Not much new - but nothing broken.

User Rating: 9 | Tropico 3 PC
Tropico really is the best of it's kind. The advantage over something like SimCity is that you have a chance to actually impact your citizens lives in ways other than simply material (better house, better job, etc...) That mechanic is certainly in place here but in Tropico that is simply the foundation on which you create your islands story. Will you create a utopia full of educated, happy citizens who are free to express themselves and fulfill their dreams? Or will you simply take it all away and grind them down under the heel of oppression. Both are challenging and (perversely) satisfying goals to achieve. I am supremely happy to play this beautiful re-make of the original and I am curious to see where Haemimont will take it in the future.

I just have to say for all original Tropico lovers out there on the fence – this remake does add a few excellent features that improve gameplay. First the tenement building is no longer oversized making it work nicely into the urban landscape – really a nice job on this upgrade. The garage, while very useful in improving travel time, suffers from the original tenement building problem by being grossly oversized and cumbersome to place. The addition of the "El Presidente" avatar is also great and gives you something to do while awaiting completion of construction projects. The only thing taken out that I loved in the original is the weather patterns (in the original you could map out things like rainfall across the island, etc.. and this made crop planning slightly more interesting to me). But trust me when I say that I might be the only one to miss / notice it's omission.

All in all great job. If you are a fan of Tropico you owe it to yourself to check this out. I, for one, am heading out for an extended stay on the small paradise called Tropico – shake your coming winter blues and head out there yourself.