Tropico 6 Power

[Andree Vandestreek]

Feral Interactive released a redesigned version of Tropico 3 to iPad on December 18, 2018, under the name Tropico or known as Tropico Mobile, with an iPhone version following on April 30, 2019.[4][5] An Android version of the game was released on September 5, 2019.[6]

As "El Presidente", the player's main duties include managing development on the island, by ordering construction of various resources, industry and service buildings, and determining how these buildings operate. The player can also issue several different "edicts" to influence the island, such as new laws, policies, and diplomatic actions.

There are seven different political factions on the island (communists, capitalists, militarists, environmentalists, nationalists, religious faction and intellectuals) each with various demands, such as constructing a specific building and issuing a specific edict. Due to the game's Cold War setting, the player will have to manage relations with both the United States and the USSR, who will provide the player with yearly financial aid. Higher relations with a superpower will mean more aid and the possibility of an alliance, low relations will mean less aid and the danger of invasion by that superpower.

Other features include a time line editor that allows you to create your own fictitious historical events or enter real ones, custom avatar, political speeches, wide range of editing and modification functions, mission generator for random map creation, variety of online-functions such as high scores or visiting islands belonging to other players and a Latin soundtrack.[7]

The game has a variety of humor elements including running satirical commentary by fictional radio station Tropico News Today, and subtle touches such as liaisons between priests and cabaret girls. The "loading" and "saving" screens have quotes from various leaders, politicians, and revolutionaries such as Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx, John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, Augusto Pinochet, Nikita Khrushchev, Leon Trotsky, Mobutu Sese Seko, Todor Zhivkov, Vladimir Putin, Muammar Gaddafi, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Tropico 3 was developed by Haemimont Games for both Xbox 360 and PC. Features include a new 3D game engine and a customizable avatar which you can travel across the island, interacting with the environment and population and the use of cars, trucks and limos. Like the original Tropico, the developers preserved the tongue-in-cheek humor of the game, as well as the basic game-play. In Tropico 3, the issues and problems of the island are explained by Juanito the DJ in humorous ways.

The expansion pack gives the player a wider selection of edicts such as 'Print money', 'Free housing', 'Delete a Faction' and 'Shoot Juanito' (which involves blowing up Juanito's TNT Radio). These new edicts are called 'Megalomania edicts'; for each edict that the player releases they can gain a varying amount of megalomania score that counts at the end of the game. Also there is a new range of buildings, including 'Golden Statue' (in the likeness of 'El Presidente'), 'Garbage dump' and 'Balloon rides'. The Loyalist faction is also introduced; it is composed of the player's most loyal supporters. There is also a second radio DJ named Betty Boom who is head of the resistance movement against El Presidente.

The "Steam Special Edition" of Tropico 3 offers two additional maps for the sandbox mode and two additional costumes for the El Presidente avatar editor. The "Steam Special Edition" is only available through Steam. It was released on October 21, 2009, in North America but was originally listed to be released on the later date of October 25, 2009. The international release was on November 14, 2009.[10]

The Collector Edition, for which the content has never been revealed, was available to pre-order only on Amazon sites worldwide; however, on September 30, 2009, Amazon announced this collector edition had been canceled.

The GOG version of the Gold Edition includes Tropico 3, the Absolute Power expansion, 2 maps for the sandbox mode(Verde Playa, Coco Chico Map), 2 additional costumes for the El Presidente avatar editor, 2 additional accessories for the El Presidente avatar editor(Baseball Hat, Commie Hat), Artwork, Avatars, Manual, Soundtrack, and Wallpaper.[11]

The things I've achieved in strategy games. In Civilization, I founded the UN, cured cancer and went to Alpha Centauri. In Age of Empires, I developed a group of nomad settlers into a vast, militarised Iron Age society and conquered the world. And in Tropico... Well, I was ousted after 30 years, leaving only my legacy of decreasing pollution by 15 per cent.

Tropico, created in 2001 by the now defunct PopTop Software, isn't like other strategy games. Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, it puts you in charge of a small banana republic - the eponymous Tropico - and leaves you to deal with things like tax rates, building permits and workers' rights. There are no options to build tanks, no impressive buildings like Stonehenge or the Tesla Coil. Instead, you essentially play the role of a local councillor or town alderman.

