Tropico 6 — Media reaction and sales forecast

Tropico 6, an economic strategy from Limbic Entertainment, was released on March 29. We tell you how the project was received by the players and the press, evaluate the sales potential.

About the game

Tropico series games have been replaced by several developer studios and even publishers. The first two parts were released under the auspices of the publisher Take-Two. All subsequent ones were published by German Kalypso Media. With her, the development of games in the series was usually carried out by Haemimont Games, but the current, sixth part was given into the hands of Limbic Entertainment.

Despite all the twists and turns, the essence of the series of games has not changed. The player acts as El Presidente, the ruler of a small “banana republic”. Under the leadership of the player, El Presidente builds buildings, adjusts the economy and infrastructure, cares about the well-being of citizens and maintains relations with other countries.

For the first time, the player gets his hands on not one island, but an entire archipelago. Also, classic mechanics for the series appeared in the game, which, however, were not in the fifth part — for example, ministers from different parties. And vice versa: the Tropico 5 feature of the dynasty of rulers has disappeared from the game.

The cost of the game on Steam together with the release discount is 1,260 rubles. Console versions will be released in the third quarter of this year.

Media ratings

Tropico 6 has a lot of positive press reviews, but there are also enough mixed ones. There are two main claims.

The first is that there is no clear economic model in the game. If a player, using different economic approaches, gets the same problems, it will be difficult for him to understand what is the reason for another bankruptcy.

“You can try to build a communist paradise where everyone lives in haciendas and banana pickers earn as much money as technical managers. Or a tough military dictatorship that only cares about whether human lives can be turned into a profitable expert. And nothing will stop you, except for a cumbersome simulation of the economy, which can quickly run out. The economy on the islands almost always looks unreliable, a leaning tower that can tip over at any time. And it was surprisingly difficult to figure out what went wrong.”— IGN

The second complaint is the lack of fresh ideas.

To some reviewers, the changes presented in Tropico 6 did not seem enough. The fact that the game is not much different from its predecessors, they consider it a minus.

“A slight change in the landscape is the most outstanding feature in the game of this long—standing series, despite the change of the development team. And therefore the main problem of Tropico 6 is that it does not differ from its numerous predecessors. She has the same music, the same “quirks”, the same mechanics.”— The Digital Fix

The other aspects of Tropico 6 are generally liked by reviewers.

Perhaps the reason is just that the game in terms of mechanics has not gone far from its predecessors.

“As far as the urban aspect is concerned, Tropico 6 brings almost nothing new. You must maintain a residential, commercial and industrial balance, not forgetting about investments in education, transport and exports, so that your country remains happy and wealthy. These mechanics are well debugged and arouse interest. But what is the real peculiarity of Tropico 6 is in the “executive mechanics” — in the system that allows you, that is, El Presidente, to manipulate citizens.”— Windows Central

On Metacritic, the PC version of the game is rated at 78 points.

Player Reviews

There are users on Metacritic who agree with the journalists: the game, according to them, makes its similarity to the previous Tropico boring. Other players are upset not by this, but by the depressing number of technical errors and crashes.

The catastrophic situation with bugs and the almost complete absence of new mechanics is also being talked about on Steam. Note the inability to save in multiplayer (the save button is blocked). There are reports of a “loss of atmosphere”. Tropico 6, according to a number of players, is no longer as charismatic and satirical as the previous parts.

Nevertheless, Tropico 6 has unambiguous advantages, recognized by most players. These are juicy graphics, a musical series, as well as the absence of unsuccessful mechanics that were in Tropico 5.

Forecast

Let’s recall the successes of Tropico 5. In the release week, its PC version became the most powerful launch in the Tropico series. Sales of the game for the specified period amounted to 100 thousand copies.

Over the past five years, the PC version of the game, according to SteamSpy, has won 1-2 million players. Is there a chance to reach the same level with the desktop Tropico 6? On the one hand, the audience is not spoiled by urban planning simulators. In addition, not every one of them has such an extraordinary setting. On the other hand, the games market as a whole is oversaturated, and sales rates have deteriorated in recent years.

The fanbase of the Tropico series is very loyal. Whether there will be an influx of audience is a moot point, since Tropico 6 can offer almost nothing new either within the series or within the genre. Our sales forecast is 300 thousand copies of Tropico 6 in the first year.