Tropico

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Tropico
Studio PopTop software
Publisher Gathering of Developers (Windows)
MacSoft / Feral Interactive (Mac)
Senior Developer Phil Steinmeyer
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 CanadaCanadaApril 21, 2001 April 24, 2001 April 27, 2001
United StatesUnited States
GermanyGermany
platform Macintosh , Windows
genre Economic simulation
Game mode Single player
control Keyboard , mouse
system advantages
preconditions		 Mac:

Windows:

medium CD-ROM , download
language Over ten languages
Current version 1.07
1.53 (Paradise Island Expansion & Gold Version)
Age rating
USK released from 6
PEGI recommended for ages 12+

Tropico is the first and eponymous part of a now six-part computer game series from the economic simulation genre , which is based on the fictional island state of the same name. In this first part of the series, the player takes on the role of the head of state of a banana republic during the Cold War era .

Game flow

The player takes over the management of the island "Tropico" in the middle of the Caribbean , as head of state or dictator in the 1950s. In addition to several scenarios, the player also has the option of an open game in which he specifies various conditions in advance, on the basis of which the computer independently designs the island, which the player always has a full view from above during the game.

It is the player's task as head of state "El Presidente" to ensure the country's prosperity and wealth. After several decades, the rule is coming to an end and you can examine your performance again in several statistics. A special feature of the gameplay is that the inhabitants of the island cannot be controlled directly by the player, but only react to incentives set by the player. The player can only order the construction and demolition of buildings and manage their operation, he can also influence the conditions in Tropico through edicts .

Otherwise the Tropicans behave completely independently like the tourists. The Tropicans decide, for example, which occupation to take up or give up, which apartment to move into or leave, and to whom to vote in elections. In addition to numerous needs, they also have a pronounced family life with birth, marriage and death; immigration and emigration are also common. In relation to the subjects instead of the head of state embodied by the player, Tropico is also a life simulation . The number of islanders can reach several hundred over the years. Because many things run automatically, even if not always optimally, beginners can play Tropico without immediately feeling the full complexity of the game mechanics.

At Tropico , the main goal to which everything is subordinate is to maintain power. With the scenarios it is also important to achieve a certain result in terms of production, population, luck or wealth. In order not to be removed from office, a multitude of contradicting interests have to be reconciled, and in addition to political instinct, economic expertise is required from the player in order to keep the state budget in the black. Since the construction of buildings takes time, and after construction has to take some time to develop the full effect, advance planning is also required. While you can shine as a great leader with a little practice in easy degrees of difficulty, in the highest difficulty settings it becomes difficult to avert the impending loss of power.

For example, the president can be defeated by a free election against a candidate from the people, provided that he allowed the election at all and did not successfully manipulate it. It can also be overthrown by coup soldiers, rebel rebels, by a popular uprising or by intervention by the USA or Russia.

The high replayability of Tropico is guaranteed by the random cards. In addition, the alter ego can be personalized in different ways in order to determine certain advantages and disadvantages in the game.

Black humor is an important part of "Tropico" series, by arranging a "sad accidents" over several Fidel Castro - satires and quotations from famous leaders to loyal but useless consultants. The typical Caribbean flair is also underlined by appropriate music.

Characters

At the start of the game, the player can define his "El Presidente" himself or choose from a predefined list of leaders. These include many actual people from contemporary history who are connected to Latin American politics during the Cold War:

The pop musician Lou Bega , best known for the song Mambo No. 5 , is also available as a selectable character. This was part of a license agreement to use a Bega song in the German version of Tropico .

Development history of the series

Tropico first appeared for the PC platform and was then reprogrammed for publication on the Macintosh and its system OS 8.5 and newer. With the advent of OS X, a free but unstable rewrite appeared.

In 2002, the Paradise Island expansion was launched for Windows users , adding new tourism options to the game. No corresponding extension was developed for the German-language Macintosh version. A later Mucho-Macho edition ( marketed as the gold version in Germany ) included the Paradise Island expansion , twelve new scenarios, a strategy guide and other bonus material. In 2009 Tropico was republished in the "Reloaded" bundle, consisting of Tropico 1 and 2, on gog.com in the digital distribution.

While the American developer PopTop Software was responsible for the first two parts and the publication by Take 2 Interactive took place in 2001 and 2003 respectively, the Bulgarian game developer Haemimont Games took over the continuation of the series from the third part . Haemimont was commissioned with the development by the German publisher Kalypso Media , as Kalypso had acquired the trademark rights. This third part was received much better by customers than the previous second part. The fourth installment in the series, Tropico 4 , has been available for PC since August 25, 2011. The German-language Macintosh version followed as Tropico 3 Gold Edition in January 2012, with publication on this platform as with Tropico Feral Interactive . Tropico 2 - The Pirate Island had been ported for the Macintosh by MacSoft Games and was also published in German by the same company.

review

Tropico was positively received by the trade press, with Metacritic.com it received 85 out of 100 points. Tropico 1 also sold unexpectedly often for a strategy game; likewise the gold edition and the add-on. So a sequel, this time with the theme of pirates, was initiated, but with the new developer Frog City.

