I have some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that there will be a new Tropico, the celebrated city building/person managing game series. Neither of the Tropicos were great games, but they had a spark of innovation and cleverness that the genre generally lacks. The banana republic themed first one was great because it was so new, though tyranny was a lot more trouble than it was worth. (Maybe Socrates was right.) The pirate themed second one was also pretty clever, and it had pirates. A new Tropico game should be reason to celebrate.
Which brings us to the bad news. It will be developed by Haemimont Games, a studio that hasn’t been able to make an enjoyable Roman themed city builder even though they could steal from a lot of other games out there.
Tropico was good stuff that could have been great stuff.
Uh oh. Context does not a good game make.
Although I’m bitterly disappointed with Tropico’s fail at running in Vista.
That, and the way the game had this horrible slog-phase as you tried to get stuff built, but your lazy teamsters and constructions crews were too lazy to get stuff done… perhaps if I knew what I was doing it would’ve been more enjoyable.
Whatever, my point is, that’s one of those games where the “Sid Meier’s Railroads” dumbing-down treatment would possibly improve things.
I found that Tropico benefited from a bit of self-imposed roleplaying. After a while, I had figured out how to build up a prosperous and happy island, especially when the tourist dollars began rolling in; so I would make myself play a certainly way by purposely favoring a certain faction or using more sticks than carrots to keep people in line. You don’t always get to retire that way, but it keeps the game fresh.
My only complaint about Tropico was that the people ignored roads. Other than that, it was wonderful, and has a permanent place on my harddrive. And I haven’t had any problems with it in Vista.
Hi Troy,
I hope you enjoy our third attempt at a Roman-themed citybuilder more than you did the first two – there will be a playable demo soon – and this will make you a bit more hopeful about Tropico 3 ;-)
While I don’t defend ‘Tropico One’ as being perfect, I opine it was better than than these comments indicate. I think all the complaints here – except the Vista stuff – are discussed in detail at ‘Cafe Tropico’. I regret that Ivan-Assen talks about a “city-builder” because that is not what “T-1” as expanded by ‘Paradise Island’ is.
I’m hoping for a good result on this 3rd try.
Unfortunately, Haemimont Games is developing Tropico 3, as a game for teen-age German boys, who have a fascination with American Indians ala 1502AD. Plus, they are reducing the number of buildings from the Trop1-MM edition. From the little bit of information that is available… they have no clue as to what Tropico is all about.
Save your money for something better.
I wonder if they would have a wind power plant and a recycling plant???
The screenshots look hot!!!!
Unexpected Pleasure // Mar 20, 2009 at 11:41 am
[…] while back I called into question the quality of the upcoming Tropico 3 because its developer, Haemimont Games, had never really entertained me with one of their […]
Well what can I say, Tropico 1 regardless of some negativity was a great game, if you was interested in the political regimes then how could anyone complain. Yes I agree the roads were not used and that did disapoint me somewhat however it is the only game I have gone back to and played constantly for the past 8 years or so. Tropico 2 well I brought it and played it for 10 minutes and now it sits abandoned on the shelf. Bring on tropico 3 and a demo? I would love to see how this game stands against tropico 1
3 and one-half months to release and a few early screenies leave us with the question, “where in the Caribbean are we?”
It is certain that there will be a Soviet style communications tower for the TV Station building. There will also be cars, trucks and beautifully paved roads. Humm?
Now it’s the last day of a sad year. T3 is simply a crappy distortion of the original conception of the simulaton. It has good eye-candy. It’s selling well in Europe among the teens who have no memory of the “Cold War.”
But who cares? It’s just another game.