They say that some things just don’t belong together, and RTS games on consoles has always been up there with the more obscure combinations. Players everywhere frown or pull clown-like faces when the mere mention of something involving strategy is thrust upon a machine without an ability to point and click. With rare exceptions the opinion has bared fruit quite often.
The thing is though, with more and more buttons appearing on controllers these days, as well as the average age of games players in the early to mid 30s, are we being a bit harsh? With Kalypso’s fifth Tropico title, even I’M beginning to think we are.
Now, I will say this straight away, for the love of everything sacred please do the tutorials. You will get nowhere fast if you don’t get to grips with the way things are done in your little secluded town. Thankfully though, once you get past the original learning process, after a couple of goes you do begin to get into the way things work here.
The game covers 4 different time periods, the Colonial Era, the two World Wars, the Cold War and Modern Times, allowing for a well paced learning curve as well as drip feeding you buildings and different items gradually, rather than just throwing everything at you from the off. It gives you an incentive to keep going and in a strategy game that is very important because with all the time you’ll spend on each separate level you’ll need a fair bit of inspiration.
Another good thing is that it isn’t simply about building stuff and keeping an eye on it. You also have to be treading a fine line between statesman and dictator. You can bribe, blackmail and even kill people who are not affectionate to your cause, or perhaps an outside force will ask you to do something for them to help fund your own personal fun instead of putting the cash into the treasury. There is a lot of depth underneath this simple looking game.
The term simple looking is tailor made for Tropico 5. Perhaps it is because we are moving onto the next gen stuff more than we were 6 months ago, but that mixed with the fact we’re looking at a strategy game means the sheen and flair was never going to be thrusting itself in your face at any point. You need things to be functional and that is exactly what you get. Everything works well and there is a lot of colour, but the actual look of the game can be just a little bland, but due to what it is, you can forgive a bit.
What really impresses me about the game though is just how much depth there is. You are encouraged to have a bloodline running through the game as each member of the family in your campaign helps to give unique traits over the course. You also have to balance trade routes between you and other countries and/or factions, whether they be good or bad, to help stabilise growth in your community. Becoming an independent nation also has risk, but plenty of reward if done correctly. The economy is a key fundamental here and you also need to get the correct workers in to make things work better, as well as improve the tools used for your commerce. It truly does mirror real life.
If there was going to be any criticism with the game it would be that it only pushes the boundaries of the previous two Tropico titles in the series slightly, rather than represent a huge leap forward. The phrase “If it ain’t broke” can be good in some places, but when you only have a major change in your playing history it can bring up that feeling of whether you would be better off sticking with 3 or 4, rather than plunging real money into 5. Having said that, the Command and Conquer series were a little guilty of that too. In fact more or less EVERY strategy title can have a finger pointed at it, simply because there isn’t really a huge amount of stuff you can radically move around and change through fear of losing a good balance of gameplay the genre needs.
The campaign is light hearted, if a little on the basic side in terms of content and comedy, but it still plays well enough to keep you moving in the right direction. Multiplayer gives you the option to either play with or against another human, which is really handy for those just starting to get to grips with the game as you can learn from those more experienced in the way it all works, giving you an easier “HANDS ON” approach to things on your funky desert island. The duels are a good laugh too, although like all of these games, it is never fun playing for long periods of time and being beaten on a technicality, but then strategy fans have enough patience to work in a hospital (no pun intended).
Overall, I’d say this is worth a punt if you’ve always wanted to have a crack at console RTS, but were too scared to try it before through the fear of the control pad holding you back. The pace is nicely tuned and the gameplay is adequate enough to keep you busy. There will always be purists who will say that it should only be on a PC, but then they say that about first person shooters and look what formats rule the roost on that front nowadays. Tropico 5 satisfies the cravings of the strategist as well as inspiring curiosity from those who are maybe getting a little bored with Destiny and all the other generic games we all seem to be moved towards. If you’ve played 3 or 4 I would maybe try before you buy, but if not and you fancy something to get the grey cells ticking over, I can seriously think of worse. It is harmless, decent, brain working fun and at the price you could get it for nowadays, I don’t think it will hurt too many people in their own economic situation either.
Made by Haemimont Games Distributed by Kalypso
Thanks to the Xbox Community for supplying the game for review.