The overall impression is good -- were it not for several really annoying bugs. But first things first: Tropico is an economy simulation of a small tropical archipelago. You are the appointed or elected or »elected« head of the archipelago and need to get your island society bustling. You typically start off during colonialism and undergo several eras (colonial age, pre-WWII stage, Cold War era, and so on), and depending on the era you have different options to consider when shaping your economy or society. There is a small military element as well, but it is only defensive. The game is interspersed with (initially) witty comments about banana republics, and the love for detail is good in most places. The loading screen is accompanied by fun facts about real dictators, for instance, or there are different sea animals around. The graphics are quite okay, and the gameplay is nice, overall.
However, even years after being published, there are still extremely annoying bugs. Here is a collection with the sandbox mode:
(1) Save game modifications. Loading save games is not an option -- soil conditions are altered all over the map with loading, and rocks appear out of thin air and break roads or buildings.
(2) Military stuck. Military units are regularly stuck and of no use. Other units as well.
(3) Notification issues. Quests are not displayed, but you are punished for not fulfilling them.
(4) Raids in vain: Once you have run out of blueprints, you may still get a nonce blueprint (i.e., no content).
(5) Unit display problems: Units tend to appear or disappear out of thin air and in parts only.
The first point mentioned is the worst, for it severely breaks save games. You will need to reshape all.
Good game, bad bugs. Two more things:
(!) As opposed to GOG info, the Carribean Skies DLC *is* available for Linux and functional.
(!) But be aware: The Linux installer takes 50GB during the installation progress (freeing some 20-30 GB afterwards again).