Negative Gamer Review: Tropico 3 (PC)

Set in a fictional archipelago during the cold war, Tropico 3 is a strategy/management game that gives the player the opportunity to lead a tiny banana republic. Rebels, traitors and the various factions on your island need to be kept in line through pretty much any means necessary. Amidst all this, a thriving economy must be constructed and the preying hands of the US and USSR must be kept at bay. The game divides itself into a number of distinct scenarios, each one with specific victory conditions. Sometimes you’ll have to attract a given number of tourists to your island, export a particular type of product or natural resource or simply hold power for a set length of time.

Everything is presented from a top down view and the interface will be immediately familiar to veterans of the god game and real-time strategy genres. You’ll create your own dictator avatar or pick from a list of real life historical examples. From your birds eye viewpoint you’ll need to place buildings and issue edicts that could be as benevolent as a literacy program or as capricious as establishing a secret police force. There’s a satirical flavour to the game and a dark sense of humour embodied by the ever present adviser that informs you of any events that occur on your island.

Playing join the dots with a dictatorial spin

There are three basic fail states in Tropico 3, with very specific strategies that need to be employed to counter them. You can fail to meet the objective of the specific scenario, get invaded by either the US or USSR or be overthrown in a coup. This leads to certain strategies being replicated across multiple scenarios, lending a prescriptive tone to what I expected to be a sprawling god game.

Invasion occurs when a world power reaches zero favourability in relation to your island. Each faction has different expectations that need to be balanced but if there’s one thing both of them won’t forgive, it’s falling into debt. This means that the opening gambit for each scenario consists of constructing the same buildings. I soon learnt that mining was by far the best industry to focus on and every single time I played I would immediately set up as many mines as possible. Then came the long wait as I fell into debt from the original expenditure, then got back in to the black as my exports began to turn a profit.

After a steady income was set up, I then had to ensure that the inevitable attempt at a military coup would fail as well as making sure that rebels wouldn’t screw with my plans. The solution is a strong, well paid and well resourced military on which most of my profits would be spent. The twin threats of debt and rebellion meant that the same network of mines, cheap homes, the occasional farm and a large military appeared in each scenario. That being said, once these base elements were established, my islands took on their own individual flavour. I resented having to go through the same motions each time before reaching a point where genuine decision making could take place.

No money, ‘mo problems

Debt is a constant worry in Tropico 3. You start each scenario with a set amount of money, usually enough to set up a very basic economy and some low level housing. After that money has run out, you have an overdraft from which money can be spent. However, once the bottom end of that overdraft has been reached, the player cannot spend any more money. This can create an endless debt spiral that is always difficult and often impossible to escape from.

On a number of occasions I found myself overspending and reaching a point where I was so far in debt that I couldn’t get back in the black. Often this would happen at a key moment in the development of my nation and I would have to either load up a save or start again. The mechanic is there to force the player to consider both the short and long term effects of spending but it can be incredibly punishing. The overall effect is to reinforce the restrictive tone of the game.

So a mass murderer, a tyrant and a religious zealot walk in to a bar…

Much of Tropico 3‘s humour derives from the preposterously horrible things you can do to your population. Its morbid, satirical tone chimed with me and raised a few smirks when I saw that I could establish a secret police force and ban contraception. However there was one area where the humour felt a touch jarring; when playing as a dictator drawn from history, I couldn’t shake the sense that a line had been crossed. It didn’t stop me playing, but it definitely felt a bit tasteless.

Strategy games have made use of historical figures for decades. However in most instances, they were employed in a very abstract way. Tropico 3 goes a step further, providing an avatar that merrily wanders around your island, responding to commands in silly faux Latin-American accent. You can also issue commands that bear a strong similarity to the actions taken by such dictators. Ordering the secret police to kill striking workers being a decent example.

I’d prefer that the game just didn’t feature these individuals directly. The avatar creator is robust enough that you could reach an approximation of these people if you really wanted to. I wouldn’t call the inclusion of real dictators outright offensive, I just don’t think they fit with the comic tone of the game. Ultimately it’s a matter of personal taste and preference, others may not find their inclusion so jarring.

A few other points worth mentioning…

• I didn’t manage to finish the single player campaign before writing the review. There are plenty of scenarios that can take at least a couple of hours to finish. I have played the game for over 30 hours at the time of writing.
• If the prescriptive nature of the scenarios sounds off putting, it’s worth mentioning that there is a freeform sandbox mode.
• I experienced some mild frustrations with the interface. Occasionally it seemed pointlessly difficult to place a building or set out a stretch of road.
• Combat is completely hands off and the results of a rebel insurrection or military coup can sometimes seem arbitrary.
• Be prepared to dig through plenty of menus to find important information.

At times I found Tropico 3 to be a maddening, frustrating and obtuse experience. The brutal manner in which it punished my mistakes and the prescriptive nature of the early part of each scenario were jarring to say the least. However, once I became comfortable with the game’s systems and interface, I found Tropico 3 to be incredibly rewarding. Reaching the end of my time in power with a massive debt and just barely escaping an American invasion was a nerve racking experience that I didn’t expect. Despite the inappropriate use of historical figures, I found the humour to be sharp and generally well executed.

You should play this game if…

…you enjoy a serious challenge and have the patience of a saint.

Final Score

A challenging and sometimes incredibly frustrating game. If you have the time to invest, it will reward you but only after administering several harsh punishments.

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