Tropico 5 lets you rule as a tyrant, a saint, and everything in between

In Tropico 5, the management sim from Haemimont Games, you don't just build and manage a city--you establish your own tropical island country. In the next entry in the Tropico series, you'll not only build out your city structure, establish trade, and manage your finances, you'll have to govern all of your city's troubles over multiple eras. Really, they should call this game a country builder.

You can start building your town as the early as the Colonial period (1700s) in history. In every era, you'll have different concerns to manage. For instance, in the Colonial period, you'll need to establish your country as an independent nation. This requires you to create a constitution that establishes laws such as voting rights, and start building your dynasty (a system that allows you to create and customize your successors)--because El Presidente can't live forever. Once you complete a specified era's goal and establish yourself as an independent country, you move on to the next era, which happens to be set during both world wars.

Tropico 5 also adds another new feature to the series: the ability to perform research. This mechanic allows your tiny island country to create new technology, educate skilled workers, and even train El Presidente in table etiquette so he can act more civilized during political dinner conversations. Everything in Tropico 5 is painstakingly detailed, from lawmaking and city construction to the day-to-day lives and concerns of your population. If you ever wanted to play out a fantasy of being a benevolent ruler or psychotic dictator, you can do all that--and everything in between--in Tropico 5.

Check out the following slides for more information and images.

Your town will start off small in the early years.

Advancing to the modern era lets you build skyscrapers and power plants.

You can customize the appearance of every El Presidente in your Dynasty.

Clicking on any person on the street brings up detailed stats on political affiliation, career, and other factors you can use for extreme micro-management.

Trade plays a large role in making financial gains.

Many years ago, Lorenzo Veloria was a Senior Editor here at GamesRadar+ helping to shape content strategy. Since then, Lorenzo has shifted his attention to Future Plc's broader video game portfolio, working as a Senior Brand Marketing Manager to oversee the development of advertising pitches and marketing strategies for the department. He might not have all that much time to write about games anymore, but he's still focused on making sure the latest and greatest end up in front of your eyes one way or another.