Everyone has a moment in their life, whether it’s while you’re drinking lemonade in your garden in the summertime or sitting watching TV while it snows outside. But everyone has that moment in their life when they think to themselves “Life would be so much better if I was a dictator in a small Banana Republic island.” The people at Haemimont Games decided that instead of just moving to an island and take it over, they would create a game that would allow people to simulate this desire with less chance of military coups.
Tropico 3 sees you taking the role of El Presidente in a Sim City Caribbean lovechild political simulator. Allowing you full control over how you look in the game, which as you’ll be able to walk around your island is important, you’ll want to look your best when visiting construction sites to get the workers to build faster or visiting a church to confess your latest sins. Tropico 3 uses a standard birds eye camera view, looking down over your island you are able to zoom all the way down to street level and follow the citizens of your island on their daily business if you so desire, or if they’re causing you trouble by rioting you could pay to have them taken care of.
That’s where the beauty of Tropico 3 really comes in to play, the island looks stunning and the graphics do the game justice, but the real beauty doesn’t come with graphics, it comes with the ability to be as corrupt as you desire. You have a Swiss bank account you can funnel funds in to, you have the ability to negotiate backroom deals with the US or Russia, you can rule your island with a loving hand or an iron fist and both will succeed, if played right of course. The game gives you the freedom to run your island however you desire.
Tropico 3’s best factor though, are the radio presenters, in the original version of the game, you were joined by the radio presenter Juanito who backed all of your decisions, with the Absolute Power expansion his rival station has opened, bringing you Betty Boom a resistance leader who is against your every action. The only flaw in the game is that you have the ability to take Juanito off the air by putting a bullet between his eyes, but no such action exists for Betty Boom.
The game features 15 scenarios to the campaign and the expansion adds another 10 and will keep sim dictators busy for a long while, that is of course unless your island kick you out… Which happens… A lot.
