This looks so simple. 2D platformer. And the gameplay is formulaic. Get the bits. Build things in your shelter. Agonise over whether to save up for the big upgrade, or make the water filters and rat traps because you'll need food soon. But the snow is coming too. Cold can kill you. War is lethal in so many ways... It is a game of choices, pratical and moral. Choosing what to make. Choosing who to send out scavenging at night, who should stand guard, and who can have a good night's sleep. Choosing who to send. The fighter? The sneaker? The scavenger? Or the cheerleader, because she's the only healthy body left? Do you help the strangers knocking on your door? What if they propose something bad? Do you steal from the innocent? Do you defend? And the biggie: do you kill? You're civilians, not soldiers. Dilemmas about. Choices have consequences, sometimes only apparent in the summary, if you make it to the ceasefire. What sets this game apart, is atmosphere. The music, for one. It is uniquely different, and like all the best music, it guides feelings. Sombre, serious, and quite beautifully unique. The characters have simple backstories that they gradually share. They react to the unfolding events, both in mood and comment. I got this game when it was first released on GOG. And it's been the one game I keep coming back to for another blast, like an old friend. Simple mechanics, easy enough to play. The authors have created plenty of challenging groupings of survivors for you to try out. You can make your own, too. Using your own pictures and profiles, but still limited to the same core set of personalities and professional skills. They have added new venues and refreshed old ones over the years. It has limited replayability, but there's more than enough here to keep you entertained for many tens of hours. Particularly if you try all the combos of people, including those you might feel don't even deserve to survive. Until you realise, they are people too.
My favourite game of all time... I was late to discover RPG's, starting with Oblivion. I liked it. And discovered mods, too. Then Shivering Isles came along, and threw me into moral quandry. I had no idea games could be that... involving. Fallout 3 came next, and it blew me away. Oblivion with guns. But so much more. Vast numbers of side quests, with variety. Some meaningful, some apparently not so. Some with unexpectedly severe consequences. It was so easy to delude myself into believing I knew what the consequences of my actions would be. But like SI, I was oh so wrong, so many times. My good intentions ending in a mushroom cloud or two... Yet it also had an altruistic main storyline that appealed. The "revelation" of what the code was, when asked for it at the very end, was an epiphany for me. I had not thought about the significance before, and yet, when that moment came, I instantly knew what it HAD to be. No other game has managed that kind of MASTERFUL pacing, slipping in the appropriate influences to guide me without my realising it, and "sense of achievement" when it worked. Not for me, anyway. For about 4 months, I spent about 3 hours per day, plus all weekends, in just one playthrough. And I never played it to full potential. Barely scratched it. Missed half the map. My bucket list includes "replay F3". For many, many months. Perhaps years. I still have a shrinkwrapped GOTY edition DVD for that very purpose. But now I can do it with a GOG version. Yay. Of course I'll buy it. This much entertainment, is superb value. And now in a digital DRM free download. No brainer. I have long since gone back to play the Fallout Classic and Fallout 2 classic, that used to be available here at GOG. I wanted to see why so many were criticising F3 over the originals, but didn't get the answer. They were great fun, had excellent, cheeky and humorous stories, but they just made me appreciate the heritage references in F3 all the more, not convert me to preferring the isometric oldies. For me, F3 was the perfect nod to the originals, but taking the series to an all-new level of greatness. I know not everyone sees it that way. Maybe it's the mods. But for me, F3 is the best RPG of all time.
