Tropico — A Cuban Parody with Too Much Micromanagement

This game is surprisingly fun

It’s days like these that I try and find something to write about. I search the memory bank within me for anything that I might find interesting to write about. I find nothing, so I pull the closest to “something that might be interesting”. What comes up is a game where you may or may not play as a dictator because I didn’t entirely get what’s going on. I remembered that there might be a game called Tropico, and maybe it’s worth checking out. Turns out that it is because it turned out to be quite a fun experience.

Now, I had no idea what this game was about before playing it. I know there are six games in the franchise and that I should try one of them, so I decided to go with the fifth entry in the series. Turns out that the game was quite interesting, as it lets you play as a… uh… I’ll be frank, I’m not quite sure because the themes were political, and I don’t know jack about politics. But coming from me, which is not much, at least in this regard, the game seems to be a parody of the stereotypical depiction of the Cuban regime, so you can expect a lot of themes such as political corruption and communism and everything that can be satirised that has Fidel Castro’s name on it. (At least that’s how I see it because once again, I don’t do politics).

This game is, much to my surprise, really fun. It’s a city simulator of sorts where you play as the president of Tropico, which is, again, a parody of communist countries. It has a ton of micromanagement and offers the player lots and lots of things to do, from secretly eliminating your enemies to taking bribes from wealthy businessmen to erecting buildings in places that shouldn’t have buildings in it, and pretty much everything else that an oligarch can do. The game is also funny as there were a few good jokes here and there. But for a game that parodies Latin American culture, how come there’s no Spanish?

I checked the options menu twice

You’d think that a game takes place in a location where they need to speak Spanish because it makes sense that they would speak Spanish… but they don’t. And I’m specifically referring to the option to change the voice language from English to Spanish, and for some reason, it doesn’t exist.

Seriously, I enjoyed this game, and I want to keep playing. But even though this game is mainly about humour, I still think the characters could speak Spanish. I don’t think that it would take away from the humour. In fact, it might add to it. If the characters delivered jokes in a language that I don’t understand, it could still come off as funny, just in a different language. But even though there was a lot to do in this game, changing voice language was not one of those things. It makes me wonder why the developers didn’t consider this in the first place. It doesn’t seem like this was a budget issue, but more like it just didn’t cross their mind, even though they’re already six games in. Someone should throw them a bone.

This is the first time I talked about how a spoken language in the game other than English can intensify the experience with authenticity and relevance to the game itself. However, I don’t think I have encountered a game yet that denies me access to the native language of the characters in the game because if the characters are Latin, they should speak Spanish. I haven’t played Tropico 6 yet, but hopefully, this won’t be an issue anymore in Tropico 7… whenever it comes out, of course.

Like I said… Tropico 7

As for a solution, the simplest is to add the options that the characters will speak Spanish. I get it that the entire game is supposed to be a joke, and therefore, language is not relevant, but it just feels weird when they’re supposed to speak Spanish, they only ever talk in English. Maybe a simple sequel will solve this issue.

As for other solutions, I can’t really say. This is a simple problem with a simple solution. Regardless, whether it will happen or not is entirely NOT up to me, but the developers of the game. It’s what they want for their game that will eventually decide whether this one feature that I want will be in the game or not.

So… yeah… just add Spanish.

What kind of dictator are you?

Even if you can say such a thing, I prefer to be the benevolent dictator because I don’t think that dictator can be benevolent. Even if you choose to be a tyrant, it’s just a game, so it’s so terrible. I just assume that, like me, you’re having fun with this game, but I still haven’t heard what you have to say about the subject. So… go ahead and say it: do you want Spanish in this game?

In Conclusion…

I didn’t expect Tropico 5 to be so fun. I thought it was probably a real-time strategy game or something, but it turns out that there’s more intricacy to it than that. I suppose you feel the same way about the game as I do… or not.

I still think they need to add an option for spoken Spanish. It would add more humour as well as more authenticity. Think about it…

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a guerilla organisation demanding more freedom, so I’d better tend to them before they instigate another riot. That’s just how it is when you’re a dictator… or president or whatever you’re supposed to be in that game. My point is, my regime will fall… and I don’t want that.