Tropico 5 is not a worthy successor of the tropico series.
My gripes with tropico 5 are especially with 2 points:

1. Rebellions
In Tropico 5 you cannot manage to satisfy everyone - and that is great. The problem lies in the fact that even if citizens have a satisfaction rate of above 70%, they will still permanently rebel. Additionally, there really is no adequate option to reduce the number of rebels, be it with the military or socially - in Fact, most options decrease libery, reduce the satisfaction and thereby increase the number of rebels - and when they rebel, they cant be killed of.

2. Trying to be funny
While in previous editions of Tropico, there was a underlying dry tone of humor that increased immersion in the game, now almost every Radio adress tries to be funny - but just says "You are no dictator of a banana republic, you are just some stupid gamer"

On a personal note, I miss the election speeches from T3

In the words of Penultimo: I am so furious!
If I wanted to play a military strategy, I wouldn't play Tropico. The allure of the game was, in the first place, being able to develop an economy while ignoring (And profiting! from) world wars and such. and now, i have to siphon the money in military bases, barracks, alliances, and still I get two simultaneous invasion forces on my shores, impossible to defeat unless I have ludicrous ammount of firepower myself. And it's not the firepower I want when I play Tropico. I want humor, sleezy diplomacy and pina coladas.
Not to mention the lack of ammount of zoom that existed in previous incarnations of the game,and lack of info about buildings.
I'ma lover, not a fighter. Let's hope the next incarnaton of Tropico will have less tanks and more casinos

This game is just Tropico 4 with all the fun stuff removed.

I preordered this game cause I loved the previous games but it's outragous that in order to have the full experience I have to buy the game a second time.

The DLC paywall for the Tropico series is disheartening.

Pretty game. Still has some of the charm of old Tropicos and makes some improvements, as one would hope. The continuous islands, while a bit repetitive, are nice because the game builds on itself and you don't feel like you lose everything with every new level.

Buuuut since you can't unlock certain buildings until different eras in the game, people are just dying and unhappy and there's virtually nothing you can do about it. So you're trying to go about your business and build an economy while tredging through uprising after coup every (no exageration) 3-5 minutes. Really takes away from the experience. And they have changed the employment and payment systems so you have less control than ever over those aspects, which adds to people's eager hatred and takes away from the management feel.

I wanted to like this game. It still has some promise, but overall, disappointed. I got it on sale... I would recommend doing the same if you still want to pick it up.

I'd be lying if I say I do not enjoy this game. I'm kinda person who loves things grows and making money :), so I'd still recommend the game.

Tropico 5 is not the best of the series though... I'd say T4 is the best. Being the latest of the series, it removed the fun for traffic (garage) management, and I lost the sense of how people would pick their homes/houses. Its leaning toward simplistic radius based building effect (you would know what I mean if you are a city building veteran).

The good thing it deliver, is on the politics, I did interact more on politics and foreign policy than I had before in other series (T3 & T4). You could easily dethroned from your presidential seat if you are not careful. The tech and age concept is sometime feel limiting, but it is as well as creates a sense of growing in the big picture.

Graphic wise, it is more or less at par with T4. and about the price - It just not worth the full price tag. Grab it when it is on sale, I got all DLCs (while on sale) and finished all of them so I write this review. You get very small value of those smaller DLC, and some additional value for the bigger one, but none of them deserved their full price tags. The feel about the DLC is that it did made the game easier to pass - I completed the original campaign without DLC and it just not a simple cake walk... but after I got all of them, you can actually feel they simplify the game quite considerably.

Haven't tried multiplayer, I did checked a while, it is not that many open games, but seems enough small group of people playing.

Go enjoy this game, as I did enjoy!

