Tropico 4 Review

I finally bought Tropico 4, the game in which you rule a Caribbean Island nation. I have to say, it is really fun to play.

 Obligatory Pre-Released Image for Reviews #1

It is exactly the same as the previous game. Rule a Banana Republic using any means necessary. If you are upset that the graphics and music are the same as the last game, boo hoo. They were good in the last one, do you need to improve it? Unfortunately, my computer can only handle the game on low graphics, which is a shame, in between when my computer freezes because of a bad motherboard or bad fan causing it to overheat. The latter problem is not the games fault but the former problem is (maybe). My computer is only two years old and it can’t run this game with medium graphics without slowing down? Anyway, to the game…

For some reason, I have to register online and login to play the game. Actually, that reason is for stopping piracy, but I think it is stupid to make you have to go online to play a single player game. Now really, on to the game…

There are some improvements to the game. You have a cabinet in which you can appoint ministers, mostly to issue edicts (laws like “Social Security” or “Building Permits”). Throughout the game you get certain challenges. Challenges can come from a foreign power to export more resources or the leader of a faction at home demanding something like a new church or a landfill. However, read the challenge carefully before selecting, because you cannot cancel it if you accept. I accidentally agreed to export more Tobacco to the US. The only problem was that my Island Nation does not have the right climate to grow tobacco easily. Now I have a challenge that I cannot easily complete or delete. Sometimes the challenges are unreasonable, like “remove the lumber industry from your island”. Gee, I’m sorry the environmentalists love trees, but my people need jobs and the nation needs money!

You have factions in the game like communists, capitalists, environmentalists, loyalists, religious, militarists, intellectuals, and nationalists. The most overused phrase to describe this is “It’s a juggling act to keep them all happy!”. Low wage discrepancy will make communists happy, but make capitalists fume. Loyalists hate free elections but Intellectuals love them. And so on and so forth. I noticed a glitch in the game that causes the Loyalists to hate you forever. One of the edicts is “Ideology Book” (like Mao’s Little Red Book) where you publish a book on your ideology (duh) to create fanatically loyal people out of the stupidest people in the nation. 

It stays in effect for three years, but after that time is up, the Loyalists act as if you canceled it 50+ times. Nothing you can do will ever make them happy as the three things that they do like are vastly outweighed by the supposed 50 times you canceled your book. Fortunately, a patch was released and it was fixed. It is a bit odd that Loyalists can turn on you so easily. You know, “Loyal”-ists?

You have to appease the world powers. There are two main powers, the US and the USSR, and three new powers added in this game, Europe, China, and the Middle East. If you piss off Uncle Sam or the Great Bear, you could be invaded and then it’s game over. Make the other three powers mad, and they will place an embargo on your nation. To make them mad, go into debt or side against someone during the random events like “Mideast Revolutions” or “Who does Taiwan Belong to?”.

Going into debt is very easy with the small sum of money they give you to start out with. I’ll admit it; I do use a money cheat code. One Million dollars of starting funds is enough to slowly build up an economy so when you spend it all, you are finally exporting enough goods to make a profit. I finally understand why third world nations hate the US. They’re trying to build up a nation but some nation has to come in and make things harder for you. If you try to go without the money cheat, it would probably be 1980 before you get any industries, 2000 before your nation gets electricity, and 2020 before you get your first tourists. Time flies when you have no money. Maybe I just suck at the game.

Of course there are disasters which are fun and inconvenient. A Tsunami early in one game killed half my people and set me back over a decade. Of course “Llama Flu” had spread on my island which prohibited me from getting immigrants. I didn’t see that message at first and thought the game had glitched or that I had accidentally selected “No Immigrants” on the game menu.

 Obligatory Pre-Released Image for Reviews # 2

Housing is always a problem for me. I can never meet the needs of the people. At first, I have enough, but then I focus on meeting the other needs (religion, entertainment, healthcare, etc.), then I’m trying to get a food surplus, then it’s building up my industry, and after 25 years, 75% of the people are homeless and those with a home live in crappy tenements. Getting your builders to build is hard enough. After placing a building you can decide how important it is to build: low, medium, high, or don’t build. If you leave everything at “medium”, they take their sweet ass time getting around to it and usually leave half-way through construction without a replacement and I have a half-built home for 15 years sitting there. “High” priority gets them there pretty quick, but I obviously can’t do that for all the buildings because the builders then become confused as to which one they should work on first. I mind as well just leave it at “medium”. Why would I ever need “Low” priority? Either build it now or wait. Getting the people in a house can be pretty hard. I have a lovely set of middle class homes on the east side, completely empty, and the homeless on the west side won’t move their lazy asses in, even though they can afford it! Of course, if you have too many buildings under construction at one time, your top advisor “loses” the blueprints for every building on the island. He even loses blueprints for roads.

 When can we start?

I have a few problems with the game.

The biggest problem I had with the game was the limit on how many roads you could build. In game, they tell you it has become too expensive to maintain the current amount of roads, although I don’t see that anywhere in the budget. It’s a city building game and you limit the amount of roads I can build? Try that with SimCity and see how much fun you’ll have. The game is about twice as big as the last so I need MORE roads than before! Fortunately, the same patch that solved the “Ideology Book” Edict bug increased the road limit. There is still a limit, but I haven’t reached it yet.

Another problem I have is that if you are invaded, overthrown, or voted out of office, it is an instant game over. I would like to continue the game with a new avatar as a foreign puppet, a military dictator, or a democratic reformer who tears down all the statues of the old El Presidente. Instead you can play as a leader with multiple personalities who goes from being all of those things in 50 years. Could I die a natural death (or from assassination) and have my son or daughter become next in line? Nope. El Presidente can have a 500 year reign if you are dedicated enough to play that long.

If you aren’t going to let me die, then make the game timeless. Have it so we are always stuck in the 1950s like a sitcom with a moving timeline. It bothers me that the USSR still exists after 1992 and China doesn’t replace them as the rival Super Power after 2020 or something. In Tropico 3 with a patch, the radio announcer does mention the Soviet Union Collapsing around 1992, but the game still lists “USSR”. In the game “Victoria”, the nation’s flag would change in-game if they became Communist, or a Monarchy, etc. Why can’t Tropico 4?

I know I had a lot to complain about, but they were small things, some of which were fixed. Most of it probably stems from the fact that I’m not good at multitasking or I’m very slow. For some reason, my country progresses much slower each time I start a new game. It is an enjoyable game and the reviews and ratings given out to it are very accurate and fair. I would like it much more if my computer didn’t crash so frequently while playing, but that isn’t the fault of the game. It crashes during every game and when I watch videos.