From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Despite really liking games like SimCity and the Settlers, I never
played any of the Tropico games. Anyone here have an opinion on any of
them?

Most of them are on sale right now and I was thinking of picking up
Tropico Reloaded (which includes the first two games). I like the
retro graphics. Or should I just try one of the later entries?
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 20/04/2026 13:26, Mike S. wrote:

Despite really liking games like SimCity and the Settlers, I never
played any of the Tropico games. Anyone here have an opinion on any of
them?

Most of them are on sale right now and I was thinking of picking up
Tropico Reloaded (which includes the first two games). I like the
retro graphics. Or should I just try one of the later entries?

I bought Tropico years ago but with Epic/Steam freebies moved to Tropico
4 and 5. They're good games - relatively simple city-building models but enough to keep you going, with the different factions and the links to
the superpowers etc.

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Mon, 20 Apr 2026 08:26:26 -0400, Mike S. <[email protected]> said
this thing:

Despite really liking games like SimCity and the Settlers, I never
played any of the Tropico games. Anyone here have an opinion on any of
them?

Most of them are on sale right now and I was thinking of picking up
Tropico Reloaded (which includes the first two games). I like the
retro graphics. Or should I just try one of the later entries?

I've played them off and on. Pretty much every game in the series
except the last (what are they up to now, #6?) I've installed and
tinkered about with. But I only really played #2 and #3 (I think? They
all blur together) with any seriousness. The rest I mostly just
installed to see how the series has changed.

They're good games, certainly, but I never really got that into them.
They tend to be a bit more structured than SimCity; the sandbox isn't
quite as open as the limited terrain and the politics forces you down
certain paths more. I enjoyed "SimCity" (and later "Cities Skylines")
because you were essentially given a big empty slate and could build
up your city however you wanted. In "Tropico", your aspirations are
too often thwarted by having to diddle around with guerrilla attacks
or making tourists happy or just not having enough land to lay out
your city the way you'd like.

Because of these restrictions, in many ways, the "Tropico" games
remind me more of games like "Theme Hospital" or "Dungeon Keeper" than "SimCity". The closest "SimCity" comes was the 'scenarios' included in
the earlier games (e.g., 'A tornado has hit the city; you have five
years to clean it all up and get the economy running again' missions)

Which, again, doesn't make the "Tropico" games bad... but they are
tonally different from "SimCity". The city-builders were all about
making your dream city; "Tropic" is more about building what you can
under trying circumstances.

As to the how the indovidual games of the series compare to
themselves? Honestly, I find them pretty interchangable. The newer
ones have more polish and features of course, and by #4 or 5 I think
the whole thing started to feel a bit top-heavy; that features were
being added for the sake of adding features, you know? But on the
other hand, they've probably better tutorials and provide more info to
help players guide their city on than do the first games. Visually,
the older games are much rougher to look at but I still think they all
hold up fairly well (then again, I still think "SimCity 2000" looks
nice, so what do I know?).

I don't think you'd go wrong with any of them, but #3 or #4 are
probably the 'best' of the series. Or maybe I'm just saying that
because that's where I stopped playing the series seriously and those
are the ones I remember most clearly. ;-)

Huh. This was a pretty wishy-washy review. I'm not sure if any of it
will help you make a decision. But you asked. ;-)



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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

I never played any of the Tropico games. Anyone here have an opinion on
any of
them?

The ubiquitous sales emails presence of these games in past years had me rolling my eyes and never giving them a chance :(

rms

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Mon, 20 Apr 2026 10:30:03 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> wrote:

Because of these restrictions, in many ways, the "Tropico" games
remind me more of games like "Theme Hospital" or "Dungeon Keeper" than >"SimCity". The closest "SimCity" comes was the 'scenarios' included in
the earlier games (e.g., 'A tornado has hit the city; you have five
years to clean it all up and get the economy running again' missions)

This is good to know. Thank you for this.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Mon, 20 Apr 2026 08:26:26 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Mike
S. wrote:

Despite really liking games like SimCity and the Settlers, I never
played any of the Tropico games. Anyone here have an opinion on any of
them?

Most of them are on sale right now and I was thinking of picking up
Tropico Reloaded (which includes the first two games). I like the
retro graphics. Or should I just try one of the later entries?

One of my favorite games ever. Tropico is a banana republic simulator.

Tropico 2 is the pirate island version, where you send out your
privateers and rule your island by fear and/or booze.

Tropico 3-5 are a major graphics update, full 3d, and a completely
different approach to the series. Still good games, but a lot more micromanagement. Totally different developer. Kalypso took it over. There
are some fun aspects, but the level of detail goes *way* up and may not
be as satisfying as Tropico which takes a wider lens approach.

All Tropicos are political sims rather than a city building game. You
build things, sure, but you're doing it to please various factions, and
if people get too unhappy, you get guerillas and have to start building
guard posts and sending execution orders out for faction leaders that are causing problems. You can make your people happy and win elections
without fixing them, or you can rule with an iron fist.

You also, in some scenarios, have to negotiate Cold War politics where
the imperial powers of Communism and Capitalism will court your tiny,
tobacco (or mining, or canned pinapple,etc) producing island.

Scenarios are where this game shines. It's a lousy sandbox game.

I was never a fan of Tropico 2, but my wife still plays it. Kalypso's
efforts were too much micromanagement for me. I didn't really want to
manage car parks. They went too SimCity and I think they missed the
point.

The original Tropico can be brutally hard. Expect to fail. Definitely get yourself a copy of dgVoodoo2 for best results.
--
Zag

Give me the liberty to know, to think, to believe,
and to utter freely according to conscience, above
all other liberties. ~John Milton
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Mon, 20 Apr 2026 23:00:34 -0500, Zaghadka <[email protected]>
wrote:

Scenarios are where this game shines. It's a lousy sandbox game.

I generally prefer sandbox in these types of games but I want to try
the game out anyway. I watched a let's play on youtube of the first
game and it held my attention.

The original Tropico can be brutally hard. Expect to fail. Definitely get >yourself a copy of dgVoodoo2 for best results.

From what I read, the GOG version of the first two games work better
than the Steam version out of the box but I will grab dgVoodoo2
anyway.

Thank you for the post and to everyone else that replied.
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