It's the same old Tropico, complete with Penultimo, and a "Miss Pineapple" equivalent (Vasquez) that wishes her boyfriend Raoul good luck with his rebel uprising... along with sarky comments about weather and current affairs. The humor is as subtle and catchy as ever. And while my first impressions (of the Kalypso Media version) were that it might misfire, it is absolutely the best of the series, by a long way. It just takes a little... adjusting... to get used to the new format. Because, that's where the old Tropico ends, and this new game starts. This Tropico feels very different, but the truth is, it has "grown up". Become a serious Banana republic simulator, underneath the laughs and same old shallow veneer. It has evolved. Grown serious depth underneath that veneer, and it takes a little getting used to. But once you're there, there is no going back. THIS is the Tropico I always wanted. I can dip in and out (playing the Kalypso original) as I want, years later, and it's like I never stopped playing. Yes, it becomes that familiar, once the "adjustment" to the new style is made. The biggest shock, is finding the game is broken up into four eras, starting with "Colonial" where it's a race against time trying to win independence before your Commissioner posting ends. Consider your options, when invited to "Kiss the Royal Ring"... If you gain enough popular support for independence, you enter the World War. Axis and Allies. Side with either. Balance your politics, or commit to one. Then comes the Cold War. USA and USSR. Same story. Until, finally, you hit the Modern Era, when there are 5 factions to invite into embassies (USA, Russia, China, EU, Middle East). You head up a Dynasty, and may gain children with their own quirks and "pet projects". Any one of the dynasty can stand for election. And they level up, by using funds form the Swiss bank account. Finally, that money has a purpose... Edicts are also now tied to Eras. So, some edicts are not available until near the end of the game. And, some you have to research during the era itself. Research is trivial - certain buildings provide "research points" and away you go. It's simple enough, and depending on the mission and/or scenario, you'll prioritise differently in each game. Need tourists? Better research the airport, then. The political factions on the island remain. And, as usual, it's impossible to please everyone. They are paired off, so if you please one, you'll upset the other. Vintage Tropico. But, the fgame gives plenty of "optional missions" to raise standing with one faction, in ways that does not harm the other. So, it's Tropico, but not as you know it. Also gone are the "wages". And this is almost harder to adapt to, than Eras. Now there are "relative levels" (Broke, Poor, Well Off, Rich, and Filthy Rich). It means you don't have to keep on tweaking actual numbers of dollars up or down, but "match" income levels with housing and entertainment needs. The best apartments cannot be inhabited by just anyone, you know... it takes some level of wealth. Residences have a "required wealth", and mostly only span 3 levels at most. So, Broke people will ALWAYS live in Shacks, until you research "Social Security" and have enough "cheap" housing (like Country Houses) that can accommodate Broke folk. Apartments allow high density, but regular houses have a "nighbourhood watch" upgrade that lowers crime - so it can be beneficial to have a big cluster of houses. Buildings have "efficiency" - how well they operate, depends on multiple factors. Number of workers, how well they are paid, whether you have bought certain upgrades, and even whether they "interconnect". A Cattle ranch can provide Fertiliser to boost local crop fields (which are at last a fixed and finite size, to be planned properly, Hooray!) A Museum can assist High Schools (via Field Trips). A Recycling centre doesn't just clean up the pollution, but boost the efficiency of your steel mills, and electronics plants... makes sense - mostly. Apartments are more desireable if they adjoin a road. There are lots to explore and find, but that's part of the charm. Trade routes are now dependent on number of docks (and Drydock upgrades), that govern how many ships you have for trading. A lighthouse and Customs Office can affect prices and deals offered. Most frustrating, is that the best deals often require you to be really cosy with the superpower offering the trade... But there are "smuggler" options available too, if you build smugglers docks. For me, this game has a near perfect level of detail, while keeping data accessible. The thin flat arrows in the menus are almost invisible, so I was into my fifth mission, before I discovered I could scroll the page to see "more" options and info, and discovered I could see the "significant citizens", providing a two second click to find the crime lords I was looking for. The good news is, all the information is there. The bad news is, that sometimes the interface design sabotages you, making it harder to find, until you suss it. And that's the great thing about Tropico 5. Because, it IS Tropico, but with a good dose of realism AND simplicity. As for the Invasion by Tanks - yeah, if you offend or ignore one of the superpowers, siding with their enemy, they will threaten your sovereignty and invade. If you supply the Allies with Steel, the Axis will get quite angry about it... So, build the embassy, invite them in, and praise them now and then to keep their warships at bay. Or, invest in your own military (clusters of guard towers with machine gun upgrades can shred enemies) and stand proud and independent. You might also offend your citizens to the point that they rebel, or worse yet, the army stages a coup. But the game always gives you warning signs, and (mostly) enough time to react. You also get to pick difficulty levels of politics, and economy, and disasters. So, if you want insurgency and lots of easy money to suppress it in true dictator fashion, you got it. Or, you can opt for an economic struggle, where the people (and weather) are on your side. The original campaign seemed extremely short. But, there was a twist in the tale, as only Tropico can manage, in the most hilarious fashion, that doubled the length. For the whole game, with all the DLCs, this is a worthy successor to the Tropico series. The Eras make it feel quite different, but mostly this is just the grown-up version. Same old Penultimo antics, but supplemented by a depth that all previous Tropicos lacked. Now that I'm playing it, I've never gone back to the earlier Tropicos.