I really enjoyed the gameplay- moving through the eras and the challenge of the scenarios (although I've been doing it on 'easy' budget and it's still difficult to stay above water, but I do like to accumulate at speed). There are a number of maps to play and the scenarios have you juggle two islands at a time so you're not starting from scratch every time with a new island and the longevity of the islands you build is greater as you revisit it frequently to continue building. I did hit a budget snag on one of my games where I lost about a grand a month for no discernible reason (the budget said I shoud have more coming in than going out and it's unclear where costs can be cut. I had a huge labour shortage, too.) Fortunately the game completed when I was on about -100,000 and the people were at 43% happiness!

The reason I wouldn't recommend this game is because there are so few buildings available. Only two choices, tall and small, on the apartment buildings- how hard would it have been to throw in a couple of recolours? This means on quite a large island you're going to repeat the same patterns again and again, with only one upgraded house, an unupgradable mansion, and a tall or short upgraded apartment block, all identical. There are a few parks, but very few seem to offer paths to walk on, which means citizens move oddly through them (although it's nice that they can sit on benches in the parks with paths)- it would have been nice if there were a few more options. The entertainment options are very much lacking- and only a couple of them are small enough to place frequently around the map, so you end up having a visually unappealing map with hundreds of identical buildings.

On looking for an expansion to up the number of buildings- new high-quality housing large and small, additional much needed entertainment buildings like a zoo, waterpark, alternative restaurant, children's playpark, a grade school required by some employers but not available int he game... I discovered there are many cheap expansion packs, but all with only one building each, mostly employment buildings relating to a new scenario. None of the buildings I'd like to really customise my game!

To summarise- if all you care about is the politics, managing a budget and keeping your factions happy, you'll enjoy this game, but maybe wait until it's on sale. If you're a builder who wants their town to look authentic or aesthetically more interesting than 4 buildings repeated 100 times each you're probably going to want to give this a miss.

Downgrade from tropico 4

I'm recommending this game for one reason: Multiplayer

Tropico 5 nailed the multiplayer aspect.
Being able to play alongside my friends is the reason I love this game.
It's the best multiplayer city building game out there. I have not come across any other like this.
Tropico 5 lets you build next to players or with them. Cooperative or Competive, whichever you prefer.
SimCity can hardly compete since you don't build together, you build in seperate regions.
Cities: Skylines is the best city building game on the market hands down, but no multiplayer.

During a multiplayer game you can share money, roads, utilities and military forces.
It's very satisfying to share the love of these games alongside people who also love it.
There are a lot of hilarious moments, especially if you're playing with friends.
The rebels have basically become a meme among my friends because they're idiotic and easy to joke about.
The only downside is being forced to send backup when a friend is attacked. If you get attacked while your troops are in a friend's city, all you can do is pray. Also, mandate is bs.
The game could give all the mandate to one player but not the other.
Don't even get me started on roads. Roads suck. They're horrible.

The multiplayer is great and I hope it sets the foundation for future games.
The dream would be this multiplayer on Tropico 4, Cities: Skylines or SimCity.

I personally feel like it still capted the same feel as Tropico 4, except it was watered down and made much more difficult.
You will never truly defeat the rebels or please everyone, this game is best played as a warmongering oppressive dictatorship. It will give you the most satisfaction since your prize is blood and trust me, there's plenty so you might as well enjoy it.

TLDR: Multiplayer mechanics are great, game is a downgrade, still enjoyable.

Advice: Spam sugar plantations and rum distillaries.

First off "Glory to El Presidente our glorious ruler and benevolent overlord". Right the KGB agent is gone I can begin reviewing this game truthfully. It's a very fun little city management game that puts you through the ages trying to expand and grow your little island nation to take on enemy invasions and prove your supremacy and the genius that is El Presidente. The game mechanics work fairly well and the overall game play is very enjoyable for the first 40 or so hours while you get used to it. Personally I think I'm just not creative enough to make a good and beautiful city. If you're looking for an arcade-like fun city management game then Tropico 5 is just that. If you want something a little bigger and more realistic city planning then City Skylines would be a better choice. And for the love of God stay away from Cities XL

Voting paper

El Presidente { }

El Presidente {●}