Tropico 4 is an excellent take on the "City Builder" sim genre.

During a typical game of Tropico you will find yourself balancing what to do with limited funds. Do you improve the economy of your island by building new resource buildings and industry? Or try appeasing the various groups on your island such as "Religious","Nationalists" etc. If the groups begin to get too angry they may resort to messing with you by sabotaging your buildings, outright becoming criminals or even joining the Rebel faction which can then organise attacks on the island, including you directly.

The graphics have aged well for this title. It helps that most of the game is played zoomed out, naturally. The soundtrack can really help set a kind of suitable mood for Tropico.

The campaign is excellent and features a variety of scenarios and events in each one while telling an not-too-serious story of El Presidentes' rise to power. I would describe the difficulty of the Tropico 4 campaign as "easy" although sometimes it will throw a bit of an unexpected curve-ball and will require extra effort to get through. In my opinion this difficulty level is good and makes Tropico a nice game to relax with.

There is a light "RPG" element present in Tropico. Before each game you can customise the look of your character (El Presidente) and make a selection from 3 separate traits. Each time you win a scenario/map each of those traits can level-up to an improved version until they are at their maximum level.

Tropico 4 once had integration with some kind of online server which is now offline. I never experienced the game while the servers were operational but it seems a variety of extra missions and scenarios are no longer accessible because of this. The game itself will still allow play through the campaigns and there is still a free-play mode which works.

I overall recommend this title but maybe not at the prices that are offered on steam itself. Tropico 4 can be acquired with all the DLC sometimes for really cheap (the latest deal is $1 USD for the game PLUS all the DLC) which can be an absolute steal.

Tropico 4 is an excellent take on the "City Builder" sim genre. During a typical game of Tropico you will find yourself balancing what to do with limited funds. Do you improve the economy of your island by building new resource buildings and industry? Or try appeasing the various groups on your island such as "Religious","Nationalists" etc. If the groups begin to get too angry they may resort to messing with you by sabotaging your buildings, outright becoming criminals or even joining the Rebel faction which can then organise attacks on the island, including you directly. The graphics have aged well for this title. It helps that most of the game is played zoomed out, naturally. The soundtrack can really help set a kind of suitable mood for Tropico. The campaign is excellent and features a variety of scenarios and events in each one while telling an not-too-serious story of El Presidentes' rise to power. I would describe the difficulty of the Tropico 4 campaign as "easy" although sometimes it will throw a bit of an unexpected curve-ball and will require extra effort to get through. In my opinion this difficulty level is good and makes Tropico a nice game to relax with. There is a light "RPG" element present in Tropico. Before each game you can customise the look of your character (El Presidente) and make a selection from 3 separate traits. Each time you win a scenario/map each of those traits can level-up to an improved version until they are at their maximum level. Tropico 4 once had integration with some kind of online server which is now offline. I never experienced the game while the servers were operational but it seems a variety of extra missions and scenarios are no longer accessible because of this. The game itself will still allow play through the campaigns and there is still a free-play mode which works. I overall recommend this title but maybe not at the prices that are offered on steam itself. Tropico 4 can be acquired with all the DLC sometimes for really cheap (the latest deal is $1 USD for the game PLUS all the DLC) which can be an absolute steal.