GamesCom 09 gave us the opportunity to sample the delights of Tropico 3 which is heading to the Xbox 360 later this year. Whilst our time with the game was brief, we did get some valuable insight into this unique game for the system. To be fair, games such as this one require lots of time investment to fully understand the nuances of what makes it tick, but our overview with the game's product manager Timo Thomas of Kalypso was constructive and informative.
So for those of you not sure on what the game entails, or what it's about let's recap a little.The game is set during the cold war where you have taken control of the small Caribbean Island of Tropico . Acting as a dictator or as the game puts it 'El Presidente', it's your job to build the lands and prosper accordingly. Think Sim City but in the tropics instead and you get the general idea. However it's not just an opportunity to rule cold heartedly by intimidation, as you have option to win over the people and have not only your interests, but there's at heart as well. The general idea being that if your people are happy then you should reap the rewards.
The main thing to consider about this game is how well it translates to the Xbox 360 controller and how easy the game is to navigate. From our playtime we could see that there are various easy to pull up menus and within a few button presses you'll get the desired result what ever that is. As mentioned it's a game which does require patience to get the full benefits from and in this regard you'll easily while away the hours as you tend to your people who are all individually named and go about their daily business. You can click on each character to get an overview of what mood they are in and some other details where you can affect how they perceive you. As Presidente you're also able to mingle with your people should you choose to raise their spirits, which is nice touch in addition to giving speeches as you do in your position of power.
The game is all about resource management, and from what we played the idea was to gather resources from the locale which we were told is quite large split into areas and can be played via 15 missions or in your own free form mode. So you'll need to peruse the various topical views that are on offer, find the more productive areas, build roads etc and start farming for produce which is then sold, powering your economy. Although there are other factors such as tourism and fuel that you can develop if produce isn't viable. There are loads of objects you can place on the terrain, but naturally you're going to need the funds to purchase them. We decided to build a nice apartment block slap bang in the middle of the slums which didn't go down too well, although some inhabitants were happy with the move to bigger and better living quarters. We did have the choice to raise the rent on this new building to very high levels but decided to keep it low to accommodate the low level workforce that would live there. When the game is in full swing, you can obviously set things like rent in accordance to your work force's income levels, but remembering to keep them happy. It's game over if they revolt against you or another military coup d'etat occurs.
Tropico 3 is a unique game for the Xbox 360 platform, looks very detailed and should be heaps of fun for gamers who like to use the grey matter a lot more than simply pointing guns and shooting. We've only scratched the surface of what you can do in the game here, and from our limited hands on. But from what we've gathered, there's a cool game here that will be fully supported post release with downloadable content etc. and should be well worth checking out, in a genre that has no rivals at present. The game is scheduled for release on the 16th of October 2009 in US/UK.
Preview By: Robert Cram
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