Why most people say Tropico 4 is better than 5?

[Raison]

[Gentoo]

Is the above true? I loved Tropico 1 through 4. 5 sucked for me. 6 is a step down from 5? Have you placed it or are you just theorizing?

[76561198051514398]

I prefer Tropico 5 honestly, but they're both superb games.

[76561198051514398]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Originally posted by Gentoo:

Is the above true? I loved Tropico 1 through 4. 5 sucked for me. 6 is a step down from 5? Have you placed it or are you just theorizing?

I've been playing 6 since august, i got into the invitation private beta

The engine is functional, it looks and runs well, but it's missing so much that it feels like they are still attempting to rebuild tropico 3

There's no campaign, the presidential customization of traits is to pick 1 single trait from a list of just a few, the edicts and commands are sort of better than 5, but locked behind a very strange research system with level ups that don't make sense

On top of that the interface has been simplified to the point where I think they must believe we all only have 1 finger, it's like a slick phone app interface or a bad console port where the developers forgot they have access to a keyboard while playing (there's not even keyboard shortcuts for anything, nothing, not even time controls), and they took out the minimap and replaced it with a sky-cam that you have to jump between (that makes me physically ill as you speed-zoom up and down into the sky and back to the ground to use it)

Overall there's a serious engine under 6 that has the potential to be the best in the series, but I honestly feel like they are trying to make sim city as a phone app with a tropico skin, it really doesn't feel like the same series to me and I'm not sure they'll have time to correct it

I've litterally written 100's of feedback and reports on bugs, glitches, technical flaws and my own personal thoughts on comparing the old systems to the new ones and what they are missing

I'm supportive of some of things they are doing, but I'm very mixed on the final results. I truly wish they'd delay the game another year and bring someone onto the team that actually understood what made the earlier Tropico games so unique

6 feels like it's being designed by someone who only read about the series and maybe played 5 for a few minutes, not someone who has spent 1000's of hours playing the franchise since number 1 and watched it grow into what made 3 and 4 so great

My opinion on 5 was it was a good foundation for rebooting, but it lacked a lot of 3 and 4's depth and charm, that could be forgiven had that developer remained on and expanded the series again (as they had from 3 to 4) because 5 was their attempt at a new engine

The issue is we're in that same boat again: another new developer, another new engine and another from the ground up reboot that's once again missing much of what I would hope would have remained staples to the series

I don't hate 6, but I'm not sure I'd actually be happy paying full price for it. In it's current state it's like a $15 phone app, not a $50 triple A game

If I didn't know better I'd think the lead designer was trying to make a facebook social game with microtransactions, it's not quite that bad, but it has that vibe (for me)

It's in beta, of course the campaign and such aren't available.

I don't know what you people think is so amazing about 3 and 4, they're practically the same game, a great game, but they're the same thing. Tropico 5 is a simplified version of Tropico 4 but with less annoyances and many new features so it balances out, Tropico 6 is just a mix of the best of Tropico 3/4 and the best of Tropico 5.

[Alienz (Señor Bomba)]

Kunovega, thank you for the detailed view on tropico 6. I was really looking forward to it, I hoped it will be good old tropico based on 3 or 4 with better graphics. I became really worried when they showed gameplay videos with that uterly simplified and badly looking UI even without minimap.

Now I can see that I was mistaken and it will probably be even worse than tropico 5 which I really disliked. I am gonna remove it from my wishlist..

[GameKitten]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Originally posted by JohnTheGreat:

I don't know what you people think is so amazing about 3 and 4, they're practically the same game, a great game, but they're the same thing. Tropico 5 is a simplified version of Tropico 4 but with less annoyances and many new features so it balances out, Tropico 6 is just a mix of the best of Tropico 3/4 and the best of Tropico 5.

There isn't a campaign coming, it's all stand alone missions. I'm not slamming the game for some of those missions being locked (it's a beta, I know that). But what you see (locked or not) is all there is going to be

You can see (but not play) all content in the beta

6 isn't a mix of what was best from 3/4/5 it's a straight borrowing of the worst parts of 5 (the completely dumbed down wage system, the terrible housing mechanics) and a console streamlined version of 3 that lacks even some of the features from 4

I have 100's of hours put into those prior games, 1000's of hours across the series as a whole (many hours over the last 2 decades before I even had them as steam versions) and I'm 60 hours deep into Tropico 6

I could list you everything in 6 that comes from the prior games and stack it against whats missing, and there's a lot missing

Very little "new" in 6 is meaningful. The raid system is poorly implemented, the bridge system is cute but hides the fact that we have volumetrically much tinier land mass overall with no room to actually build anything on most islands.

