Tropico 5

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 17
  3. Negative: 0 out of 17
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  1. Level7.nu
    Jun 10, 2015
    70
    Tropico 5 is a well-made strategy game filled with humor. The gameplay works ok with a controller instead of keyboard and mouse, although some menus are unnecessarily cumbersome. The genre's true peaks are still found on the PC, but Tropico is a good choice if you want to play a more laid back yet challenging strategy game on your TV.
  2. Game Revolution
    May 10, 2015
    70
    The bottom line is Tropico 5 is a good entry-level sim and strategy game. If you love SimCity and Civilization, this should be up your alley. Of course, you could just keep playing a board game, but I digress…
  3. PlayStation Universe
    May 5, 2015
    70
    Tropico 5 is a solid and gleefully wicked take on city building and strategy. The game’s modes and tone cleverly push you toward the path of power-mad nutbag at every step, but frequent restarts can feel like an insufferable drag.
  5. We Got This Covered
    Apr 28, 2015
    70
    With a lack of strategy and simulation titles on the platform, Tropico 5 is as alluring as ever, despite the fact that the series hasn't changed much over the years.
  6. Metro GameCentral
    Apr 28, 2015
    70
    On the PC there are too few new features to satisfy existing fans, but on the PlayStation 4 the joys of being an island dictator still feel enjoyably fresh.

Awards & Rankings

86
#86 Best PS4 Game of 2015
94
#94 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2015
44
#44 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2015

User Reviews

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User Score
7.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 163 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 81 out of 163
  2. Mixed: 64 out of 163
  3. Negative: 18 out of 163
  1. Agarwel
    Apr 28, 2015
    9
    Tropcio 5 is a great city building game. Of course it is best of the genre on the PS4 (duh). But personally I consider it best in the seriesTropcio 5 is a great city building game. Of course it is best of the genre on the PS4 (duh). But personally I consider it best in the series and one of the best city building games in the genre (platform wide). There are better city builders, but not so many and Tropico is still worth playing too..

    If you did not play previous Tropico games:
    Tropico is a city building game based on pretty deep (but not overwhelming) simulation. There is no "zoning" and you place each single building indivitually. There is also almost no "area of effect" placed on buildings. The game is focusing on simulation of individual citizens. Not individual buildings. (you dont need to feed hospital with employees to automatically improve health in surrounding area. But you need to get individual citizens to the working hospital). The difference is, that in theory one hospital can cover whole island. It is not a good idea because the capacity may not handle all sick people. And if people live and work far away, it will take a long time to travel there and will maybe miss the work, etc. But in theory sick person on one end of the map can walk to hospital on the other end.

    There is also big focus on politics. You need to keep other countries happy (to avoid invasion and receive bigger foreign aid). And your citizens are divided into several political factions. Each with own preferences. You can also issue different edicts (laws) that will somehow change the life on the island and have different advantages and dissadvantages (you can assign some free food to citizens = happier people, but lesser exports,. etc). Nice example of the game depth is for example allowance of same sex marriage. Houses does not contain free slots for people, but families. Allowing same sex marrige will group more people into familise and you need less houses. But everybody in religious faction will recieve negative points to his happiness.

    Due to this deep simulatio nthe game is easy to play (the impacts of your actions are intuitive and you need just common sense to understand what you need to do) but difficult to master (you can really micromanage individuall factions and try to affect how many people are in each of them and, bribe their leaders, etc.)

    Nice thing about Tropico is that you can play it with diffeerent styles. It is great fun to experiment. You can try to be nice, keep your people happy and keep yoursefl at power by elections. Or you can ban the elections and just keep yourself at power by military exploiting your people to get as much cash as possible. Hoping the rebels will not destroy your palace. You can run the police, prison and order assasinations to get rid of most probelamtic citizes. Again - the deep simulation of this game makes this fun. You can kill crime lords and rebels making your lands safer for you, but you will make unhappy all the family members, etc.

    I also like that raw resources on the island are limited. This forces you to update your strategy and plan for the future. At the beggining you will realy heavily on mining. But you need to expect that all mines will run out. And if you dont prepare yourself in time, you will cut yourself from cash. So from one strategy you slowly need to start depending on tourists, offices, production from imported goods,etc

    If you played previous Tropico games:
    If you are experienced in the series, here is a list of main updates. The way the city works is almost the same. The rules are same, the graphics are almost same (port from last gen). There are few buildings and options removed. And few added. But at first look, it seems like a same game. Luckily it is not.

    The city works a same way. But rules how you can build it changed. And it changed the game a lot. Old strategies does not work and you need to play differently. The biggest update is flow of time. (it was somehow done in T4 DLC, but now it is implemented much better). First of all there is standart research tree. And then four different eras. Each unlocking you new buildings, edicts, nations, goals etc.

    In T4 you had all building available from the beggining and were limited just by their costs. It was wasy to exploit some building to make the game really easy (free hotel bonus, customs office,...). Now these building are simply not available at the beggiing. You really need to start with backwards village with no advanced buildings available and no cheap sources of money. And slowly move to more advance eras. And when you get there, these buldings are not so powerfull, because you already have the old backwards city full of problems to handle. And few hotels will not save you.

    Because you are not able to exploit some older strategies from the beggining, the difficulty is much better balanced. I think T4 was too easy. It was almost impossible to loose. I always ended with huge amount of money kepping everybody happy. This time it is more challenging and better balanced. You really need to work hard for money and happiness    … Full Review »
  2. iduncan91
    May 4, 2015
    1
    One step forward, two steps backwards. I do not understand how people give this game a 9. It is far from a 9, but not quite a zero.One step forward, two steps backwards. I do not understand how people give this game a 9. It is far from a 9, but not quite a zero. Construction is very limited in the beginning and you constantly need to appease the crown to continue to rule which is frustrating at time. In addition, territory has to be explored which is very frustrating. If that were not enough, the soundtrack still sucks. The game has changed very little since Tropico 3 or 4 besides graphics. There are still very few buildings.… Full Review »
  3. disappointment
    Feb 29, 2016
    0
    It is a pretty good game except I bought this game for the ps4 in February 2016 and I encountered this little gem of a bug which I cannot saveIt is a pretty good game except I bought this game for the ps4 in February 2016 and I encountered this little gem of a bug which I cannot save progress. There is also the fact that they still have not released a patch for this game. http://www.forum.kalypsomedia.de/showthread.php?tid=27538… Full Review »
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