Tropico 6 – Console Review

Name: Tropico 6
Developer: Limbic Entertainment
Publisher: Kalypso Media
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Reviewed on: PlayStation 4 Pro
Release Date: 27.09.2019
Acquired: A copy of this game was provided from a publisher for review purpose

I’ve always loved city builder games, Cities: Skylines and SimCity to mention two of them. I had never tried any of the Tropico games before, but Tropico 6 could be a good place to start, right? Did I have the x-factor to be El Presidente (or is it La Presidenta, when I’m a girl? My Spanish isn’t good enough…) though? 

The Good

The first thing that hit me was how good Tropico 6 looked. Sure, it’s not Red Dead Redemption 2, but it’s way beyond what is needed for a city-builder. Moving through the eras allows the buildings to change looks, as well as more buildings to be unlocked. You can also watch your citizens go about their lives.

More importantly, though, the game has lots of different types of ways to play. Sure, the main gameplay consists of earning money, remaining in power, and have a relatively happy society. “All Roads Lead to Rome”. It’s a proverb that most of us have heard before. The same goes for your goal of becoming a successful leader. You can focus on industry, luxury wares or tourism. Or a mix of all of them. You can go for a communist approach, a capitalist approach, or somewhere in between.

Tropico 6 consists of two kinds of gameplay – sandbox mode and missions. Personally, I preferred the sandbox mode, as I felt it allowed me to take longer to apply mine envisions for the future of my country. The missions are good too, but it gets a bit repetitive after a while. Sure, it’s different goals each time, but the way there is often very similar. You also have a very well made tutorial mode, which consists of a few short introductions to the different mechanics in-game, and after a short while you’re ready to go.

The Bad 

There’s really just two issues I have with Tropico 6 (at least on PS4) – the controls. It’s not a catastrophe, by all means – and Tropico 6 isn’t any worse than any other game in the same genre. It’s just the weakness of this kind of games on console versus on PC. Selecting what to build and where to build it is easy enough, but controlling the camera is rather difficult. Zooming seems to have a mind of its own, often zooming all the way in without any good reason.

The other thing I felt was a weakness with Tropico 6 is the lack of a proper campaign. Sure, there are different missions, as well as a sandbox mode, but I feel the game would be (even) better off with a campaign mode with missions during your time in power.

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