For me, this was THE game of 2011. I bought it new, back then, and did not regret it for one moment. This is transport management. You cannot control how the city grows, but scripted events will cause "future expansion". There are enough game-playing tips on forums to sort out almost any challenge you come across, and believe me, there are quite a few serious conundrums that most players won't even notice. The challenge is simple. The people live somewhere. The want to go to work, and they want to have fun. So, your transport systems need to CONNECT homes to workplaces, and homes to retail, and homes to recreation. Running a bus route around the suburbs, will not attract passengers. Because, if your transport network can't get them from A to B, they won't use it. It is easy to go bankrupt. But once you get the basics, it is hard to not succeed. The level of profit might vary, but you should be successful, if you get the basics right. Spoiler tip: the inbuilt railway stations are MAJOR sources of passengers. If you're struggling to make money, connect a train station to almost anywhere, and you'll be fine. Mostly, you'll be using buses and trams. And metros. I LOVE the metros, and you can build them above ground, too. (Might need the USA cities expansion for that - not certain, but you really should buy the expansion Collection - the extra cities add SO much extra play, you'd be mad to not buy it) There are water buses too. And helicopters. And an achievement for making a passenger use EVERY ONE of the available types of transit, for one journey. Line building, and stop organising, is some of the simplest and best I've seen. Create new lines, modify them by adding stops in the middle, or copying the route and then splitting it halfway. It has the most straightforward way of handling lines and stops, although (as is true for most of these games) it might take you a little while to get familiar with it. And with all of the "information" tools and overlays. Make no mistake, this is about organising routes, and frequencies, and keeping an eye on profit margins and congestion. Buses stuck in traffic jams? The people will give up waiting at the stops and walk. If you lay out the routes badly, looping around, your own vehicles can cause the traffic jam, as they get stuck behind each other. If you ever wanted to know if you have enough sense to be a traffic planner, this game will tell you. If you want to play with a trainset, go elsewhere. Despite this game have trains and train stations, and airports, you CANNOT build them. The transit system is that "within" a major city, not "between cities". There is also some serious modding already available. Vehicle stats changed, eras when certain vehicles appear changed, etc etc. Bear in mind, though, that the "numbers" used by the game are somewhat meaningless. They are balanced and work well as released, but make little sense for "realism". So if you mod because a ten seater bus should carry 20, you might seriously wreck the game balance. You might also see LOTS of complaints about framerates. It isn't graphically difficult, though, it's the game engine that is struggling to calculate the actions of ALL of the individual sims. What Simcity V was supposed to do with glassbox, CiM actually does. And it proves how intensive that effort is. Just run the game at high speed between builds, and slow it (or pause) to build and adjust without sluggish framerates. The original game was released with very few bugs. I have no idea how "sorted" the GOG version is, but I'm really glad to see it here. Because. CIM2 was sent steam-only by Paradox, and I missed it because of that. Fingers crossed GOG is finally winning the DRM free battle....