You're not a supreme ruler. If you want to build a college, you need to clear it with the ministers. If you want to increase working hours, you should expect resistance from the unions. And so, any positive change you make to Tropico, no matter how small, feels like an enormous victory. I spent 10 years negotiating a construction discount with the Russians just so I could afford a slum block of tenements. I was 15 years in power before the island even had electricity. Every political decision you make leads to backlash from your electorate. It's such a difficult game.

It could be seen as frustrating. The systems that govern Tropico aren't particularly visible. It's not based on typical video game logic, which says every time you press button X, it will have result Y. The needs of your public are fluid; they change constantly. Sometimes, extending working hours will give you an inexplicable ratings boost. Other times, improving healthcare will, for some reason, cheese everybody off. Tropico simulates the part of a politician's life that has every decision they make resulting in someone, somewhere calling them a tit. You can't win.

But although that can be infuriating, it seems to me like that's the point. The later Tropico games, particularly Tropico 3, devolved into this awful, unfunny, Grand Theft Auto-style satire, where every joke is delivered out loud and it's all very obvious. There's this news bulletin in Tropico 3 about a llama that's stolen the president's hat and is now going to be executed by firing squad. It's forced and, quite honestly, rubbish. In the original Tropico, though, the satire is razor sharp.

It all emanates from that difficult to predict, impossible to master gameplay, whereby no matter what you do, you never seem to make progress. I'm in a game of Tropico and 80 percent of my citizens are living below the poverty line. So I start building more farms. Then I get a letter from the ministers saying Tropico needs a church. Since most people on Tropico are religious, I decide to cancel two farms and build a church. Then another letter: we want a cathedral. Again, I can see my ratings slipping if I don't oblige so, with heavy heart, I cancel all my farms and build a cathedral. Two months go by, the election comes up and I lose because no-one has any food. I jump up and yell "you people don't know what you want!" And this, I imagine, is how any government must feel.

The other games in the Tropico series poke fun at the president. It's all jokes about how El Presidente is corrupt and insane and ineffective. Those games have the same political mentality as a cab driver - whatever is going wrong with the country, it's the fault of whoever's in charge. But the original is more interesting. Your people really don't know what's best for them. You sit there, looking at reports from your ministers, at last year's crime statistics and at next year's budget and you know that what your country really needs right now is a better hospital. But your people want a new leisure centre. They don't understand and don't care about the bigger picture - they just want what they want. It's a political commentary that not only have I never seen explored in other video games, but rarely see in other media full-stop. We don't like to criticise The People. The People are always good folk, with common sense, who are being shat on by higher-ups. You'll never see a politician say, "I told you so."

But Tropico does. It's a satire, less on politicians themselves, and more on the compromises they have to make at the whims of their constituents. You go into the game with all these lofty plans but soon find yourself bending to every demographic on the island on the off chance that they might let you stay in power long enough to achieve just one thing of your own. For 25 years I ate crap from the unions, the communists, the military and the farmers. It was only in the last five years when I was able to push through anti-litter ordinance and switch the power stations from coal to gas. And then, while they were all still living in shacks, propped up next to their giant leisure centre and three churches, they voted me out.

And Tropico isn't just brave political satire. It's progressive - it was way ahead of its time. Here you are, this supposed ruler of an island, but you're not the one who's really in charge. You're disempowered. Every decision you make will, eventually, come back to bite you. Those are themes that video games have really only started to explore recently. If you think of things like Spec Ops: The Line or The Walking Dead, they turn the player's agency back on itself. In Spec Ops, you end up killing more people than you save. In The Walking Dead, no matter what you do, your friends die.

And in Tropico, the more you try to change things, the more they stay the same. When you start, the people are unhappy because there's no food and nowhere to live. When you finish, the people are just as unhappy. The only difference is that now, instead of bad food, it's because the casinos are too expensive and the hospitals are crowded. You're meant to be El Presidente, but you can't change anything. Tropico is now 12 years old, but even by today's standards it feels thematically fresh.

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