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85%
PROS
Great units, interesting plot, excellent music and cinematics, easy interface.
LOWS
Can get a little boring, no map editor or multiplayer, not a graphical feast.
OVERALL
A decent game that provides something different, but has some issues it needs to take care of before receiving a must buy score.
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All of this comes at a price; you must pay your workers every term, and you also have to buy certain infrastructures like electricity for everything to work. Housing is a must, and health buildings are also needed. Depending on the needs of your citizens, you will have to build different things for them to respect you. The more respect you have, the more likely your chance of being elected again is. You can, of course, cancel an election, or 'tamper' with the ballots, but this may arise some suspicion. If you start to build up too many enemies, a riot can break out, and it will be up to your military to fight them off. You better hope that your military doesn't turn on you, because if they do, then you're really in for it.
You can also edict issues in the game to raise the happiness and respect of your citizens. Things like prohibition, alliances with Russia or the United States, book BBQ's, opening the jails, serving food for the people, eliminating a single unit, or a 'special' buildings permit. This "special" permit allows you to put some cash in a Swiss bank account for yourself so when you retire, you will have it made.
The gameplay is slow at first, but once you start to build more structures, it gets more interesting. Since there are 5 speed settings (very slow, slow, normal, fast, very fast) you will be able to play around with what speed suits you. When you are waiting for your farms to generate income, or when you are waiting for an immigrant to come, it is best to put the speed to very fast. This can make the game boring, but you must keep in mind that you need an attention span to play this game.
One thing I did not understand was that in 10 years, I had not made one single dollar of profit from my machine rolled cigars. Instead of making a profit, I had lost $62,000 for paying those stupid workers to do nothing!!! I was totally confused, and even after my 50 year term, I had earned nothing.
One trick I like to use when I don't have enough workers for a particular building is increasing their pay. I make it $50, (the highest) then once I get the amount of workers I need, I lower it to the usual $5. HAHA I laugh in their faces. Like you ever thought you were gonna get that much money out of me? Yea, it might sound harsh, but hey, in Tropico, we're all communists.
One thing that gets annoying is when a certain faction (communists, militarists, environmentalists, etc.) complain about the same thing over and over again. The stupid Capitalists always complained about my poor housing for citizens. This was right after I built 5 apartment complexes for them. Duh!?
The other game option in Tropico is to play a pre-designed scenario. This option will let you choose a mission like "recovering your town after an earthquake," or "taking vengeance on your old homeland by destroying their cigar-based economy." You must fulfill the requirements of the mission, but this otherwise plays just like a normal mission.
The one thing I regretted was that there was no multiplayer or map editor in Tropico. Multiplayer would have been fun. Think about it: competing against your friends to see who can develop the best Caribbean island? A map editor would've also been nice. You could've created your own scenarios and created a whole MOD community dedicated to Tropico. I guess Pop Top didn't see these opportunities...
