Ever fancied yourself as I bit of a totalitarian dictator? If, like me, you answered yes to that question then Haemimont have got you covered with Tropico 3. The game is a port of the PC release and gives players the chance to play as ‘El Presidente’, the ruler of a tropical banana republic.

Tropico is essential an rts style dictator experience. There’s a slice of Sim City in here too as deciding on building and road placement is apparently part of the job of dictators. The game also has plenty of humour added into the mix which does help to keep things interesting.

The single player mode consists of you taking charge of several tropical islands, each with different natural resources and sets of goals attached to them. You have to keep the population happy whilst striving to meet objectives such as building X number of farms, or attracting a set number of tourists to the island. These goals must be completed within a certain time limit in order to progress to the next island.



Gameplay wise you move the camera around your island using the sticks, whilst the face buttons allow browsing of menus and issuing orders such as putting up buildings. In classic rts style you need certain buildings to allow access to others which means that forward planning of your growing metropolis is essential for success. This is the first area of the game I have to take a little issue with, as the controls really don’t feel all that natural. The game has obviously been designed with a keyboard and mouse in mind and does feel clunky on the pad.

Graphically Tropico is nice enough looking, although I did notice a few instances of screen tearing. The soundtrack is pleasant too and fits in well with the stereotypical and comical portrayal of these banana republics.

The main problem I had with the game was that it didn’t go far enough in convincing me that I was the all powerful dictator I had hoped to be. For one thing: the game has elections every now and again during which you can be voted out of power if you’ve annoyed the people enough. Unfortunately the experience also rapidly becomes repetitive, with each island not being as different as they are first made out to be. The religious faction seems to be important on every island, and failure to build a church just causes people to lose faith in the power of your presidency.

Tropico 3 is a fun enough experience and is quite different to anything else currently available. The game suffers from control and repetition issues but is nonetheless worth a play if you can find it cheap enough.

Verdict: 7/10. Buy it if you find it in the bargain bin.