Tropico+4

Tropico 4 - Xbox 360




 * Description:**

Tropico 4 puts the player directly in the hot-seat, assuming the role of a ruthless dictator in charge of a remote tropical island. Players must transform their island from humble beginnings into a teeming tourist destination, commanding industrial power-house, or a global military threat. As dictator, you decide if your citizens are educated, brain-washed, communist or capitalist as you build your miniature empire – but you must also keep them happy if you are to truly succeed! Hire and fire cabinet ministers, bribe police and military, and sway loyalties of the various island factions in order to manipulate your citizens effectively, and create the dictatorship of your dreams. While the game allows a sandbox mode that gives players the power to create their own destiny, the heart of the game is found in a series of scenarios in which the player must react to natural disasters, political threats or organized crime, and more importantly, get themselves re-elected, by fair means or foul.






 * Kinds of Learning:**

The world of Tropico requires the player to become adept at managing all available resources. When the game begins, it’s important to assess the existing resources available on your island. For example, your island may contain a natural supply of gold, which can be extracted by building a gold mine in that specific area. Once the gold is mined, a factory can be built nearby, which takes the gold and refines it into jewelry, which will get a higher export value than the raw resource of gold alone. If your island does //not// contain gold naturally, you could still build a factory, but the gold would have to be imported, and the profit would not be as great. Maximizing existing resources and playing to the strengths of your island is key in industry.

Players must also learn to balance different political factions. For example, the Nationalists (lead by violent skinhead El Diablo -- seen on the left) will become disgruntled if you open your doors through the immigration office to overseas workers, or become too tight with foreign countries. You must balance the desires of the Nationalists with the competing Capitalists who encourage outsourcing and tourism. Therefore, it is necessary to learn what drives each faction, and how to offset their anger by placating them in other areas. For example, the environmentalists may not like it when you decide to dump your garbage in the sea, but will be placated if you build a series of parks and a wind turbines to replace traditional power plants. It is the ability for the player to walk this tightrope between the various factions of the community that will ensure that the voters respond positively come election time. Remember, you can't rule Tropico if the people vote you out of office!

Initially, because of the complexities of resource management, Tropico 4 is almost overwhelmingly complex and intimidating. Luckily, the player is gifted with a personal assistant, //Penultimo//, who acts as a mentor throughout the game. Penultimo gives timely hints and advises you throughout the game – for example, if you run out of money, your mentor will advise you on how to generate more income. If public relations with a certain faction go sour, Penultimo will advise you on methods in which to regain their support.
 * Kinds of Teaching:**

//Principles of Learning://

Because players take on the role of the same virtual identity throughout the game, the **Committed Learning Principle** comes in to play as the avatar’s identity changes depending on the decisions the player makes during each level; the engagement in this virtual world is partly fuelled by trying to increase the popularity, military strength, or other attributes of this avatar as the game progresses.

As the gameplay takes place in a “sandbox” world, **Multiple Routes Principle** is a strong aspect of the Tropico world. For example, the scenario might ask the player to reach a specific amount of money via trade – but it is up to the player as to how they will generate that income – through large-scale farming? Via tourism? Or will the player indulge themselves in the profitable but dangerous world of illegal arms manufacturing? The goal may be the same for all players, but no two players will ever reach it in the exact same manner due to the myriad of routes.

The pace of Tropico 4 progresses quickly. Initially, you learn to survive by building a handful of corn plantations to provide for your people, and existing off the goodwill of other countries. However, as new types of buildings (clinics, TV stations, tourist traps) are introduced, the pace increases dramatically, and while your mentor guides you frequently through the initial scenarios, his input decreases as the complexity of the challenges ramps up.


 * Game Community:**

As the game is single-player only, the online community is smaller than you might expect for a multiplayer title. Most discussion boards for this game are now read-only, or are graveyards of old posts with little to no new content or discussion. However, as the title is more complex than the average console game, there are many walkthroughs and guides devoted to the intricacies of the simulation.

//Game Front Walkthrough:// []

Besides online strategy guides, the game has been supported with DLC (downloadable content) since its release. The add-on “Modern Times” allows players to upgrade their island with modern amenities, and face new challenging scenarios to keep your tropical island fresh and engaging.


 * Overall Reflections:**

Tropico 4 is an absorbing, deeply engaging simulation and resource management game; it’s far from a pick-up-and-play title like Call of Duty or Pac Man, but the player’s commitment to learning the structure and mechanics of this virtual world pay off in a very satisfying manner. It could be accused of being an exercise in plate spinning, keeping the player occupied by forcing them to juggle many resources at once, but the creativity and multiple routes make it feel as if you’re completely in charge – and any mistake is your own oversight, rather than an issue with the game mechanics.

I can imagine Tropico 4 being used in the classroom to demonstrate the complexities of political parties and how they relate to one another -- what drives them -- and how they can influence world leaders and local politics. Due to the reliance on sound economic principles, I can also image Tropico 4 being used in an economics class to demonstrate to students how importing/exporting/natural resources work in conjunction with local and foreign policies.