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Good news for those of you who have harbored dreams of becoming a Latin American Dictator! If you haven't had a chance to play the earlier games in the series, (or even if you did), you should give Tropico 3 a try.
In a nutshell, the game is a combination of Sim City-esque city management, coupled with elements of political maneuvering. You begin by choosing your avatar. What kind of leader do you want to be? There are pre-created options, and you can choose some *cough* fondly remembered leaders like Fidel Castro, etc. Or you can opt to create your own dictator ... right down to their personality traits (strengths and weaknesses) that could have a big ripple effect on the duration and success of your "presidency." You can also customize the look, right down to the style of moustache you want to don.
When the game gets going, you will find it isn't easy to be a ruler of a fledgling island nation. There will be a lot of political, social, economic and military forces that will conflict and immediately you're going to realize there is a very delicate balancing act required to get things on track. Right off the bat you're going to realize the importance of keeping a balanced workforce, the need to build infrastructure, keeping folks in decent housing, building crops that feed your nation but also helps maintain a steady flow of exports to fill your coffers. And that's just the beginning of the game.
Later on as your island grows you will need to build even more services to keep your residents happy. You will need to also (if you choose) upgrade your tourist infrastructure to get folks coming in to spend their hard earned dollars in your island paradise. All that while keeping folks happy, preventing a rebellion, avoiding a foreign invasion, rigging elections, etc. You will have a lot to keep you busy. And don't forget you can micromanage everything from presidential edicts, to immigration policy, to what kind of crops you want to grow, to individual wages ... to even firing specific people from their jobs. If you like detail, this game is for you.
I've touched on the gameplay above. Now for some other aspects of the game ...
The graphics are very detailed. As your island gets bigger, you can see it buzzing with life. The environment is very detailed and you can even zoom in closely to see how your people are living their daily lives. You can even click on individuals to see what they are happy/unhappy about to get an idea of what you might want to improve on your island. I do have a slight issue with the camera though, as it sometimes can be cumbersome to navigate. Also at times when you are building structures, it might be very hard to see where the entrance of the buildings are ... and could impact how and where you place them.
The music is hilarious. You get pretty much your token latin music selection and often it really feels like you're in the middle of Cuba or some other exciting South American locale. The radio announcer who does faux reports also is amusing, and provides very good info on what's happening in your island paradise. The sound effects in the game definitely adds to the nice atmosphere of the game.
All in all Tropico 3 is a very solid sim game on the Xbox 360. It is very well executed and as long as you enjoy games like these, I'm sure you will consider it a great buy. The somewhat steep difficulty and learning curve might put off casual gamers, but I honestly believe that as long as you put some work into learning the nuances of being a dictator, it will definitely be a rewarding experience with lots of great replay value (after all, you can be different types of dictators ... which is great ha ha)
**IMPORTANT EDIT**
After spending a substantial amount of time playing this game, I came across a major glitch that apparently is affecting all console owners of this game. I have seen many complaints on the developers website about this issue and as of now it appears it has not been addressed.
Apparently if you own the console version and if you try to save the game at a certain point, the game will not load when you attempt to pull up that save at a later time. It will lock up your Xbox and you will have to reboot. This apparently impacts folks who build a city that either has a high population (some folks say they had the issue when their population reached 500+, but I ran into this issue when my population was around 375) .. or too many buildings. I will continue to monitor this and update. But at the moment no patch for the console version has been issued.
Buyer beware! What this means is if you play an extended game (like for me when I'm playing on the sandbox aspect of the game) and your island gets big and successful (which is what you want) and you want to save it, there is a high likelihood you will not be able to reload your game when you try to pull it up later, which kind of defeats the purpose of the game!
**EDIT NUMBER 2**
As of today people are still reporting bugs. However there is word that the developer is preparing a patch. No idea when this will be released. Once can only hope or assume it will be soon. Will continue to update. Meantime, if you can stomach playing the game only in short intervals (it would be hard, as this game is quite good and addictive), you may consider buying now. Otherwise, if you like long games, might wanna wait until this issue is completely resolved.
**EDIT NUMBER 3**
There is word now from Kalypso that a patch is indeed in the works. However, no timeframe for the release is being given. However, at least they are aware of the severity of this bug. Nonetheless, the game issue is still being addressed and I will continue to update if I see anything new. Meantime, just as an FYI for those who are asking, apparently loading the game on the HD does not fix the issue either. So based on this info and what I'm providing as well I would recommended people strongly consider this issue before purchasing, at least until it's resolved. IF you're only looking to play the campaign mode, the game does work fine. This apparently is an issue that only affects the sandbox mode. However, given how much fun the sandbox mode is ... I think one should really think twice until a fix is implemented.
**EDIT NUMBER 4**
This is the latest so far based on someone at Kalypso when asked on their board about when the XBOX 360 patch will be released: "There are no fixed release dates for these kinds of things. We will make the update available via Xbox Live as soon as it's done. This being said, things are going well and we're confident this will be available soon." -So at least we're seeing some progress. Will continue updating ...
**EDIT NUMBER 5 3/17**
Still nothing concrete from the developers. The forum where one discussion about this issue is taking place still has nothing beyond what they've said before (in short: when they are done, and MSFT has QC'd the patch, you poor gamers will get it then). But at the moment as of this day, still no patch ... Will continue to update as I monitor it daily ...
**EDIT NUMBER 6 3/29**
Still nothing, and there is no patch available for download as of the past weekend. I did a test load of my saved games and they all locked up my xbox ... Why is this taking so long ...
**EDIT NUMBER 7 4/12**
Nothing at all. Did a test run on my xbox last night and again my save files froze my game. Developers have not said anything on the forums despite some more users requesting information. This is pretty lame on their part! See if I ever buy any game made by this company again.
