Tropico 5 Penultimate Edition Reviews
Tropico 5 Penultimate Edition is a masterclass city builder with a unique twist that drew me in unlike any other game of the genre. Some of the UI shortcomings are confusing or frustrating, but are not nearly enough of an issue to pass the game up.
Overall: 8.5/10
With no game like Tropico 5: Penultimate Edition available for Xbox One, fans of the genre should definitely give the game a look. It makes for a good summer game as you build and develop an island colony during your downtime and prepare for your presidential run in 2020.
Playing the game with a Xbox One controller is certainly possible but nowhere as free-flowing with a mouse and keyboard.
While I still think Tropico 5 on the PC remains the definitive version of the game, this one’s pretty close for folks who exclusively play on the Xbox One.
Tropico 5 is a clever, tongue-in-cheek riff on tiny, dictatorial countries, and its console port is an excellent counterpart to the modern PC classic.
There is a decent length campaign here and multiplayer to go along with it but the game offers little incentive to keep playing once you’ve reached the end of the tech tree and depleted your resources.
Although it's easy to pick up, Tropico 5 is a deep and complex strategy title which keeps things interesting by throwing ever-changing challenges in to the story structure to mix things up. The humour expertly lightens the mood and adds life to the game, with each character proving slightly more unhinged than the last.