El generalissimo and I stare at each other across, neither of us flinching. Slowly I reach forward and, ever so gently, flick his nose causing his head to bob. Now that I have once again controlled him at my desk, previously on the PC then as a bobblehead, I now prepare to do battle as him on a new front… the console! One of my latest reviews is Tropico 5 Penultimate Edition and even though I have faced him before this is the first time in the Penultimate Edition.
Features:
- Penultimate Edition contains the full version of Tropico 5 and 5 DLC packs – The Big Cheese, Bayo del Ofato & Hostile Takeover (Generalissimo, Mad World, Joint Venture) as well as 5 exclusive bonus maps.
- The Eras – Start your reign during colonial times, survive the World Wars and the Great Depression, be a dictator during the Cold War, and advance your country to modern times and beyond.
- The Dynasty – Each member of the extended family of El Presidente is present on the island and may be used as ruler, appointed manager, ambassador or general.
- Research and Renovate – Advance your nation by discovering new buildings, technologies and resources.
- Advanced trade system and trade fleet – Amass a global trade fleet and use your ships to secure trade routes to neighboring islands or world’s superpowers, both for export and import.
- Explore your island – Discover what lies beyond the fog of war. Send prospectors to look for new deposits, but be wary of hostile animals and native tribes.
- All new art – All artwork is re-made from scratch to provide Tropico 5 with a unique visual identity.
- Cooperative and competitive multiplayer – Up to 4 players can build up their own cities and economies on any given island map. Players can choose to share resources, supply and population or declare war on each other.
First Volley:
If, like me, your visits with El Presidente were mostly limited to the main package then trust me are you in store one heck of a lot of extra material. It has been a while since I played AND that was on a PC which has a heck of a lot more buttons and a different feel entirely. So the first questioned I encountered was how hard would it be to control?
Luckily they did a pretty good job transferring the title between platforms following the footsteps of other sims that got moved to the console so that for the most part the controls were intuitive to anyone who has played console sims. There is a tutorial which is pretty long but I recommend playing all the way through to really get the controls down and a help section for anything that doesn’t explicitly cover. The tutorials might seem way too easy at times but still play them and use their time to practice other aspects since they are designed with getting you prepared for long sessions at the game. Luckily playing on the console you can take your controller anywhere and sit, lay, do handstands, any way you want as long as you can see the television.
Glancing up at the features you can see that you have a couple of centuries to play through as well as extra maps. The original maps and quests are fun but the new additions are really where the fun can be found. You can tell that the development team that worked on them weren’t in it for the money but were in love with the title and wondering what they could do next. So you travel through the Great Depression into the possible futures you may choose to create for yourself. Personally I am just really wanted to get blimps going myself, always was fascinated with the aerial trees of development. When it came down to it though I found I really liked the World Wars which reminded me of a couple other war sims but with all the details we have comes to expect. When it comes right down to it this a b
With multiplayer element it is pretty much like any multiplayer you would expect where up to four players build as quick as they can then whack each other. Now is a good time to play multiplayer too with a renewed player base!
Last Shot:
Playing Tropico 5 Penultimate Edition was like revisiting an old girlfriend, or in this case one who had grown up and made a lot of new additions to her life. It is a good time with all the extras you could want for the game then probably a few more, with multiplayer running hot right now. Time to get out and make your legacy again El Presidente!
[easyreview title=”Tropico 5 Penultimate Edition Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]
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