Tropico 3. Three thumbs up. =)

[kenney bounces]

Pre-ordered on amazon, it arrived yesterday. Am playing it, and having a great time. I think they did a really good job with tropico 3.

Here's my quick breakdown:

Pro:
+Exactly like how you remember tropico 1.. except BETTER (gameplay-wise). There's cars to speed up transport, there's the oil industry, there's new edicts like nukes, same-sex marriages(Roofles).

+There's description and details on exactly what each action does. IE: Increasing salary increases happiness info. (In tropico 1 a bunch of data was hidden)

Cons:

-Freaking graphics are retarded. Do not turn on most of the effects. I run two sli-GTX285 and it lags like mad with effects.

-Copyright protection requires you to activate the game online once. (At least there's a patch available now)

Minor Cons:

-F&%$$% radio guy who likes to shout "GOOD MORNING TROPICO". FUUUFUFUFU
At least you can turn the radio off.

-Power stations do not total up their generated power. You'll have to click separately.

Overall, really satisfied with this game. Would recommend it to any players who have played tropico 1 and loved it.

Disclaimer for those who've never played tropico:
It's like SimCity, but you roleplay a president in the carribean islands who can either rule with a ruthless military iron hand, generous capitalist pig method or the religious zealot.

Definitely more strategy game than a rpg.. but then again everything is classified r-pee-gee these days. T_T

 

[infomercialabsfuckyeah]

is the third thumb your wiener

why is this in the RPG section

I liked Tropico 3 okay, but I uninstalled it after beating a few scenarios because I just didn't find progress to be rewarding.

If it were less of a SimCity game and more of a Hidden Agenda game, I think it would really fulfill the game's potential thematically

 

[roll-a-die]

I'm glad someone else made the joke. It was too low-brow for me.

 

[MetalCraze]

So do you play a role in Tropico

 

[racofer]

Tropico is more RPG than say, Mass Effect, since it has an R and a P on its name, unlike ME which in turn has neither nor a G.

 

[mediocrepoet]

So do you play a role in Tropico

Well, if it's anything like the first one, you have a character generation system where you pick your background and significant perks and flaws. This helps you shape exactly what sort of banana republic dictator you want to be. C&C also comes into play as you set policy on things such as how to generate income, how to deal with dissent and whether to pursue favour with the USA or USSR.

So long as Tropico 3 has retained these factors, it may be the deepest and truest big budget RPG released in the past several years.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

So do you play a role in Tropico

Well, if it's anything like the first one, you have a character generation system where you pick your background and significant perks and flaws. This helps you shape exactly what sort of banana republic dictator you want to be. C&C also comes into play as you set policy on things such as how to generate income, how to deal with dissent and whether to pursue favour with the USA or USSR.

So long as Tropico 3 has retained these factors, it may be the deepest and truest big budget RPG released in the past several years.

You also get a physical avatar you can move around in Tropico 3. It's an RPG by all current definitions.

 

[vazquez595654]

When I was little I found Sim City fun. But I really don't find these types of games appealing anymore, or any of these quasi work simulators. I don't understand what is fun trying to simulate a real job. I know most people when they get bored will end up doing crazy stuff to their island to see what happens, like the aliens, monsters, and fires in Sim City. Then again, I hate micro-managing.

This game should be 2D. There is no reason for it to be 3D. I hate games that let you rotate a camera 360's. Most of the time it's useless and only helps to show things you can't see because the developer made the game 3D for no tactical reason.

 

[infomercialabsfuckyeah]

All it really has going for it is the premise. If you like absurdly complicated island-based economic simulators, Anno 1404 is better.

And considering how small the islands are in Tropico 3, the distances that you have to work with in terms of building influence areas are ridiculous. If these proles can't be bothered to go one and a half miles to a hospital then they deserve to die and there should be a "line the sick up against a bullet-pocked wall, ready aim and fire" button :evil:

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

-Copyright protection requires you to activate the game online once.

No. Now where is my bicorn and parrot?....

 

[GarfunkeL]

Just finished the demo. Same problem I encountered in Stronghold - it is fun but only for a short while before I start waiting for Godzilla to smash the place or a tsunami to hit or something.

And I really wouldn't call the economical model complicated, when manufacturing takes 3 steps at maximum and you can export raw materials as well.

So logging camp -> lumber mill -> furniture factory. Fishing wharf -> canning factory OR market place.