Follow-up title

Tropico 2: The Pirate Island

In contrast to the other parts of the series, in the second part the player takes over the management of the island "Tropico" as a mighty pirate king. His job is to rob ships of other nations as a privateer and to take prisoners. The game has been expanded to include a strategic map of the Caribbean, on which the player gives his pirate captains destinations for various missions. Due to the jobs outside of the island to be managed, the gameplay of Tropico 2 can best be described as a mixture of SimCity and something Pirates! describe.

Tropico 3

The flag of the fictional Tropico

In November 2008, the German game publisher Kalypso Media announced that it had bought the naming rights to Tropico from Take Two and was working on a third part of the series. This is being developed by Haemimont Games, who have already developed the building strategy games Imperium Romanum and Grand Ages: Rome for Kalypso. As in Part 1, you will again rule as a dictator over a Caribbean island. A release of Tropico 3 for the PC took place in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on September 24th, 2009, the Xbox 360 variant is to be in stores on November 12th, 2009. There are different dates for the English-speaking countries. In the UK the PC version was released on November 6th, the Xbox version on November 13th, 2009. In the USA, the PC version has been available since October 2009, the Xbox game was only released made available in February 2010. The third part has been available since May 12, 2010 with the "Tropico 3 - Absolute Power" expansion for the PC.

Tropico 4

Just under a year after the release of Tropico 3 , the publisher Kalypso Media announced Tropico 4 in August 2010 . The publication was planned for the 2nd quarter of 2011. As before, Haemimont Games acted as developer again.

Tropico 4 includes various new missions and maps, including an improved editor, as well as additional building types and new possibilities to “push through” unpleasant decisions among the people. Other natural disasters have also been added to the game. Political camps have different political and ideological attitudes. National agents of foreign governments and, for the first time, a comprehensive trading system with imports and exports are also available.

A first-time social network integration with services such as Facebook and Twitter is arriving and enables the communication and publication of achievements from the game. A "Special Edition" expands the game with another island for the sandbox mode and exclusive additional content. However, this is only available via Steam .

Tropico 5

The fifth part of the series was released in May 2014 for Windows PCs. The Xbox 360 version followed in summer 2014, and the versions for Playstation 4, macOS and Linux appeared in March 2015. The biggest innovations are a new graphics engine, a four-player multiplayer mode, a game time that extends over several epochs and the possibility of building dynasties.

Tropico 6

Tropico 6 was released on March 29, 2019 for Windows, macOS and Linux; for the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One, the game should be available in the summer. In contrast to the previous parts, Tropico 6 is being developed by the German developer Limbic Entertainment .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tropico Gold patch v1.53 . looki.de. August 10, 2002. Retrieved January 3, 2012.
  2. ↑ Phil Steinmeyer: Rebuffed By Buffet - The Music of Tropico ( English ) In: Inside the Sausage Factory # 18 . www.philsteinmeyer.com. February 17, 2001. Archived from the original on May 5, 2006. Retrieved January 3, 2012.
  3. ↑ Phil Steinmeyer: Lou Bega, Polish Vodka, and Other Tricks of the Foreign Trade ( English ) In: Inside the Sausage Factory # 21 . www.philsteinmeyer.com. May 25, 2001. Archived from the original on May 5, 2006. Retrieved January 2, 2012.
  4. ↑ Tropico: Mucho Macho Edition PC ( English ) ign.com. June 27, 2002. Archived from the original on March 17, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 3, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pc.ign.com
  5. ↑ Pete Haas: GAMING BLEND - Tropico Reloaded Hits GOG ( English ) cinemablend.com. December 1, 2009. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
  6. ↑ Games Radar - "Tropico 4: The next dictatorship will soon take office " ( Memento of the original from August 31, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www. Spieleradar.de
  7. ↑ www.macwelt.de: Tropico 3 Gold Edition
  8. ↑ www.mactechnews.de: Tropico 2: The Pirate Island for the Mac is also available in German
  9. ↑ Tropico PC ( English ) metacritic.com. February 3, 2012. Accessed January 6, 2012: " 85 out of 100 based on 28 critics "
  10. ↑ Phil Steinmeyer: Strategy Beats Action ( English ) In: Inside the Sausage Factory # 22 . www.philsteinmeyer.com. June 3, 2001. Archived from the original on May 5, 2006. Retrieved January 3, 2012.
  11. ^ Tropico 2: Pirate Cove ( English ) Macworld.com. June 30, 2005. Retrieved January 7, 2012: “ Put simply, Tropico 2: Pirate Cove () is what happens when the Pirates of the Caribbean and Sim City meet. "
  12. ^ Announcement of "Tropico 4". In: Kalypso Media - Official Forum. Retrieved August 13, 2010 .
  13. ↑ Tropico 4 product details . Archived from the original on August 7, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 14, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kalypsomedia.com
  14. ↑ Tropico 5 now also for Linux. heise.de, September 22, 2014, accessed on November 6, 2014 .
  15. ↑ Games-Mag.de: Tropico 5 is coming in 2014! - Teaser trailer online . Retrieved January 26, 2018.
  16. ↑ Tropico 6 - El Presidente attacks Anno - GameStar . ( gamestar.de [accessed June 25, 2017]).
  17. ↑ Gamestar: Tropico 6 announced - Teaser: El Presidente returns in 2018. June 1, 2017, accessed June 2, 2017 .
  18. ↑ Tropico 6 Announcement ( English ) Limbic Entertainment. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  19. ↑ Tropico 6 will be even more beautiful and will be available in March | World of Tropico. Retrieved January 26, 2019 (German).