Teased through the most blatantly obvious trailer we've ever seen back in June, the existence of Tropico 6 – Kalypso Media's 'banana republic' city builder – was confirmed with another trailer just a month later. Fast forward another month and the group was on-hand to demonstrate some hands-off gameplay of its brand-new project at this year's Gamescom. Another month rolls by and we're finally ready to share what we saw.
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Once known in Germany as an award-winning team focused on simple horse farm simulation games and other titles aimed at the children's video game market, the group eventually partnered with Ubisoft to create some of the more recent Might & Magic video games before calling time on the project with Might & Magic Heroes VII.
With Tropico creators, Haemimont Games, running off into the sunset with Paradox Interactive to work on Surviving Mars, Limbic Entertainment are left to pick up the pieces of the Tropico franchise. Kalypso Media picked them for their pitch, and I'm already inclined to agree with their decision. I have no doubt the future of the series is in good hands already.
During my visit to this year's Gamescom event in Cologne, Germany, I was ushered around the winding corridors of Kalypso Media's booth and into a small cubicle.
It was here that I would sit for a time that didn't feel anywhere near long enough to fully grasp the possibilities of what I could achieve as a ruler of the gorgeous islands in front of me. This may have been my first time witnessing a Tropico game first-hand, but I don't believe for a second that what I was feeling was exacerbated by a sight of the unknown.
Tropico, as a whole, is a city builder with a stronger emphasis on being a silly political sandbox. Although games like SimCity and Cities: Skylines can certainly make you laugh with the occasional outrageous civilian quip, sticky situation, or manually-triggered apocalypse, Tropico delivers the jokes in a much more direct way.
You're not exactly instructed to be that villainous dictator you'd hear about on Sky News as you scoff down a bagel before work each morning, but you feel encouraged and empowered to be the kind of ruler that would just shrug his shoulders at his own decision, steal the Eiffle Tower and go to bed a happy man. You live in the moment and deal with the consequences as they arrive. Tropico 6 looks to play much the same – only with more land.
Though building a school of spies and jetting them off to Paris on a mission to steal its most famous landmark isn't exactly something El Presidente has pulled off before; it's the first thing I was privy to during the demo session. It's also possibly the game's stand-out feature right now.
But stealing the Eiffel Tower isn't the only grand raid you can send your men onto. Once briefed, they'll theorize and meticulously craft their gameplan - building up a meter in the process - before being sent on their way to attempt a long list of impossible missions.
Given enough time and effort, they'll pull off the feat with flying colors – although most of the time they'll run into some unforeseen problems; like realizing it's impossible to fly the 7000+ ton construct halfway across the world. Despite asking to chop it down, they still came home carrying the entire tower tethered to a aircraft convoy.
Both impressed by their ability to lug it home and confused by their sudden decision to attempt the grand hoist, in the end, I asked about other structures our devious soldiers could grab for themselves.
The best I could muster from the tight-lipped developer is that many other buildings and monuments will be up for grabs, but something completely off the walls – like grabbing Niagra Falls – probably won't happen. And that's a shame: who wouldn't want to see Canada's crowning tourist attraction be skylifted to a tiny island?
Although most players proabably wouldn't need a good excuse or reason to take off with another country's claim to fame, Tropico 6 embeds strategical advantages to each. Take the Eiffel Tower as the main example yet again; saved from its original 20-year demolition plan thanks to the emerging use of radio transmissions, the tower will act as a way to boost the range of your speeches once election season rolls around. Though stealing it will likely gain you a few new enemies.
Other structures will carry similar benefits, but timing is certainly key. Take a structure during a pivotal era, and you'll only make things worse for everyone involved. A good example of this comes from the game's 15 campaign scenarios; in which one has El Presidente join the communist regime in the aftermath of yet another alternate World War 2 timeline.
With Haemimont out and Limbic in, they're creating a Tropico game for the people. They're all fans of the genre and, much like the playerbase as a whole, understand which parts of the game's history worked and which didn't. During my demo session, I was told Limbic Entertainment was looking to strike the sweet spot between Tropico 4 and Tropico 5 – that is, a beautiful landscape mixed with the darker tones of what came before.
With the returning ability to quietly kill off any trouble-making Tropicans, I can imagine a few darker strategies and scandals breaking out if those election-time speeches aren't pulling in the votes. 30 residential building variations are confirmed so far, and while that doesn't sound like too many, it's pretty standard for a Tropico game.
As an added bonus, however, they will see minor structural differences - like lifestyle extras or graffiti in high-crime areas - so your islands shouldn't look too similar; especially if you break things apart with more industrial islands branching off from your main. Spread across the whole lot, you're looking at about 150 buildings scattered across the eras which, on a smaller landscape, should be more than enough.
But when you're not planning your next espionage mission, however, you're tending to the needs of your people. With 4 islands to care for, it's El Presidente's biggest battle of leadership yet. Just like any city builder, you're managing an economy; and to do that, you need exports – and your people need jobs.
Each island can exhibit characteristics suited to certain types of work – like an inactive volcano harbouring rare metals, or fertile ground just begging to be farmed. To speed up the process of picking crops or working the mines, it's usually best to build accommodation close to each. Newly added public transport routes will help here, too.
Rather than have your workers travel too much or have your resource holding points separated by a body of water, building up a separate base of operations for each should help keep things smooth and stop the lives of the common man from interfering with that of El Presidente's palace on the mainland.
And you don't need to worry about citizens revolting against too many tiny decisions, either. While purposefully logging your entire archipelago probably won't sit well with the environmentalists, clearing out some potential lumber to build a new structure won't have them screaming for your impeachment.
Similarly, expanding your palace with fancy gardens, extentions and swimming pools won't fire up the age-old debate of 'where are my taxes going'. They're free, cosmetic-only add-ons that will likely only serve as unlockable extras to encourage playing toward certain goals.
Limbic have made sure to strike a balance between realism and rewarding gameplay with what I've seen of Tropico 6. I may not be the most qualified to say whether they're onto a hit or miss right now, but even without going completely hands-on with the demo, I didn't want to leave the room. I just wanted to ask more questions, laugh at some silly situations and gaze upon the most strikingly beautiful city builder I've ever seen.
Expect Tropico 6 next year in both single-player and 4-player co-op/competitive flavors. That's something we didn't get to see in action.
