
The less entertaining side of Tropico 6 is the economy. Both styles of governing are enjoyable (and viable) in their own way.

Tropico 6 review full#
Keeping things legit can feel like constantly having to placate a room full of feuding preschoolers, but the trade-off is not having to worry so much about interrogating rebels and filling the islands with machine gun towers. You can subvert democracy in a pinch with bribes, assassinations, or rigging elections, but these all have meaningful consequences such as reduced liberty or increased rebel activity. Military buildings, for example, reduce liberty within their radius, but failing to build any will make you very vulnerable to attacks from rebel groups or foreign powers.Įach citizen also belongs to a faction, such as the communists or the industrialists, which often have mutually-exclusive desires that must be strategically fulfilled or ignored in a tense but enjoyable juggling act to keep your approval high enough to keep getting elected. Satisfying some of these needs will usually be in direct competition with others, which leads to interesting choices. Satisfying one need will usually be in direct competition with another, which leads to interesting choices.Īll the while, you'll have to keep the population happy with some combination of a stable food supply, healthcare, entertainment, protection from crime and war, and liberty. But the other eras let you stay in them as long as you want, and new mechanics are introduced gradually as you go from one to the next. Only the Colonial Era has a time limit, as you have to declare independence before your governorship runs out. Laying roads, building houses, creating jobs, and ensuring access to public services is relatively easy to do, other than the fact that you can't zoom in or out when placing a building and some of the logic the road painter uses to get everything to snap together does not seem to resemble our Earth logic. Usually, I didn't have a problem with how much was going on because the tools provided are pretty good. Despite its relaxing environment, its politicking, trade, and mission systems kept me busier than any of its predecessors as I strived to stay in power and accomplish objectives that would advance me from the colonial era all the way up to the modern day – many of my own making in sandbox mode, as well as pre-made ones in its 15 story missions.

There's a lot going on across the inviting white sand beaches, bungalows, and lush jungle interiors of the latest version of Tropico, which look great except for the waterfalls, which seem lifted out of a 10-year-old game.
Tropico 6 review how to#
Nothing, that is, besides an unwieldy economic simulation that can quickly go belly up without giving you easy access to information on how to fix it. There's nothing stopping you from trying to build a communist paradise where everyone lives in haciendas and banana pickers make as much money as tech executives, or a brutal military dictatorship that only cares about how efficiently human lives can be turned into profitable exports. There aren't a lot of city builders that let you roleplay a specific type of leader, so I immediately took a liking to the freedom Tropico 6 gives you to do just that.
