Tropico 3 – Reviewed
by OMGitsTFC on Apr.12, 2010, under Gaming
How long do I play before The Others show up and until I can start hitting on Kate and Juliet?Oh, sim style games. I’ll never get tired of you. Ok. That’s a lie. I will. But Tropico 3 is one that i can play for a long time before the hardships of being a Presidente start to wear on me and make me want to go back to killing and blowing things up in other games.
This game blends an entertainment factor with a very in-depth engine, and is all set to be a game that will pump out just as much as you pump in. There is SO MUCH depth to the engine, however, that it becomes overwhelming at times. The level of info that you can acquire from an individual citizen, building or one of your various graphs or charts or overlays is insane. But its not actually necessary to learn all the in’s and out’s of the entire engine. You can play with the bare-bone info that is readily available to you, but if you really want to kick the game in to overdrive then the resources are there for you to do so. This gives you a win/lose situation. It’s a win because you can tinker with and manipulate so many things from your citizens to edicts like tax cuts, but the down side is that the tutorial doesn’t cover everything you need. There are of course things the tutorials cant teach you, like how to use all of this information to its fullest. That requires s bit of intelligence mixed with a bit of common sense from the user. But being able to access that detailed information or changing some of the options that are off the beaten path are kind of left in the dark. I need Clarissa’s number so she can come explain it all. Yeah. 90′s joke. I went there.
On the more technical side, this game is pretty solid. The islands and environments look really good for being the type of game that it is, and I haven’t seen any hints or signs of any sort of engine problems or glitches. Its a smooth running game. Some of the controls are a bit touchy at times, but to be honest, I cant tell you if that’s the engine not performing properly, or my controller needing to visit the hospital because of all the button pressing and usage ive been putting on it for bad company 2. Sigh. They also include an island generator so you can spawn random environments for you to free play on if you get tired of the scenarios they set up for you to play thru.
In retrospect, I should have waited to buy this game. Its a great game, and very entertaining, but not really worth the launch price tag. This is definitely a buy when it reaches around $30, but until then just keep blowing things up or conquering things on a different game.
Tropico 3 – 6/10
