As the newly
installed dictator of an obscure Caribbean island, build
a path of progress for a nation mired in poverty, civil
unrest and infighting. Oh, and uhh… stash a few
million in your Swiss bank account just in case you need
to take early retirement.
Tropico takes the addictive
building-oriented gameplay of hits such as SimCity 3000
and Railroad Tycoon 2, combined with a healthy dose of
Latin American political intrigue, and bundles it up in
an easy-to-learn, hard to master, utterly addictive
package.
Tropico is first and foremost a
builder. Tropico provides over 100 structures to build,
from hotels and spas for tourists to banana groves,
sugar plantations and copper mines for food and basic
exports, to rum distilleries and cigar factories for
basic industry. Industry, mining, agriculture, or
tourism, you choose to shape the economy to your vision.
And don’t let your lust for Yanqui dollars overcome
your concern for the plight of your people. (or
they’ll overcome your palace guards and teach you a
lesson in mob justice) As a precaution against such
unpleasantness, may we suggest building the secret
police headquarters for ferreting out and re-educating
your misinformed dissidents?
Your island’s inhabitants are
fleshed out individuals, most of whom support you as
their leader (at least initially). They go about their
daily business striving for happiness under your
enlightened rule. They have homes, jobs and identities,
and they like being safe, well-fed, employed and
spiritually enriched. Plan your growth well, and
you’ll have plenty of money to buy your people’s favour.
Plan your growth poorly, and, well, there’s always
martial law…
Features/Specifications
Tropico Retail Box
As the newly installed dictator of a mythical
Caribbean island, your difficult and fascinating
task is to lift your tiny nation out of poverty and
civil unrest. Want to restore democracy? Go ahead,
but keep your people happy or they will vote you
out. Want to rule with the strong hand of the army?
Achtung, baby, but the Church will be your enemy and
the peasants may revolt. Whatever you decide, keep funnelling
some money into that Swiss back account in case you
need to take an extended vacation abroad.
You'll start a game with approximately 20 people
on your island, but by a scenario's end, you may
have as many as 500. All of these citizens will go
about their daily lives without any direct
intervention on your part. And their lives can be a
visual delight, too. Professors look appropriately
nutty, teamsters look like they're ready to knock
off for a beer (or knock off your head), the ladies
practicing the world's oldest profession look steamy
and sultry, and so on.
Each person is an individual with over 40 unit
attributes that will determine his or her
motivations. These variables include the person's
background (where he or she was born, educational
level, economic environment in which he or she grew
up) and the person's current status (whether he or
she has adequate food, shelter, money, employment,
entertainment, and more). Other attributes include
overall happiness, happiness with your regime,
likelihood of revolt, political liberty, place of
upbringing, leadership, salary, job happiness, and
much more. You'll be able to click on a person to
check a lot of their attributes, although some
factors will probably remain hidden and nebulous…
just like life.
Another vital factor to balance will be the
educational level of your people. If citizens are
not adequately educated, they will not be able to
perform some important jobs-grade schools, after
all, don't turn out many doctors. On the other hand,
university graduates will want jobs commensurate
with their educational level, and if your economy
doesn't supply those jobs, they'll be forced into
jobs they don't want and their happiness levels will
drop. Some might even emigrate to foreign countries
where the opportunities are better. Jobs are
classified into three educational categories:
uneducated, high school, and college. Dockworkers,
farmers, miners, prostitutes, and other (admittedly
vital) basic workers can get by without any formal
schooling. Shopkeepers, teachers, and priests,
though, need at least a high school education.
College-level workers include generals, bishops,
bankers, doctors, and journalists.
Workers are also ranked by their skill levels in
any given job. They start off with a skill level of
zero, but can work up to level five. The more
skilled they are in their jobs, the more productive
they will be. A stable economy will help in this
regard. If your economy fluctuates and too many
workers flood one kind of industry, some seasoned
pros will be forced to switch jobs and start over
with a skill level of zero. Now, employment is the
siren song of life, so don't worry about empty,
echoing offices and silent factories. If you build
an industry and lack workers for it (say, for
example, a new hospital which has no local doctors),
foreign workers can come to fill those slots.
They're a bit of a problem, though-imported
employees cost more and are more unstable
politically. A better staffing option is to find
workers the old fashioned way-get your people busy
"makin' bacon" as the saying goes, and
produce some babies. If the population is well fed,
sheltered and happy, you'll experience a baby boom.
Tropico citizens go through a normal life cycle, and
you'll see them as children, then students and
workers, and eventually retirees.
Finally, to back up your governmental strategy
(and dictatorial whims), you'll be able to take some
direct actions against your citizens. For instance,
you can order your police (or other appropriate
agent) to deport, spy upon, arrest, shoot, bribe, or
brand as a heretic a troublesome person. If
successful, you will incapacitate the targeted
individual. The drawback, of course, is that your
action will likely stir up resentment among the
people, but what's a little unrest to a true leader
like yourself? In addition to taking police action,
you'll also be able to spend that government money
and issue important edicts.
Infrastructures:
From bus stops to bordellos, all the necessities of
a tropical empire are yours to allocate:
Housing: tenements, houses, apartments, and luxury
houses. Industry Lumber mills, food processors
(packing houses, etc.), cigar factories, foundries,
rum distilleries, and jewelry factories.
Farming: fisherman's wharves, farms (banana,
coconut, citrus, corn, pineapple, coffee, sugar, and
tobacco), and ranches (goat and cattle).
Mining: Offshore rigs, logging camps, and mines
(iron, bauxite, copper, tin, gems, gold, and
silver).
Entertainment: pubs, night clubs, restaurants,
gourmet restaurants, souvenir shops, sports
complexes, newspapers, radio stations, TV stations,
and bordellos.
Infrastructure: docks, ports, airports, bus stops,
taxi stands, truck depots, power plants, electric
substations, and marinas.
Military: guard stations, barracks, mess halls,
command centers, armoires, foreign military bases,
military police stations, and secret police
headquarters.
Government: palace (you'll start with this), a
fortified palace, a capitol building, customs,
embassies, and prisons.
Human Services: health clinics, hospitals, emergency
shelters, marketplaces, banks, chapels, churches,
cathedrals, high schools, and colleges.
Landscape: fountains, small gardens, trails, archaeological
sites, plazas, statues, scenic outlooks, and golf
courses.
Technical:
Tropico will be playable at resolutions up to
1600x1280, and in a nifty design move by PopTop, the
interface will scale with the resolution. If you
play at 1600x1280, the buttons and interface will be
the same size as they would be if you were playing
at 640x480. The only difference will be a more
detailed, artistic look for the interface at higher
resolutions.
ESRB Rating:Teen
Content suitable for persons ages 13 or older.
Teen