strategy

When I bought this game I was like cool its a game about a pirate controlling an island. Its got ok graphics. I never played the original Tropico so I couldn't tell you the differences. I played the game for about 5 hours. The only exciting part I found was sending the ships out to raid areas (when i played there was only one place to raid) Funny thing is they would never run out of people or be smart enought to move to another place (means not realistic). You would never see these raids. If you build too fast you would run out of captives. Very annoying. The whole fear thing on the captives doesn't mean anything. I never lost one captive. You could buy it or not its up to you!

This game is fun.

I enjoyed the original Tropico and the expansion. This game is simpler, easier to get into, though the Demo does not let you know everything you will be able to do in the full game.

It's not suitable for younger kids, however, as the theme is more Piratey than Pirates of the Carribean (though that used to be a bit more risque, itself). Wenching and lynching are part of the game, and pirates like anarchy, which is provided by sordid amusements. Very appropriate for the time period and topic, but it still limits the kids who ought to be playing it.

Try the Demo (warning it's 130 megabytes so no dial-up), it's the best way to find out if you agree with me.

How can anyone like Tropico I over Tropico II? Well in Tropico I you managed EVERY aspect of your citizens' lives. Each of them needed a house(Tenements would not do the job at higher difficulty levels) a job, access to religious facilities, healthcare, entertainment, liberty, safety,food etc. etc. Problem was the economy did not expand properly. Your people demand ever increasing wages but your economy cannot be ever increasing. At higher difficulty levels you have to pay your people the maximum wage rate after like 50-100 years to keep them in line. In fact the Caribbean region wage increase is pure garbage. Problem becomes when you have a limited amount of Freight ships coming in and tourist, it just gets boring too fast. The most idiotic aspect is when you hire a foreign worker and they come in and JOIN A REBELLION AGAINST YOU! Or they emigrate off the island. Demographically it is a disaster because people marry have children they grow up and need jobs as well and need housing etc... It is not well controlled and just too much micromanagement.

Why is Tropico II better? Nobody EVER asks for a wage increase period. Half your population does not get paid(capitves work 4 free hehe...) No babies, no families, just pure fun.

Here is a tip: Captive rebellion and escape are not really serious problems. WHY? Because you can "press gang"( turn into a pirate) all unskilled captives. Yep even the ones that are escaping... Furthermore, if you have pirates that are unhappy you can ALMOST ALWAYS prevent a coup by upsetting the balance of power- just create more pirates. All pirates that are brought into life by virtues of "press gang" start out as super happy. That is a temporary measure of course but sometimes you need more time.

Another tip, get UPSCALE eastblishments ASAP because your captains will quickly become enraged with anything less. And when they are enraged they always kill somebody because they cant lose a dueling match. They can also "kill" a "skeleton" which makes no sense but the game still allows it.

The game's production/distribution is slightly different. There are no teamsters, each building that takes an input has a hauler sometimes 2(dock) which creates problems if there is more than one imput. For example. I had a case where I had a papaya farm with an output of 750 and a bakery low on papayas. Certainly the game's code needs to be improved to allow the delivery of the most amount of supplies. There is alot more to this game but this is a review not a strategy guide afterall.

The game is MUCH superior to Tropico I although the passion subsides rather quickly...