Somewhere in the evolution of every art form (and I do consider electronic gaming an art) one finds a pivotal piece that sets the bar so high it may take years for other artists to even come close. Responses to this typically range from complete denial to celebratory fervor, with all sorts of efforts in between. John Coltrane's Giant Steps left a lot of people scratching their heads and wondering what to do with jazz, and in the post Sim City, Civilization, (pick your definitive title) era, we find all manner of simulation games on the market. Adding a new twist to the 'building' sim is Tropico, a real-time strategy game that dares you to fill the shoes of some of the world's biggest jerks. Play as a dictator from history or create your own, and try to turn an island into a productive, if not happy, working unit.

Looking in on Tropico for the first time, I'll say that graphics make for the weakest part of an otherwise strong package. Configuring graphics for this game seemed a greater chore than one would expect, and I'm still not entirely happy with what I achieved after much tinkering. The usual software setting and hardware acceleration are available, but you can imagine that software is the less beautiful of the two. Problem is, hardware proved difficult to get running, and resulted in some weird errors and draw-in that made the game unplayable. So, the alternative was to go with software settings, which run slower and with less detail. Numerous Mac and Windows postings show that the problem seems to be common across the two platforms, suggesting a patch is in order. One Windows patch that wasn't duplicated on the Mac side didn't seem to have much to do with graphics, so we wait.

The game interface is designed well, and shows the action from as sky-high or down-low as you desire. Each character and building is selectable, and will give a detailed report on condition. Or, if you prefer the master view, Tropico gives you an Info screen that color-codes objects, people and even landscape to represent certain demographics. This feature is an essential part of determining what areas will make productive farming ground, ideal building sites, or need attention due to other issues. With the Info screens, you're able to see how much of the populace is at any given time content, hungry, employed, etc. Construction and rule of law is managed through a click-and-drag interface, as are elements of dictatorship like employee pay scale, tourist attractions and facility maintenance. The intuitive tools help keep you immersed in the world of Tropico without visual distraction.

Unlike other RTS games of the past, Tropico doesn't let you just 'make' a unit of anything. All your assets will be hard earned, except in the case of special scenarios that might start off with a set amount of resources you'll have to develop. These assets include humans, who are born, live and die during the game. After a much recommended Tutorial, Tropico has shown you the basics of managing resources from a control standpoint, and introduced you to some basic gameplay elements. A Quick Start guide in the manual walks you through some of the finer points on ruling an island, and then it's up to you! New games can be started through a Scenario Mode that stacks odds against or for you and lets you jump into play with a specific goal for victory. Random Mode will generate a game to your specification and let you play with only the goal of survival and success to drive you. The beautiful thing about any good RTS is the management of resources toward a goal, and Tropico makes things somewhat more difficult by adding elements of a political nature to the mix. You do not in fact have the full and complete support of your populace unless you earn it, thanks to factions that develop according to both your actions and conditions on the island. Russia and the US are always exerting a pull on the island that can help or hinder you, and definitely affects the attitudes of your people.

Building a strong island to meet the goals of Scenario Mode is perhaps more difficult than taking control of an island in Random Mode. Each island can be chosen for size and landscape, affecting the difficulty rating, then modified to reflect what political climate will exist from the beginning. Various preset rulers are available, drawn from a real rogue's gallery of the last 100 years, or you can roll your own. A neat feature of creating a ruler is the ability to choose good and bad traits that will have a big impact on how you're perceived by your people, the US and Russia. Launch a new game from any of these modes, and you'll start the clock ticking. It's time to rule!

Unlike most standard 'games,' Tropico can feel more like a virtual world that doesn't have any concept of win or lose. Sure, if you louse up enough to lose elections, be invaded by a superpower, turn your own people into an angry mob, be overthrown by a military coup, drive your country into impossible debt or piss off the wrong people, you'll lose. But, that's not much to worry about, right? ;) So, the balance of power is very important, and happy people won't mind if you take a little power, money or land from them, right? In fact, pleasing the people is an integral part of building shelter, industry, tourism, education or anything else available to you on the island. Without creature comforts, your rating will soon drop, but productivity keeps the Tropico treasury full and your pockets well lined. The thrill of making something from nothing is second only to learning how to hold on to what you've got, and if nothing else, Tropico teaches us how tenuous our hold on power may really be.

Scenarios range from challenging to fiendish, and should keep even the advanced players happy until new user-built or add-on scenarios become readily available. Random Mode lets you dial difficulty down to a Sandbox Level, where economics don't count and (as Drew Carey says) the points don't matter. It's fun to play around like this and observe the game's dynamics, but there's no substitute for learning economics the hands-on way. Luckily, difficulty can be adjusted as you build the game, letting less experienced Joes come along at their own pace.

The inner workings of Tropico are as subtle and well designed as the visual interface they present to the user. Passage of time can be adjusted to let you crawl through the events of each year or fly through a whole game in one sitting. There are a limited number of years you'll have to make your reputation in, and you'll quickly learn to chart events on a timetable for smart spending of crop revenue and industry gains. The ebb and flow of revenue when combined with loose spending will make your economic progress chart swing from one extreme to the other. Small farms move to industry and tourism provides steady income, but forgetting about the people's needs will put you out of power quickly. Managing all the demographics and factions through the Info screens can tell you where the problem is, but as you might expect, Tropico gives more than option for solving problems. Say, for instance, that you've built up a modest agrarian society and want to make the jump to industry. Well, the religious factions want a church and the intellectuals want a school, and someone jumps out of the unwashed masses to run against you in an election. Sure, you can cancel the election, but you can also take other routes. You'll have a year to improve things, which really isn't much time. Issue an edict and grant the people something or increase their pay. In other words, make them happy. You can rig the elections at the last minute in your favor or even assassinate the opposition, risking loss of support by the people in both cases. Or, you can just let elections happen and take your chances. But, that would hardly be sporting, would it?

Clean control and a simple interface don't make Tropico any less deep than other Sim titles. Tropico will draw you in quickly, make for less of a learning curve than Sim City, and keep your interest because of the political and social intrigue one doesn't quite find in any other game of this type. If you're old enough to have played Balance Of Power, you'll find that this is a nice blend of the 'build it and they'll come' entertainment and the demanding task of keeping people happy in a socio-politically charged atmosphere. As if it wasn't hard enough to please people in real life, right? The depth and replay value may not entirely match what years of honing have provided to Sim City, but any Sim fan would be a fool to miss this one.