Half the things "new" in 6 aren't new to the series just returned that were missing (the immigration office, etc)

The expanded research tree is a bad social media game of timers, many of the edicts are poorly designed, the entire constitution mechanic has been revamped just to make it larger without actually improving it and in many ways made far worse than previous versions

And don't even pretend this new presidential customization of picking just 1 trait is even remotely as good as what was in 3 or 4

5 was a 1 trait system bolstered by the fact you had a dynasty to make up for the rest, 6 removes both the dynasty system and doesn't bother to give us back full background / multiple trait system, it's as blank and shallow as 1 was

3 and 4 were only the same thing if you were a sandbox kiddie that never actually played the rest of the game or the expansions

Your post are well spoken and I agree.

[_Patrick Swayze]

Very useful info indeed. I was considering buying it, but now I will certainly wait till it's released and more reviews are available. Also explains why most feedback is hidden in a beta forum discussion, that only owners of the game can read. I'm convinced it's a game where you can easily spend more than the 2 hour refund period in, then find out it's not worth the current asking price.

[Doctor Tiki]

Thanks for the insights Kunovega.

I too was looking forward to 6 but after reading here I think I will pass until it's on sale. I wasn't impressed with 5 either, so I guess it's time to give up hope that something better will come along in the series and just go back to enjoy some Tropico 4 again.

[Hickup]

4 was great but I missed the feel of 3 which was superb
5 was good & graphically nice but I missed a LOT that was in 3 AND 4
6 seems to bring back some of the things of 3 & 4 which I missed in 5 but I can't say that I like the graphics from what I've seen so far.
The graphs just don't seem to 'sparkle' and give the same feel of the earlier ones.
I like the bridges and tunnels tho.
We'll see, prolly gonna buy it anyway.

PS: I wonder how many dlc's they have ready at start... Looks like this is becoming more and more common these days.
I think it would be wise of them to throw 1 or 2 in the base game from start or the title might suffer big in the future...

[Stallion]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

and 6 is... well, a knock off that seems to have been built for touch screen tablets thats missing a substantial part of the last 3 games, it's now just sort of a cheap city builder with no campaign and no presidential personality depth, and the humor is 1 bad joke per character repeated on a loop....

And they just lost a sale.

By Tropico 5 they had already watered the series down so much that it was a puddle. If it has got any shallower or lost any more content I am done.

[76561198051514398]

Originally posted by Stallion♞:

Originally posted by Kunovega:

and 6 is... well, a knock off that seems to have been built for touch screen tablets thats missing a substantial part of the last 3 games, it's now just sort of a cheap city builder with no campaign and no presidential personality depth, and the humor is 1 bad joke per character repeated on a loop....

And they just lost a sale.

By Tropico 5 they had already watered the series down so much that it was a puddle. If it has got any shallower or lost any more content I am done.

Tropico 4 was nearly a copy and paste of Tropico 3 and you're whining about a different developer trying something new?

[Stallion]

Originally posted by JohnTheGreat:

and you're whining about a different developer trying something new?

If you think this is something new I seriously pity you. You must buy a lot of snake oil.

[BT]

The campaign is usually something I enjoy alot in Tropico, not having a campaign will make the game less fun to play.

[Doctor Tiki]

Originally posted by BlueTrin:

The campaign is usually something I enjoy alot in Tropico, not having a campaign will make the game less fun to play.

I agree. I really enjoyed the campaign in Tropico 4

[BT]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Originally posted by BlueTrin:

The campaign is usually something I enjoy alot in Tropico, not having a campaign will make the game less fun to play.

There's 15 stand alone missions with self contained story to each, if you've played tropico 1, 2 or 3 you are familiar with the stand alone "Scenario" style. They just arent linked together into a campaign story (as they were in tropico's 4 and 5)

Thing with 4 and 5 is you had the campaigns PLUS all of the stand alone missions, now you only have the stand alones in 6, and it does feel much smaller

The 2nd mission (Pirate King) is so small the island doesn't even have room for farming or ranches, just some fishing docks and pirate coves (and the raiding isn't even as in depth as tropico 2, its just a timer bar)

Yea I see what you mean, I didn't know that I would get access to the beta if I buy now.

Your posts are incredibly useful and objective. Thanks for posting them.

I will probably buy it to play it now :)

[Hannah Montana]

Tropico 3 had the best music. It's what made me fall in love with the series. The music really did make me feel like I was in a tropical paradise.
Tropico 4 improved on the economy. In fact, you could say it was too easy to make money. The soundtrack got watered down.
Tropico 5 is when things took a turn for the worse. It didn't ruin the series but it was not an improvement. The biggest fault with 5 was the linear progression of the economy and the two islands you had to alternate and keep during the campaign. The biggest mistake was the linear progression of economy (i.e. you had to advance to each "age" to unlock an industry so you were limited in economy on how to develop your island. e.g. had to advance to a certain time to unlock tourism industry)