Tropico 4

I love this game!

Tropico 4 is definitely worth your time, even in 2025.

It's a solid city builder on its own, with charming aesthetics (both music and visuals), nice sense of humor and addictive gameplay.

However, it fails miserably when it comes to actually playing as a Caribbean dictator. There's no real incentive to be the "bad guy" — it's too expensive and doesn't offer much benefit unless the game artificially forces you into it. It's almost always simpler and cheaper to just build a strong economy rather than bother with election fraud, propaganda, police states, army, nuclear program etc.

After 100+ hours of playtime, I found myself never using about 2/3 of the edicts and ~half of available buildings. And without that gameplay lacks depth, as the same formula - "build industry > build amenities to maintain happiness > repeat" - always wins

best tropico game, in depth, clunky controls, buttloads of classic tropico humour and charm...
the works, i dont have any dlc but it already feels like it has more content than tropico 5 or 6

el presidente

My fav of all the Tropicos

Nice fun game!

Really enjoyed this game. I have played and played, kind of just doing whatever. Today I finally finished mission 20 with over half of the achievements unlocked. Great game. Great fun

Fun and silly sandbox that makes those dreams that you can run a country better than those currently doing it come true.

Viva El Presidente

Being El Presidente is a lot of fun. One of the best city-builders I've played, with the added bonus of being genuinely funny at times (llama-related jokes aside). Surprisingly deep and complex.

great game! nice story line.

Love it

Amazing game

Best tropico game imo

very good

Fun to play.

I am finally revisiting this franchise after years. I DO RECALL absolutely loving this game and really wanting to try Tropico 5 back then but couldn't afford it at the time. Now, finally Tropico 5 has been released with their "Complete Edition" but I kind of forgot about Tropico over the years until I recently saw TROPICO 6 was out, on sale and already had DLCs.

As I said, I have fond memories of Tropico 4 as it made me laugh, relax & forget about the troubles I was going through in life at the time. I may not have much playtime in Tropico 4 but it looks like I WILL BE skipping Tropico 5 and just diving right into Tropico 6 as time allows.

I have read a LOT of reviews about Tropico and MOST fans of the series say Tropico 4 is the best, even to this day.

I don't have enough experience with all of them to say for sure, but this one certainly left a mark on me! Grab it when on sale FOR SURE!... even just to have in your collection! It's worth it!

good

My favorite Tropico game and one of the best city builders by a country mile. The brilliantly drawn caricatures and top notch voice acting make this a timeless experience that I still play to this day.

Democratic Leader simulator 9.9/10

Not sure about Tropico 5 but this is better than Tropico 6 and an improvement on some aspects of Tropico 3

Not sure why the game performs like it's running a cryptominer on my graphics card, but pretty good aside from that.

Tropico 4 has depth and an excellent vibe despite some confusion.

The mechanics all appear to be connected with a sense of balance, but certain details are not clear, especially regarding some of the buildings - How many of them do you need? Where are you supposed to put them? Do they need free space around them? Why do they disappear? Some are obvious, but others are left unexplained. Some of the mission goals should have offered detailed hints.

You don't seem to need to play "optimally" to progress, atleast until you reach the end of the game. Even if the gameplay itself falls apart, the soundtrack and the satirical theme (supported by good voice acting) is all memorable.

The technical and product side of the game is a bit disappointing - the options don't always save, and there's a pointless launcher that shows a bunch of advertising, and it wants you to subscribe to their newsletter and post about the game on Facebook and Twitter. For a game that was released over a decade ago, and has advertising in it, I'm not excited about the pricetag of £12.99.

Fun, goofy little city builder! The jokes start to wear thin after a while.

Tropico 4 is a fun city builder with cultural flare. The deep campaign mode has some unique challenges and the game lends itself to varied styles of play. Historical leaders each offer unique bonuses to encourage replay with strategies built around specific strengths and weaknesses. Tropico 4 is often considered the best of the Tropico game series and the game-play design still holds up in spite of dated visuals.

Still the best outing for Presidente. The most fun, the easiest to play, and a great example of what all city building and management games should be. The graphics, after 14 years, are of course dated, but everything else is perfect.

One of my favorite games, and definitely my favorite Tropico game.

Still fun after 14 years.

i love tropico

Tropico

A cheeky city builder. Decent Campaign mode/story. Gets a little redundant after a while, but overall scratches that city builder itch while adding a comedic tone!

