Tropico 4

I've played all parts of the series. In my opinion, this one is the best.

I loved Tropico 1. Tropico 3 already didn't add much to the original concept, but enough to be worthwhile. Tropico 4 on the other hand adds almost nothing. The biggest disappointment is that the disastrous road situation hasn't been solved. As with Tropico 3, any decently sized island has to be carefully planned out from the first minute as otherwise traffic jams grind any productivity to a halt. The game still doesn't give a player any mechanism to solve this, such as the option of building larger roads or better intersections. You can still win because the game is rather easy, but it is incredibly annoying. If you are new to Tropico, go ahead and buy Tropico 4. But if you already own Tropico 3, it's not worth it.

Tropico 4 is a game I'd put on a list of few I feel I could replay over and over. It's a brilliant combination of city-planning, crowd-pleasing, and economy management, with charm matched by no game within the genre. Economy is comprised of exports and tourism. You need to match your production with the island's conditions, your people's needs, and - if you wish to focus on exports rather than attracting tourists - the demands of global superpowers, whose favor you need to balance between anyway. You have to provide your island's population with food, housing, healthcare, security, and entertainment - the population is divided between several groups (environmentalists, nationalists, capitalists, etc.), all of which have their own demands in regards to where they lie on the socio-political spectrum. All of the above is tied to different goals each mission has. Рersonally, a huge portion of the game's main appeal lies in just how fun it is to make money - the more money I earn (exports are my preferred way of economic gain, I opt for tourism later on just for the fun of it), the more incentivized I am to expand the city and build up the economy further. Additionally, the game has a brilliant role-playing feel to it and provides you with the freedom to choose how you wish to rule your little slice of Caribbean paradise. The only thing I can say I genuinely dislike is how there's no telling how much space farms and plantations take up - this is mitigated in the Modern World DLC with the inclusion of modern farms which have their own limited space within which crops are grown. The soundtrack also deserves a mention as it's absolutely phenomenal. All in all, I can't recommend the game enough if you're a fan of city-building games or the Caribbean. **Should a developer read this review by chance, РLEASE REMAKE TROРICO 2.**

I probably should rehash what has been said already. Fun humorous game that is a good city builder. Have no problem running this on Linux to those interested. Via Lutris with Proton Glorious Eggroll 7.43 (lutris version). One issue I have though is that it doesn't like my 3840x1600 resolution, but 2952x1232 works? I guess it is still UWD and still looks good. I find that if I adjust res in game to 3840, it works. If I try and start a mission at that res? Chokes. Go figure. Game just does not like that resolution. Of course monitors in UWD didn't exist when this game was made so that might have something to do with it. I will try and manually set 3440x1440 and see if it can at least deal with that.

I bought Tropico 4 shortly after purchasing, and promptly refunding, Tropico 3. I also own Tropico 1, 2, and 6. While every entry in the series represents gradual evolution, I personally think that Tropico 4 is a perfectly balanced point right in the middle, with the game being just detailed enough to satisfy your OCD without giving you an aneurism, and at the same time being goofy and fun without being a full on arcade building placement simulator with an arbitrary budget. Tropico 1 and 2 are hardcore, oldschool, very detailed "dictator simulators" with heavy ephasis on the unseen; i.e. stats, numbers, RNG, ranges, etc. Tropico 3 started leaning more into the casual territory, yet it still suffers from a lot of stuff being straight up unclear, and thus making the game rough for new players. Tropico 5 and 6 are... not my favorite games. The developers made the games TOO accessible, and also succumbed to the plague of "let's release a million underwhelming DLCs and sell them for a price of a regular game". If a developer does that, NEVER EVER support them. Tropico 4, as I've said already, is perfectly balanced, as all things should be. You don't NEED TO be super heavily invested into the deeper game mechanics to have fun. You don't HAVE TO spend 10 minutes with the almanac open, pondering over graphs, stats, and lists. You are not REQUIRED TO elaborately plan out building placement on your island beforehand. Sure, your island will not be as much of a well oiled machine as it could potentially be, but you can still have fun in a goofy socioeconomic simulator without being too gung-ho about the actual social economics. If you DO, however, go all in and really try to understand how, and more importantly, WHY things work the way they do, Tropico 4 offers immense, well polished, and very fun depth which is very rare in strategy games nowadays. If you enjoy city builders with JUST ENOUGH economy and micro management, absolutely buy this game. DLCs not obligatory btw