Tropico 5 is a fun concept with decent graphics and good music but ultimatly a slog to play because of the less than stellar interface. Attempting to do anything more in depth than low healthcare = build hospital is an exercise in frustration. Most things are managed through a single screen that links to other screens but doesn't have a back button or any way to compare anything. The biggest sin though, is if you drill down into a state, say Unemployment, there is no way to 'drill up.' You MUST load a different tab, then reload the tab you were on and drill back down to where you were before. I get the feeling the game wanted to focus on a higher level of gameplay than the gritty details, but then why even have them in the game? There is no easy way to keep on eye on anything except the very basics like your treasury account and population happiness. Want to keep on eye on faction (militarists, environmentalist, etc) status? Or foreign powers? or the housing/homeless level? For each of these you must remember to do so, bring up the single managment screen and click a thousand different places to try to find what you want. The game has a very high level of detail which would normally be good, but you can't take advantage of it because it's impossible to manage anything. These are compounded by the complete lack of an explanation anywhere of basic game concepts like how workers get to their jobs, how far do they travel for entertainment, etc. I will say I found these problems tolerable and found a lot of enjoyment in the game playing either 1) in free play were I could meticulously design and build my island, or 2) playing as a crazy dictator who doesn't care about anything but making money in his/her Swiss bank account and just does weird things because they can. In conclusion, if you want to make Caribbean Germany, skip it. If you want to make Caribbean North Korea, I'd recommend it.
