Tropico Reloaded

As one of the pioneers in the genre, Tropico paved the way for a beloved series with its unique charm.

This is one of my favorite games of all time. At time of review, 50 hours on steam. Realistically, since I was a teenager, its in the many hundreds. Game mechanics are simple. This is one of the first games I've played where each individual person on the map had needs, basic personality traits, skills, etc. Contrast that with other contemporary city builders, like SimCity, where the people didnt really exist. My favorite parts about the game are the aesthetics, personality/charm, music and level of detail. Above all, the aesthetics were unlike that of any game I had played before or since. This was a product of the golden era of 3D generated sprites (AOE2, Diablo I/II, Starcraft, Donkey Kong Country, etc.). The graphical user interface decisions made then to optimize for slow hardware made for a really unique and beautiful aesthetic. Personally, I was not much impressed by games in the era immediately after this of low-poly 3D junk graphics. It wasnt until ~2010 that 3D graphics bridged that uncanny valley.

That said, I love the sound of grinding stones when pressing buttons, I love the worn stucco texture on the GUI, I love the little graphics in each of the edicts, and hand painted graphics of fruit when checking the fertility screen... I couldnt list it all. This game is just full of charm. I mostly played it as a sandbox game, aiming for high scores on the 70 year play through. I was a major fan of the Cafe Tropico website and forums where some people had this game figured out to an absolute science. Sadly, I think all that content was lost and with individual forum posts not archived by the WayBackMachine.

Fast forward a few years, when Tropico 3 came out, and I had to say, all of the unique features that I thought made the game unique and special were gone. The interface was bland. Graphics were pretty bad. The translation of mechanics to 3D just felt very "meh" to me.

I love Tropico for being one of the great games from its era. This was back in the day when my mom probably randomly picked me up this game standing in line at a TJ Max or Marshalls, on the shelf next to Roller Coaster Tycoon--most likely. Simply different times.

Had I written this review at any other time in my life, I'm sure I would have had much more, specific and greater things to say about the game, but I'll leave it here.

Definitely worth

Summary
A ridiculously fun city builder 2 in 1 of the original Tropico franchise that started it all.
Pros
+ Different
+ Very fun
+ Great music
Cons
- Dated
Overview
Tropico Reloaded is a ridiculously fun old school city builder that's 2 games in 1 and the first of the long Tropico franchise.
The first game is the original Tropico along with it's expansion that focuses more on the tourism aspects, the second game is Tropico 2 which takes a pirate theme instead of the original banana republic setting of the first game.
Both of the Tropico games are very good city builders just set within different time periods and have different aspects that they focus on.
I also want to highlight that for both games the music is just pure perfection. I remember playing this years ago and even up to this day still remember the music.
Gameplay
The main point of both games is to basically stay in power as long as you possibly can by keeping your populace happy fulfilling all their needs.
You build buildings and issue edicts that are essential to helping you keep the people from overthrowing you while at the same time growing your own personal "score", each game is quite different but more or less it is the same thing.
The games has an interesting feature that allows you to customize your character when playing a custom game. You can pick traits that will determine some aspects of gameplay and also give you bonuses to make things easier or even some flaws that can make things even harder.
Tropico
Tropico is set some time during the cold war era and is mainly about you "El Presidente" to stay in power as long as you possibly can, it may sound easy enough but keeping the populace happy by fulfilling their needs while juggling other political aspects can be challenging. Throw in the US and Russia who wants to gain your favor and help their own political parties on your island and things could be so much more complicated.
There are multiple scenarios that you are able to play and attempt to complete, but really the fun part of Tropico is to play the custom open ended game where you can keep developing the island and see how far you can push things.
Unfortunately due to being an old game, there is a point where if your population reaches a certain number the games engine just couldn't take simulating everything and people kind of sort of just stop doing what they're supposed to.
As much as the game is open ended and you are able to keep playing and expanding your island state, the game uses a scoring system based on your "Swiss Bank Account". Essentially you are squirrelling away money and at the end this is used to calculate your score.
Will you foster the island of Tropico into an industrial power house, a haven for tourists, or will "El Presidente" invite the foreign powers to the island and be a puppet to the Capitalist US or Communist Russia?
Tropico 2: Pirate Cove
The second installment of the series takes place in a completely different time period and puts us in the position as a pirate king in control of a pirate haven. Similarly the goal is to keep everyone as happy as possible to prevent them from overthrowing you.
Although the core concept of the game as a city builder is still intact, the game does play very differently to the original Tropico. Instead of producing and exporting goods you literally play pirate and send out your pirate fleets to plunder gold and find captives. Sending out your pirates to plunder is very important and is a core aspect of the game as you mostly earn gold from plunder. The captives they bring back is also very essential to your survival as only the captives does all the work on the island, the pirates only go out on their ships and not do any work to upkeep the island itself.
Both captives and pirates have different needs and influences that need to be fulfilled to keep them both happy and in line. Unhappy or disorderly captives will try to rebel or escape while unhappy or nervous pirates may act out their frustrations. So there is a strong balancing that needs to be done to keep both happy to keep the island running smoothly.
Tropico 2 actually has a campaign built into the game instead of scenarios to play through, each time having a story progressing and your character traits slightly changing. It is also pretty much like a tutorial for the whole game as the campaign isn't very difficult at all. Like the previous game, the fun is really in playing a custom game and running your island as long as you can while amassing your pirate hoard.
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Personally I never really got too much into other Tropicos, but I absolutely love this one.
I played for the first time the demo version when I was just a kid, and it really hit me. The playability, the music... The MUSIC!!! It's do damn good... I still listen to it today during work/commute, and it brings that nostalgic feeling...

It's really a great strategy game that you can kind of play at your own pace, something that I enjoy a lot. And doing that while listening to a gorgeous soundtrack just makes my day!

El Presidente, do you really want the whole nation to starve while practicing anarchism without access to basic human needs, when on the other side of the island the rich capitalists of the west were vacationing, spending their own money? Will do El Presidente

This is an old game, but I've always enjoyed it. I'm writing this review because of some of the comments with regard to Tropico 2. In general this one has more problems than the original one. On Windows 11 I am only able to get the game to actually load by using the batch file for the Tropico 2 Safe mode. If your having problems getting this particular game to work, and you have tried updating the compatibility mode and that didn't work, try utilizing that batch file and you should at least be able to get into a game.

a much loved oldie. the sounds and music are very immersive and give the game a charming atmosphere.

el presidente approves