**EDIT NUMBER 8 5/17**
A month has passed since my last update. After recurring checks, there is STILL no update/patch for the game to fix the save file crash issue. Several attempts to reload save files have all failed, and the game still freezes up. There is not a peep on the developer forums, and I think generally most people have given up about asking as well. It's a shame. Remind me not to buy anything from this developer again.
**EDIT NUMBER 9 6/1**
Still nothing. I'm now on the company forums making a fuss. Of course no response (and based on the threads I've seen on the topic, it seems others who complained directly to customer service got the usual corporate brush off with a half hearted attempt to ask about the problem with nothing more than a vague offer of a potential patch in the unforseen future. After 3 months ... you'd think they'd have a fix by now?
**EDIT NUMBER 10 6/14**
Nothing at all. Game still freezes when loading save files. I also noticed there is more activity on the forums, but again it's from people who are asking about why there is no fix for the save file crashes. And again, no response from the company ...
**EDIT NUMBER 11 7/6**
No word whatsoever from developer or publisher about the so-called patch that they said months ago they would make the address the problem. This is very disturbing considering they mentioned it so long ago and still have made zero progress. Nothing is being said on the forums from the company, and I'm seeing lots of complaints from users about the lack of feedback. It's a shame ...
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Ok this is an amazing game, on par with or better than the previous incarnation. One of the only great sims for xbox.However, the xbox version has a major bug. If you save a large population. (forums say 500+ but it is much less than that)
When you try to load the game again it freezes. To give you an idea, most sandbox games max out at 1990ish.
This majority disables a huge portion of the game, hampers game playability and achievement potential. Though you can make it through the campaign without experiencing the bug.
Not only is there NO patch after the game has been out since Feb 2010, but NO WORD on a patch. DO NOT buy the xbox 360 version until you check online and verify that a patch has been released. As of July 2010, it hasn't.
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The game was fun to play until I tried to save, then the game would crash and you would not be able to reopen your saved game file. The publishers of this game, Kalypso Media, should reimburse everyone who bought the Xbox 360 version, but they will not do that. The game is a rip off and on the verge of a scam. I will never buy another game from these people.Honest reviews on Tropico 3 - Xbox 360
I've always enjoyed city building games, though I'll readily admit I've never been fantastic at them. As a city mayor as much as in real life I always seem to be a few bucks above bankruptcy, scrounging up just enough money to make the next improvement to life.Tropico started off no differently then the others, spare a somewhat-confusing control interface (push forward to zoom out??) After taking in the lush graphics and environments, I started plunking down buildings like a kid with way too much Monopoly money...
But things got rocky, quickly... Before long my umemployment was spiraling out of control, and my expenses quickly took me into debt beyond where I could build new buildings to create new jobs. This resulted in stalemate, and a "mission restart." The second time through, I built less of what the game suggested I build (tenements, or ultra-low income housing) and built apartments, which cost residents a little more to live in, but holds less people. Before long I was making a fortune. Then I built a mine and started digging ore from the Earth. Before long I was making more money than I knew what to do with. Then as quickly as things picked up they plummeted. Mine production stopped. Income from exports dropped to near-zero. Why? I honestly have no idea... Market values hadn't changed, there was still ore available (according to the layouts screen,) and the building was fully staffed. In the meantime, several buildings that I had placed were not being built. My construction offices were fully staffed, but their list of current projects was blank. Blank! I had 7 buildings cued up! By then my townsfolk were rioting and going nuts, and I couldn't do anything to solve the problem...
This is how things progress in Tropico. You'll have hours of profitable success, watching your little Tropical paradise swarm with activity. Then seemingly a moment later you'll be completely broke, staring at the screen in amazement asking yourself "how the heck did this happen?" Furthermore, gathering information in Tropico is nearly impossible. At the onset, you'll get tips from little windows that pop up, telling you of problems. You'll also get help if you can call it that from the extremely annoying radio station DJ (even though you may never build an actual Radio Station...) After the first hour-or-so however, the tips and clues come much less frequently. As it is, the only tips you'll receive might be along the lines of "your citizens want this" or "to make this building functional, you must hire a professional immigrant to come to your city." When things start to fall apart however, there is no concrete way to find out why. In addition, a lot of the information available is unclear to all but real-life economists. What is Economic Disparity? I have no idea... Is a high or low value desirable? I have no idea... Does the game explain any of this to you? Heavens no...
And so you struggle. You try to do things different, but all this does is change the intervals at which everything goes to hell. Sometimes you recover; if you've already laid down the buildings that you needed, they'll eventually be built, and things might pick back up. Or sometimes it'll take multiple months of watching ships take thousands of dollars of exports from your city until the money finally shows up in the bank. Why? Again I don't know... Either the simulation is so advanced that tiny little changes can spiral life for your citizens into chaos, or quite simply it's just plain broken.
In the end, Tropico 3 is a beautiful game that just leaves you feeling like you really have no idea what's going on. Through several campaign missions, I sat staring at the screen, 50+ thousand dollars in debt, until I was suddenly notified that I had SUCCEEDED the mission because I achieved some number of something-or-other. All I could think was, "Well, good thing I don't have to do THAT again..."
I rented it, I sent it back, and I won't be comin' around for more.
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This game was addicting for the first few days. You can end up losing track of time very easily. Sidenote: the church bishops and priests seem to frequent the cabernet to visit the "showgirls". Thought it was amusing.PROS:
the game loads quick
balancing the politics of your island
custom avatar/hero, or a long list of characters to choose from
personality & background of your avatar/hero affects the game-play
unique islands & people that require different methods in order to succeed
some quirky and amusing tidbits
learning curve is small, easy to understand from the first play
CONS:
after beating campaign, there is not much replay value
i had trouble loading large saved game files
graphics are not bad, but not great either
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