Review of Tropico 6: Next Gen Edition: humorous dictates and complex economics

I don’t have a huge amount of city-building simulators in my gaming experience, but I was still able to appreciate Tropico 6. Few games of this genre allow you to take on the role of El Presidente, able to do anything. You can become a brutal dictator, falsifier and deceiver, you can become an honest and upright communist, capitalist, etc. The game gives you tons of possibilities… if you just figure out the economic part.

The game has a lot to offer.

Briefly about Tropico 6

Tropico 6 offers a rich and inviting world to explore, with beaches, lush jungles and cute bungalows. The game’s graphics are… okay, however some elements do feel dated. On the plus side, the game loads quickly on next-gen consoles.

The game’s graphics are okay, but some elements do feel dated.

The gameplay is both relaxing and addictive (though exceptionally crisis-driven at first). The politics, trade, and mission systems provide enough depth and complexity to keep players engaged and involved. I was personally consumed by the quest to hold onto power and accomplish tasks that carried through different eras — from the colonial period to the present day.

I’m not sure how to play the game.

The sandbox mode offers a huge amount of scope for creativity and experimentation, allowing you to create your own missions and scenarios. There are also 16 pre-made story missions that provide additional challenge and variety.

The sandbox mode offers a huge amount of creativity and experimentation, allowing you to create your own missions and scenarios.

Tropico has several eras in the game, each with specific features and limitations. The colonial era has a time limit — you have to declare independence before the end of your reign. However, once independence is achieved, you can stay in this era for as long as you want. As you move from one era to the next, new mechanics and features appear in the game.

The heart of every dictatorship and democracy — the people

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In Tropico 6, it’s up to you to keep the population happy by providing them with the resources and services they need. Every citizen must be employed, provided with housing, goods and entertainment, and their political views must be catered to. But here a problem arises. Some of the population’s needs may conflict with each other, requiring complex decisions. For example, military installations may reduce the population’s freedom, but without them, the settlement may be vulnerable to attack.

Every settler belongs to a faction, such as communists or capitalists, who often have mutually exclusive desires. Some ask for taverns and housing for workers, others to maximize industry to the detriment of the people. And the bottom line is that those people will have to vote for you in an election. And that’s where the juggling of the people’s wishes comes in. True, sometimes it is not clear how to fulfill individual tasks. It’s a bit of a random.

Of course, you can take, kill people, send them to a mental hospital, and even rig elections. However, such discretion has consequences. In this style of game you can’t avoid rebels, discontent, destruction of infrastructure, etc. But, if you play it right, you can win.

Simultaneously, the peaceful way works well too: give citizens jobs and housing, entertainment, issue edicts and such. Gradually things will settle down to an optimal level.

A game where a college degree in economics comes in handy

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The confusing part of Tropico 6 — the economy. While it is possible to build production chains to provide the population with the necessary resources and increase profits from exports, the economic stability of the island is often questionable. Especially at the beginning of the game’s journey. My budget was consistently negative, just to a greater or lesser degree. And this caused problems in misunderstanding the game mechanics.

Tropico 6 is rich with a lot of statistics that can be accessed through handy menus. However, the lack of tools to analyze this information can make it difficult to determine the causes of economic problems. Often I didn’t understand why indicators weren’t growing or even decreasing, even though logically I had done everything possible and right to grow them.

In Tropico 6, situations arise where a large number of new facilities need to be built to fulfill needs. This can be difficult, as there may not be enough resources or space to build. Sometimes it can get so absurd that you have to build nightclubs, taverns, and more all over the island. But that doesn’t increase your stats much, and you may not have enough people.

It would be helpful to have more loan options. For example, the ability to borrow or receive investments from other countries several times, instead of a single $50,000 loan.

It would be useful to have more borrowing opportunities.

Game Modes

Tropico 6 offers several modes, including a “Sandbox” with more than ten pre-made maps and the ability to generate random maps. The game also features tutorials and 16 story missions that teach various aspects of running an island. These missions are done well and don’t give the feeling of a drawn out tutorial. In addition, the sometimes bizarre map layouts make you make the best use of the available space… and survive in a constant crisis.

Some of these missions are also well done.

Tropico 6 features a variety of missions that impose interesting restrictions. For example, some missions may prohibit building houses and force everyone to live in temporary shacks. In other cases, players may not have arable land and will have to import materials and build an economy based on other resources such as fish, oil and tourism.

Some of Tropico 6’s story missions may be harder than others. For example, one mission requires you to reach a population of 1,000 people to advance to the next stage of the story. This can take a long time and requires taking steps to maximize birth rates and immigration. Honestly, this mission was a bit too drawn out for me.

Here’s the thing.

Miscellaneous trivia

There’s not much to say about the soundtrack other than it’s pleasant and doesn’t get boring. The Caribbean music fulfills its main purpose — it doesn’t interfere with the game, but complements it. The only thing that over time began to get a little annoying — monotony of election speeches. But this is if you have to promise to improve often the same thing in the lives of citizens. But I had to promise often to improve medicine and interest. Because of this I had to hear the same lines often.

What I really liked — the customization of the president and his suite at the beginning. Here, as in many details, the developers didn’t shy away and made as many jokes as they wanted. And that’s cool. In general, the whole game is saturated with humor about dictates and politics. There are few other games like this in the city-building genre.

Something seems to be missing… ah yes — network mode. I’d like to paint it in colors, how the game is played for 2-4 people, what are the strategies and techniques. But the nuance is that there was no online, so it was impossible to evaluate multiplayer. But in fact it is not terrible. The game is good on its own without multiplayer.