Recent reviews by MarkJerue

amazing

Why do I need to comment? This is a good game. It's a classic. And it's been brought up to modern standards. Play it, especially if you have nostalgia or an RTS itch!

Quick Verdict: Worth it if you like single player RTS or slower management / base-building games or faster-paced tower defense games.

Quick Pros: Very responsive developer, good graphics that won't fry your PC, good pacing of gameplay,
Quick Cons: Needs polish, stable multiplayer / FPS aspect not in sight as of May 2024.

Overall Gameplay: This is almost three games at once - a base-builder for a refugee & quarantine camp that could boil over into a zombie-infested mess if you make a mistake & don't control it quick, a tower defense game where you fortify your containment zone & defend it against ever-increasing hordes with a variety of weapons, and an RTS where you directly & closely control rapid response squads or tactical squads to respond to containment breaches or take out larger infected structures. If you like one or more of the above, then you're in for a treat! If you're here for the multiplayer or hate one of those 3 aspects, then you may want to wait.

Community Relations: The lead developer gets on public Discord voice chats with any players who want to show up & make their thoughts known. I've never seen a developer so active with the community - Ostriv's or Zomboid's developers are the next closest.
World & Map: The world is custom-built by the devs. The main map usually ends up playing as 1 smaller map depending on your playstyle due to the bridge connections. You'll still get at least 3 unique gameplay map sessions though.
Lore: It exists and is decent, but not required knowledge to be able to play.
Graphics: Will not fry your PC. This isn't Half Life 2 graphics but they're better than in the trailer video.
Sound & Music: Pretty good. It ramps up during action scenes & slows down during slower moments. IDK if the weapons have accurate sound effects (I'm not a gun nerd). The news alert ping is annoying but can be disabled.
Keybindings: Can't be changed yet. I'm not an RTS pro so don't use them & don't have feedback on them.
Gameplay: Good pacing. For the base building perfectionists, a slow mo button & pause button were recently added that let you make your base look perfect. For RTS lovers, you'll feel the pressure to move fast & learn those keybindings! For the more relaxed players, the slow mo mode ("tactical pause") is perfect if you want time to think.
AI: This is my only current criticism. Some AI aspects, namely around pathfinding and target priorities, aren't yet perfected. You may see Patient Zero decide to look menacingly at a unit on a rooftop instead of infect the rest of Treasure Island. You may see your special 6 round rocket units shoot them at smaller boomers instead of the large juggernauts. Thankfully the devs have done lots of bugfixing lately, and player reports are responded to *freakishly* fast.

tl;dr awesome zombie management / RTS / tower defense game, some AI bugs being fixed, otherwise a great game right now!

Nice

The Good: The campaign, unlike other DLCs' campaigns, is enjoyable. You'll likely have to attempt each mission more than once on hard difficulty, but it's worth it.

The Bad: In Sandbox mode, this DLC functions like a bunch of random events or a Surviving Mars mystery event chain. If you prefer a more relaxed Sandbox experience where you can take things slow and at your own pace, you may end up disabling the DLC or having the plague be Just A Cough in your sandbox games.

The Unbalanced: The rate of death, especially in early eras, is staggering. Having Tropicans quarantine, take time off work to visit extra doctors, and die can wreck your economy. The bonus export money from trade routes helps.

The Unfortunate: Tourism, a staple of prior Tropico games, is generally seen as inefficient in Tropico 6. This DLC makes that worse as the bonus export money has no effect on tourism.

Overall: If you like Tropico 6 a lot, pick this up & actually do the campaign. If you like randomness in your sandbox, definitely pick this up. If you don't like randomness in your sandbox & don't like the campaign, don't pick this up.

This is now a good game! Yes, upon release, it was iffy. That's okay. Paradox has spent a year developing this game since release (for free), and it's now enjoyable. The culture feature is REALLY good too!

Some aspects I'm hoping to see improved include making religion slightly easier to understand and more flexibility with moving pops around an empire, so settling colonies is less janky.

I would urge anybody who likes Paradox games in general to give this a play. It's worth the $40.

gg

gg

If you liked Tropico 5 you'll like Tropico 6

good game