Peons don't even need roads, though they do help out with heavier stuff.

Does the full game engage you more and is it harder? I don't consider myself very good at these Sim City / Settlers copies but at least the two demo missions "Bananas & 2nd Chance" were laughably simple.

 

[LusciousPear]

I was on the beta team. It's an immensely fun game (imho) and the dev team is very responsive and kind. I spent hours building my little dictatorships. It's even better trying to RP and see if you can survive an election.

I once played as an intellectual who never built a church and shot every leader of the religious faction. Quite satisfying!

 

[treave]

LARPing in Tropico is fun.

Brief question, since Anno 1404 is mentioned - how does it stack up compared to Tropico? More complex and serious business?

 

[Ashery]

There are a couple lengthy threads in the strategy forum if you're inclined to look those up.

The game's good, but a bit of a step back from the original. That's not to say it's not a good game, but I doubt it'll be a classic. If only Fallout 3 was on the same level as Tropico 3...

To go into my opinions again...

Graphically speaking, the islands look fantastic, but the buildings lack the charm of the original. Everything looks too pristine and too large. Apartment and tenements are far too tall for one and many buildings have a footprint far larger than they should be for balance purposes. Garages are also horribly out of place.

Still, when the fancy effects are turned off completely, a fully built island looks pretty damn good.

Thanks to the roads and garages, the game also loses most of its difficulty. 90% of the challenge in the original was properly planning your island so that your citizens would spend as little time in transit as possible. Admittedly, the quick transit takes care of the micromanagement hell that develops later (Trying to get citizens to occupy housing near their job), but I'd rather that they solved that problem directly than working around it.

The added edicts are a mixed bag. Same sex marriage, to be quite honest, is horribly out of place in this setting. Sure, they get bonus points for adding in something that's controversial today, but in the long run it'll hurt the overall feel of the game as it's so out of place.

And the two demo missions are definitely easy as fuck. I didn't even face an election on the first map I won so quickly. There are enough enabled options in the demo, however, that you can play for a couple decades and get a good idea for the feel of the game. There are also ways to enable the disabled buildings in the demo, but check the official forums for that info. You can also save right when you complete a mission, reload, and continue playing.

Really, though, my main complaint is the lack of overall difficulty. Considering that you can fill up 90% of an islands real estate in only two decades, T3 just doesn't offer the same challenge as the original. And with the lack of difficulty comes a shorter lifespan on my hard drive.

 

[infomercialabsfuckyeah]

Anno 1404 is both more complex and more rewarding, and to me the gameplay mechanics just make more logical sense. I also think that the graphical presentation is much more appealing and coherent. But, there are demos of both games I think, so just have a try and see?

I will say though that Tropico 3 probably has a lot less frustration-potential than Anno 1404. Lots of "little" things can go subtly wrong in Anno 1404 and fuck you up and require frantic searching to find and fix, whereas Tropico 3 is a little more forgiving and you're generally aware of what needs to be done in a given location at a given time.

Except for the fact that Tropico 3's unit pathfinding needs some work, whereas in Anno 1404 it's just not an issue since roads are roads and armies are armies and that's that.

 

[treave]

Tropico 3, while fun, always felt like a 'light' simulator to me. Thanks, I'll give Anno 1404 a try then, though I'm not a fan of downloading demos on my very slow connection. Did try searching with Codex's inbuilt topic searcher but I only found one regarding Anno 1503.

edit: They were in General Gaming. >_>

 

[Starwars]

I've been playing Tropico 3 for quite a bit, and my main complaint is really that it is too easy. I mean, the series was never about complexity, but the addition of Garages (and no other real difficulty bumps in other areas of the game) makes it too easy.

There are some small things, like how we get more rebel attacks now (which is a very welcome addition all in all), but not really enough to balance it out.

Still, I find it an immensely fun game with an excellent atmosphere to it. I think the developers did a great job on updating Tropico. Hopefully, some people will get to work on the scenario editor and churn out some really challenging ones. There's a lot of potential there, I just hope people will get around to using it.

 

[Boyarpunk]

Definitely a fun time-waster. I give it three and half cocks up. :D

 

[kenney bounces]

I haven't bothered with a single campaign mission. Mostly playing the sandbox. How difficult you want it to be depends really on what you want to play.. a fanatical cult leader? A militaristic leader? A capitalist?

Powergaming it makes it e-z of course. Pretty much the same for any other game.