プレス・レビュー

The graphics in Tropico are truly great with some superb detail. I found that a lot of work was put into the detail of the citizens, structures, and the environment. Also I noticed that the game uses the options of software or hardware rendering with 8 or16-bit colors using resolutions from 640x480 all the way up to 1600x1200 which looked very good. While using software isn't bad, using hardware is better because without it you wouldn't see things in such vivid 3D. As for the sound effects I thought they fit the game very well and the music wasn't too bad either. However, I did find that some of the songs weren't too good to listen to over and over again but for the most part the Latino style of the music adds a lot to the atmosphere. I was told that the beta only had about half of the total songs and that there will be more in the full version.

You start with an island, islands of course being different in shape often. This shape can mold what you build, what you can grow for agriculture (shown with colored maps indication good and bad areas for certain crop growth), the placement of structures, and other things. The way this game is setup it really makes you glad you aren't a real dictator, as problems in society often pop up with you unable to successfully appease all parties involved.

Many strategy fans might expect such a simulation to be on the serious side of the fence since it deals so closely with explosive issues. Tropico can rarely be considered serious, and is quite different from many traditional strategy games in that its presentation overflows with varying bits of humor. From the first fifteen seconds of the intro cinematic, players will notice many of the jokes aimed at third world dictators and the stereotypical conditions found in many such places: the main street comes complete with drifty American tourists and rebel guerillas stealing an arms shipment from 'El Presidenté' while the on-duty soldier is distracted by a gorgeous native woman.

La coca rocha, La coca rocha...da da DA DA do... Okay, so I can't spell or sing....that is my interpretation of the Latino music you can hear on PopTop Software's upcoming Latin world sim builder, Tropico. Actually, the music called Bachata music is performed by Latin Music Specialists, and it is the wonderful, exciting sound you hear while playing a dictator on a remote island in the Caribbean. Tropico is similar to Sim City 3000 or PopTop's own Railroad Tycoon II except in Tropico, you can be one mean SOB and still rule!

Balance is the key word here. You have to be able to keep the majority of the population pleased or dire consequences will follow - and it's not always easy. Tropico has a wide variety of political factions, such as Intellectuals, Military, Religious, and as you can imagine, their expectations of how you should act are drastically different. The militarists would love nothing more than to see an armed guard standing by every house, but the rest of the factions would not be happy with this invasion of liberty.