Tropico 5: Complete Collection

I found this version of the latest instalment quite fun, similar to the last ones in Tropico style and was worth the purchase as I played it for many hours (purchased on steam when it came out). They added some fun new features and buildings and you are left with a fun experience through out. My only issue is I found the Campaign smaller then the previous games, with a move over to "pay for" additional mini-campaigns. I really hope they don't continue down this path b shortening the main campaign further and relying on a similar by to play which many games are going down now days. Also in regards to the invasions of the previous review by Kapaun, I found them more fun then the other Tropicos and were not really a challenge (I suppose they might be if you didn't build a balanced island and just focused on only $$$$$$$ buildings).

First, it runs fine on Win 11 and a 5 year-old low end laptop. 40 hours in, no game breakers or show stoppers. Some annoyances (AI and camera, mainly). Second, Trop 4 or 5? 4 is smarter, uglier, and more fiddle-fucky (some would say deeper). 5 is a prettier, more streamlined, (some would say shallower) experience. And the AI DOES get wonky sometimes. The controls ae better. The UI is VASTLY better. It is a really good game, that deservers no hate, even if it also deserves no top-ten lists. I'd have no problem recommending this as a first RTS building game. But full price for a game this old is ridiculous. I got it for $7.00 (80%) off, and was well satisfied. So, wait for a sale, yes. But this game does NOT deserve one star reviews. That's just silly.

The issues with the audio have now been fixed in the latest patch 1.11 (29 September 2020) and it now runs as good as it ever did, as such Tropicos usual brilliance shines through. It's far and away one of the best city / development simulations going around. As Anno has become increasingly complex, Tropico has retained it's charm and iterative upgrades. What are you waiting for El Preseidente?

Earlier versions of Tropico are some of my favorite games of all time. Tropico 5 is a good game, but if you aren't starting with version 5, you may find that the developers have gone off the rails a bit. Earlier Tropico versions had a certain consistency of objectives, stimulae and responses, that this one seems to lack. After being attacked repeatedly by rebels and outsiders in my first few games, I tend to build an island that is military-heavy, almost as the sole priority, because sometimes it feels like not much else matters (weighting/balance problems) and even when I do that, with multiple bases, my own tanks, dozens of guard towers, I find that I still get my butt kicked from stinkin' rebels that weren't really a problem on the political info panels. It's boring and repetitive to just keep getting attacked and fighting them off, with little control over the battles. When it comes to other factors, I find that even if I focus on health and food and open borders and bring in as many foreigners as possible, there are still way too many unfilled positions. Everything suffers due to lack of employees. This is another example of what I call the gaming balance problem. Taking a step back, the overall feel is that someone decided they needed to change things in order to call it Tropico 5 and whoever did it feels like separate teams that ended up producing something that feels disjointed, inconsistent and unbalanced. Needs a LOT of tweaking, eliminating the focus on some things, making others matter more, and decreasing the frequency of some things (rebel attacks) while increasing others (immigration rates). Etc. I've found that I do not find it pleasurable to play Tropico 5 now unless I given myself infinite funding in a sandbox. Otherwise you sit there waiting too long for everything. Again, balance. I think I'm going to go fire up Tropico 4 just to see how much more I like it.

The game is fine as it stands, and it's definitely good to have all the dlc sold in a single package with the base game. There are some issues already mentioned by other reviewers, hence why it's not 5 stars. Also, where are the following dlc: Paradise Lost, Hostile Takeover, Epic Meltdown? On the page here it also says the Complete Edition comes with the manual (why not include all the dlc to the list, since it's what that infobox is meant for?), and the manual is in German. Ok, but why? Wasn't the game a joint project between Haemimont Games and Kalypso Media Digital, the former of which is Bulgarian? Also, isn't the lingua franca English these days anyhow? It's just a nitpick, though, don't worry too much about it.