7/10;
-Good follow up with expanded economic and political systems.
-Minimal technical issues.
-Game play loop is more of the same, with some added depth for population and economy.
-"Still no education for the children"

I would recommend this game on sale at 70% or greater.

Plain city builders can get dull. Not this one! You have a lot going on but you can get by without going super in depth. Different challenges and events keep things interesting as well. My only problem is not knowing when to quit. It;s easy to get caught up trying to build the next thing or resolve an issue. I stay up too late playing.

Its fun, humorous, creative and seems to cover the "island" life. Take hours to make a perfect town or far less to complete task, you play your way.

fun and addicting

Tropico 4 is the pinnacle of the Tropico series. Could it be improved upon? Of course, but Tropico 5, unfortunately, did not improve upon it. In fact, Tropico 5 was far worse. I came back to Tropico 4. It oozes charm with it's wacky characters, it allows chaos by not requiring you to build roads, and the military system actually made sense. If you want to truly experience the Tropico series at its best, play Tropico, Tropico 3, and finally, Tropico 4.

Solid game, lots to do, reminds me of classic Tropico

Get this one instead of 5 or 6. It has everything but better.

An absolutely addicting game of strategy, manipulation, thinking-ahead, and improvisation. The scenarios can keep you entertained for hundreds of hours (as evidenced by my numbers, and I still have some scenarios to clear) and provide meaningful differences in every play that keeps the game feeling fresh. The humor and voice acting are top tier. Whenever you lose a scenario, it feels fair, and when you win and create a thriving city, it feels amazing.

A unique and very different take on the genre of city builders. Its also a political simulator in the sense that you manage both internal and external groups that effect your island nation. How much and to want extent you can adjust to your liking in the random island setup.

RPG elements are present in the form of your avatar, El presidente. There are dozens of preset historical figures, but you can make your own. Rule as a Communist, Capitalist, Dictator or a gangster boss. There are structures and edicts that you can build and pass that will enforce these positions, along with random choices that come up in game.

There is a great deal of depth not just in structures but the ways you can develop your island. Industry, agriculture, minerals, tourism, or a combination of all. Its why I like the random map generation over the campaign because it allows for different builds and play styles. Its the reason I keep returning to the game, year after year. The replay value offered here is incredible.

Its aged very well I think. The music, graphics, Latin-American music are all very good. The humour is also very good, and I never get tired of reading the setting choices for my shopping mall, always makes me laugh. Voices overs are of very good acting quality and also make me grin. Its a serious game/simulation though, there can be war and revolution, not good, unless thats what you are aiming for. But the game has its own charm about life things.

I bought the collection when it was on sale years ago, and I'm still coming back to this. Its got a learning curve due to its depth, but that depth gives it its longevity. I still havent built a stadium or airport, maybe next game.

I know there is a Tropico 5 and 6 now, but I'm not convinced if they are that much better than this to the point that I should spend my massively debased currency on it. When this is on sale its very affordable and I need to watch my dollars these days given food and rent have gone up 400%, so Tropico4 wins for value in my book.

In conclusion and in the light of Tropicos humour, if you are rich and have access to your moms money tree, go buy Tropico6. If not, then put this game on your wish-list and wait for the sale. You wont be disappointed.
Adios Comrade...

Tropico 4 is a highly entertaining economic simulation. While it’s no longer a new game and the graphics are somewhat dated, the addictive gameplay remains as strong as ever, even though the missions can be a bit repetitive at times.

Achievements

they should kept more things from this version. Like the prison farm is genius.
This version is very nice like if tropico 3 had baby with tropico 5 but baby keep more traits of poppa tropico 3. Yes very nice.

Undependable commitments from Production team with presence of efforts in numerical harassment further then art and gameplay

Feels more free to do what you want.

Sim City meets Civ.

fun

Amazing game. Campaigns are so so good.

It's tropico! Great game, easy to get on with. Different amount of campaign to allow you to experience all aspects of the game and a sandbox mode to just keep on building forever. Once you've got the hang of what keeps who happy then its pretty straightforward but just when you think you're on top the game will throw a spanner in the works and you have to work your way around it to succeed again.
Never fear, El Presidente is here!

Game doesn't hold up so well compared to the improvements made in Tropico 5 and 6, but is still overall quite good. Better in some aspects.

This is the peak of Tropico goodness!

yes

Yes