Tropico 4

Nuclear tests from the subtenant

But suddenly text windows pop up and funny people talk to us, wittily set to music: Advisors give advice ("The people want to be entertained!"), US Senator Nick Richards (!) Calls for an American base on our island, the Russian agent Sascha 500 tons of bauxite, the eco-activist Sunny Flowers more environmental protection and General Rodriguez more wages and better housing for his troops.

We also know such main and secondary tasks from various games. But in Tropico 4 everything has a credible effect, politics, economy and the structure are closely interlinked without being too complicated. We can already see many consequences of our decisions in the text windows mentioned: If we build the US base, we get monthly rent. If we deliver bauxite, we will increase our reputation with the Russians by 15 points. If we enact the environmental laws, our reputation with the tree cuddlers will improve. These are the short-term consequences, but there are also long-term ones. For example, we built the US base - it doesn't cost us anything, and monthly rental income is generally great. Just stupid that the Americans "ask" us later to be allowed to test nuclear weapons on our island. We think bikinis are great, but not a bikini atoll, so we decline. Our relationship with the Americans is already falling to the pre-basic level, from now on there is less development aid. In addition, we canceled the rent, great

Fresh wind

These main and secondary tasks with their comprehensible relationships make Tropico 4 significantly more transparent than its predecessor. We now always know exactly what to do - and why. In addition, there is less idle, because we can accept up to five main and side quests at the same time. At the same time, mind you, the all-dominating goal of dragging the population onto our side and surviving the next elections.

Similar to GTA, events and our actions are commented on the island radio. For example, we are building our first wind turbine to supply the island with green electricity. Our government spokesman moderates in the studio opposite the environmental babe with our sense of nature conservation, but she counters dryly: »You mean the wind turbine that you built in the middle of the toad sanctuary and whose propeller split the head of the last coconut eagle? «The moderator quickly announces the next song.

Help "Made in China"

In the campaign, we are confronting 20 missions with a common story thread. However, the missions play on different islands, each with different conditions and challenges.

One island has hardly any natural resources and must be developed into a tourist stronghold. In another mission, we are supposed to gild the rich mineral resources of your island (salt, oil, ore, bauxite) in order to make a rich American even richer. With fatal consequences, because in an earthquake miners are buried, a typical multiple-choice task is up to us: giving speech (increases reputation among all residents), putting men's lives above ore (ore price increases) or foreign aid trust (brings $ 10,000 in disaster relief). Shortly thereafter, China's chief Yu Li offers us "high-quality, made in China", a pedal-driven drill. We accept and pay $ 10,000. But the drill explodes and triggers an even stronger quake.

Now we can blame China for what would catapult relations into a new ice age. Or we blame ourselves, which will dent our own reputation for years. After all, we rely on science, set up an academy, bring in professors from abroad (expensive!) And train our own (tedious!), At some point the egg cups invent their own rescue drill.

But even with that, we can still make political tactics: Our advisor asks whether we should save the boys immediately - or wait a little longer to get more aid from abroad. Even if the majority of this story only takes place in text windows (except for the construction of the academy and the recruitment), you always want to know how to proceed. Zumal's there is so much more to do, among other things, we fill five ministerial posts with more or less suitable candidates, the characteristics of which in turn affect politics - great!

Prefab buildings in paradise

All of this takes place on island worlds that are beautiful to look at. We are almost ashamed to plant shabby prefabricated buildings on the beautiful beaches or a gold mine in the jungle - but that is our own fault, why does it grow on one of the rare arteries of all places!

Tropico 4 scores visually above all when it comes to foresight: We can still see the gold mine in the tree pampa on the horizon when we are fine-tuning buildings in the city. Old trucks (for freight) and cars whiz around - the latter are the more showy, the more important the occupant is. Unskilled workers, for example, trudge on foot from the cargo ship, which regularly rolls in, while specialists and university staff, on the other hand, drive better sleds. We can click on every resident to see what he thinks, what he lacks, which of his needs we meet and how well.

However, not all islanders are always peaceful. If we piss down individual residents or factions too much, they become stinky. At first just a little bit, then they put the job down and march around with protest posters. That alone can be annoying, because if, for example, students go on strike, nothing works at secondary schools and we don't get graduates.

Viva La Revolución

Really smelly residents can even mutate into rebels and attack individual buildings. An uprising even jeopardizes our position: if over half of the population is dissatisfied, they march towards our palace. If we then trained too few soldiers to defend the magnificent building, the game was over.

Our soldiers can not be controlled directly, but march to the scene independently. The only person we command at the click of a mouse is our President himself. We determine his talents at the beginning of the game, and he gets better and better as the campaign progresses. In the game he can calm insurgents, among other things, but also take up arms himself. The latter never happened, however, because we always took our general's tips to heart. Because he already reports if he has too few troops.

An armed revolt can also be triggered by very trivial things - such as a washing day. Our Defense Secretary is a capable leader, but not the brightest. Suddenly a text window appears telling us that the good man has hung his white laundry to dry on the Ministry. The handful of rebels in the city see the "white flag" as a sign of our weakness and blow to a major attack. As I said: Everything is connected here.