![]() Playing under these kinds of conditions seems refreshing at first, given that it finally offers players a reason to change their strategies for the first time since Tropico 3, but once it becomes clear that every mission in the campaign works in the exact same way, its novelty quickly fades. Sure enough, the next mission came along to demand that I sink capital rebuilding important structures after annual disasters. All these fiscal black holes seem different at first - hire 10 high school teachers destroy the fishing wharves, or face three years of strikes - but around the time an early mission required that I yet again cripple my economy by requiring that I build not one, but two expensive colleges with large operating costs that create a massive drain in the economy, I started to see a pattern. The amusing, if paper-thin story - El Presidente must track down a secret organization called The Conclave that's spreading plagues and disaster throughout the Caribbean - requires the player to build or invest in massive money sinks beyond the island economy's reasonable ability to handle it. While it serves as a smooth introduction to the new buildings and edicts, such as high-rise hotels and banning Facebook (which justify the $20 price by themselves) the campaign sticks too close to the formula to be entertaining in its own right. But its campaign fails to address the core issue plaguing Tropico: If cash can solve every problem, then the only way to add depth is to complicate the process of earning money - and that's exactly what Modern Times does. Tropico 4: Modern Times adds even more options as it takes the series into the 21st century (as opposed to its 1960s-era predecessors) - a time full of techno-espionage and for-profit healthcare. The fun comes from playing around with an array of ways to rule with either a velvet glove or an iron fist. If an island hosts a stable economy, then its ruler can ignore elections, the happiness of the populace, and natural disasters if a problem arises, simply smother it under a pile of money. ![]()
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