November 30, 2009 - Having absolute control over countless of little lives can be daunting and perhaps frightening to some. For those of you who are totally unphased by the concept of being responsible for some small electronic person dying (or being ruthlessly murdered for political gain) this game is for you. Tropico 3 is the newest installment in the Tropico series, a game designed to let you control your own small island in the Carribean. Your island is a third world country, aspiring to greatness under your inspired leadership. Or so your people believe.

As El Presidente, ruler of the masses, you control the development and growth that your country enjoys (or lacks). You have three different game modes in which to practice your diabolical laugh and ‘trusting’ smile; Campaign, Sandbox and Challenges. The Campaign mode requires you to play across multiple different islands that the developers have created, doing your best to achieve the stated goal in each of them. Only one campaign is open at first, but as you complete them more become available for you to try. Sandbox allows you to customize different aspects of your island before playing in a free game environment where you’re left to control and develop your island completly without guidance or stated goals besides those you set for yourself. In Sandbox mode, your game does not ‘end’ until your time in office is up; before the game begins you decide how many decades you will be in office. After your reign is over you are presented with a screen telling you how well you did. You have the option to quit or continue with your empire anyway. Challenges are online maps that have been edited and uploaded by other players, each with their own individual goals for you to try to meet. Players have the ability to create and play their own challenges as well as upload them for other online users.

Players also have a small Tutorial in which they can learn some of the games controls. It takes you through several different prompts, teaching you some of the basic commands. While the tutorial is a little useful in teaching you how to get around some of the very basic menus, it does nothing to help explain basic gameplay mechanics, such as starting or growing your economy so that you have the cash flow to issue your commands and edicts. Players who have experienced the first two Tropico games will already have an idea as to what they need to do to make their island survive, but new players aren’t given any sort of heads up with the tutorial set up in place. The tutorial island does start the player off with a very large bank balance, which starting players can take advantage of to get used to managing their citizens.

When the game starts you are allowed to pick an Avatar for El Presidente from multiple pre-made ones, including such figures as Evita Peron and Fidel Castro. You can also create your own custom avatar, picking between different options to create your own specialized dictator. Every El Presidente has different traits such as their rise to power and positve and negative personal quirks that affect gameplay; for example, if you start off as a Kleptomaniac, your souvenir shops cost more to upkeep. During gameplay, the Avatar can help fight rebels, visit construction sites to speed up build time and visit factories to increase production. While this feature is nice, after a while there are so many other things going on that the Avatar gets neglected. However, it does perform some of these tasks on its own which is a plus.

It is up to you, El Presidente, to decide what buildings are built and where, the wages paid to your workers and what various edicts to issue. Each of these affects gameplay and the relative happiness or displeasure of the populace. The happier they are, the less grief they give you. However, as they become more and more unhappy with your lack of care for their needs, they can do things like go on strike, turn into rebels or leave your island altogether. You need to satisfy a variety of different needs for each Tropican; including making sure they have enough food, adequate shelter, access to religion and healthcare, entertainment for their spare time and enough liberty so that they do not feel oppressed.