The highly sought after sense of scale in video games usually comes with compromises in other sections of the visual department, and Tropico 4 does very little to change that. This is a game that shows you a whole lot, but doesn't give you much to really appreciate in terms of eye candy. Of course, judging a city-builder along the lines of SimCity on the merits of its graphical power is kind of missing the point. But I will say this: it becomes much easier to appreciate the sights when your third-world hellhole implausibly transforms into a thriving, bustling metropolis. Menus function the way they should, and don't obscure more of the screen than they should. Management screens may be saturated with data, but all of it is relevant to your governing exploits and is therefore worthy of your attention. All told, this isn't an attractive game, but again, that's mostly irrelevant.

Tropico 4's sound design is rather charming. The soundtrack sounds like elevator music infused with a liberal dose of Latino spiciness. It fits the game's kitschy premise and aesthetic very well, which is to be expected. Playful guitars, festive maracas, Spanish crooning, and Alpert-esque horn sections help establish Tropico 4's sense of self. The voice acting is often ridiculous, but honestly, it needs to be most of the time. After all, anything's better than those awful gibberish-spouting advisors from Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution.

Have you ever wanted to unleash your inner ::insert Central American dictator of choice::? Actually, don't answer that, not even to yourself. Tropico 4 allows you to do just that, minus all the controversy, real-world bloodshed, and general negative impact on surrounding nations. This is essentially SimCity: Castro Edition. But where Maxis' original city simulation only had you running a city, Tropico 4 has you running an independent island nation completely on your lonesome. This game is an isometric strategy game primarily concerned with economics and politics. You can develop the country of your dreams within the physical and temporal restraints of the game, but the game makes you work for it.

In Tropico 4, you're given the opportunity to start your own island nation from scratch (well, almost). At the beginning of each game, all you have to work with is a pocketful of spending money and a few necessary structures. From there, you must improve the quality of life on the island, in hopes of attracting immigrants and ultimately for those people. Of course, there are countless obstacles that stand between you and your goal, and even after you establish a worldly presence, the duplicitous nature of life itself often rears its ugly head. Crime can break out, natural disasters can wrack your lands, and so on and so forth. Your job is to be ready for any possible problems and meet them head on with a plan.

If you've never played a game like Tropico 4, you'll naturally have a harder time of getting into it than longtime veterans of the series. There's a lot to absorb; so much in fact, that you may find yourself begrudgingly accepting the financial aid of others more often than you'd like. For example, I played through all of Tropico 4's tutorials before starting my first game. I built all the structures I thought I needed to get started, and ended up mystified as to why I had an insufficient intake of revenue. Turns out, none of my crops were being exported because I didn't build any Teamsters' Offices. Again, I can chalk this up to personal stupidity and inexperience with the franchise, but this illustrates that Tropico 4 might prove impenetrable, if only for a while.

If you're obstinate in a failing course of action, the game can only remind you of your general suckiness as a ruler for so long, and you will eventually go bankrupt. There is a natural order to just about everything in Tropico 4, and learning that order is imperative to your success.

The key difference between Tropico 4 and most of its genre peers is the degree of control you're given over your land. Put simply, you have complete control in Tropico 4. In SimCity, you're given the option to place certain buildings, but you're also largely kept within the confines of "Residential, Commercial, and Industrial" building types. In Tropico 4, each and every building has a purpose. This means your choices have a huge impact on the strategic part of the game. What's really great about Tropico 4 is how these structures relate to one another. Many of them are dependent on one another, even to the point where they literally cannot function without the other. Placement is crucial, not only in terms of worker proximity, but in output efficiency. After all, would you want to build a logging camp on the beach?

So yes, at first glance, Tropico 4 is a healthy exercise in macroeconomics. But it's got a magnifying glass all its own, and allows you to get right down to the nitty gritty. As El Presidente, you have no need for managers, district managers, and the like. If your industries are failing, you can fire the entire staff and replace them with educated foreigners. Of course, you sacrifice the pride of your own nation when you do this, so your own people should naturally be your focus. Building schools and better housing results in higher-quality workers, and the improvements come naturally. Of course, as the standard of living improves, costs tend to increase.

All of this would be for nothing if Tropico 4's user interface was no good. Not only is this game's interface good, it's great. It's a very simple system that lets you know exactly what you need to know. It doesn't overload you with data, but it is dense and demanding of your attention. Building structures and roads could not possibly be any easier with a controller, and the only way they could have improved it is by giving the game mouse and keyboard support. But what's here works very well.

Tropico 4 is a comprehensive and entertaining city-builder/political strategy/simulation hybrid that should have no problem hooking SimCity fans. It's a slower-paced game to be sure, and therefore not for everyone. However, if it's a change of pace you're looking for, grab your cigars and start working on your beard. Your people are waiting, El Presidente.