Beautiful Caribbean islands, invasive government intervention, and a presidente for all coming time. Magnificent Tropico 6 has moved onto the console stage, and it handles itself pretty well. I don’t think it compares to the PC’s user interfaces, but the general concept is still the same.
Right from the start of the game, you can customize El Presidente and his or her luxurious palace. Some of the features are not available depending on which era you are currently playing. For instance, a helicopter pad is really cool, but you won’t be able to see it during the Industrial Revolution/Colonial period. You can customize the scenarios as well, such as deciding how you want to achieve victory over the island or if you even want the sandbox to end. There are other options, just like in previous versions, including how much money you start with, the population, and how much foreign investment you will receive. There is also a political climate to the Caribbean, which complements the sunny, warm, Tropico locales.
I would definitely call this game a better version of Tropico 5, because it sheds elements from its predecessor and tries to make more meaningful changes. For instance, the eras feature is a fun and interesting trope. I enjoy witnessing the history of my small island nation. The research aspect also made sense. Missions, which can be used to determine your campaign victory, come in a nonlinear fashion. There are consequences to your actions, however, but that is a running theme of Tropico. You want to appease the factions that emerge and rise to prominence so that you have their political support, but sometimes their goals run counterintuitively to your own. Perhaps the Revolutionaries want more autonomy from the crown, but the crown is the very thing that extends your reign. Or maybe the communists want equal wages for all Tropicans, but doing so causes economic stagnation, or even decline. To make things even more complicated, you can actually see how businesses and individuals affect the living, breathing, economy of Tropico.
One of the newer features in this title (from what I remember from the other titles), is connecting the island in a new and interesting way. Bridges and bring an archipelago together and docks can help expand transportation, tourism, and industry. Just like teamsters on the land, there is a need for moving resources on the water. There is also a public transportation option, which I think is a cool solution other than additional parking garages. If you zoom in and look at your people, you can see that they all walk incredibly quickly anyway. While we are the presidente, that does not make city planning any easier. Nothing is more frustrating than the weird ways roads form (in unnecessary curves) and negate my real world logic.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but the track sounds familiar. Almost as if it is the same score from all the other games in the series. While the instrumentals are fun for the first couple hours, it does eventually take a toll on you. While you have the opportunity to customize your avatar and palace, I feel as though you should also the chance to customize the music playlist on the fly as well. Other than that, the voice acting for the many characters is great. I enjoy the artwork, the writing, the humor, and even how the game looks.
If you have the choice of PC or console, I would still suggest the PC route. Tropico 6 is still very much playable on the Xbox, and my own personal preference compels me to build cities with a mouse and WASD keyboard. It is just as I said, however, the game is very much the same no matter how you spin it. If you like city building with an intense outlook on the economy, then perhaps you would like to master the art of intense government intervention, shaping Tropico to your ideal utopia/dystopia. Yes, you can definitely have a police state if you want. I think a fair rating for this title should be a 9 out of 10. It hits the marks where it counts, and it feels like a positive direction for the series.
Check Out the Tropico 6 Accolades Trailer:
For more information, please see www.kalypsomedia.com.
Xbox One Review
I like to think of myself as the average Joe who grew up alongside video games. I have fun playing strategy games, RPGs, shooters, sandboxes, the whole shebang! Every game provides an experience whether it strikes you as profound, mundane, or someplace in between. I'd like to weigh in my two cents before you spend a single penny.
More Stories
My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery Releases for PC and Consoles
Arena Breakout: Infinite Closed Beta Impressions
Indika Review for PlayStation 5