments between eras. The only real shortcoming are the menu and UI elements, which are manageable, but don’t present information efficiently or with as much information as they could.

At $39.99 MSRP, it’s hard not to recommend Tropico 5 to gamers who enjoy strategy games. It’s fun to rule a small civilization of dynamic citizens with several tools at your disposal. Beyond the conventions of past Tropico games, the improvements are a positive evolution for the franchise. However, it is rough in how it displays information and at times shows weakness in execution. If you’ve ever wanted to rule a civilization, staying in power by any means necessary, Tropico 5 can deliver at an affordable price.