I've been playing the hell out of Tropico 3, so I decided to go and check out the demo for 4, which was released on Steam recently, and to my surprise, the games are almost copies of eachother, I'm hoping this is just a demo thing

• One of the startup title screens is just the Tropico 3 Screen with Tropico 4 photoshopped in.
• The font is identical to the previous game
• Avatar Creation is exactly the same, same traits, rise to power, clothing and character models.
• All the icons for building items are the same as in 3 as are all the edict icons.
• You have exactly the same edicts as you did in 3, but you lack the megalomania edicts you gained in Tropico 3's Absolute Power Expansion
• The voice clips for your citizens are all the same as they were in 3.
• The models for all your citizens are identical to those in 3, as are their vehicles
• Every building is the same as in Tropico 3, the models/textures are identical a few have had some colors changed, but thats it. There are a few new buildings though, about a dozen or so.

Basically, according to the demo, the only new things in Tropico 4 are a few new buildings, slightly rearranged menus, the ability to level up your avatar's traits, and the lighting engine was tweaked to make everything less washed out. The previous game looked great, the new lighting sorta makes everything look fake, if that makes any sense. Cities in Tropico 3 looked Gritty and realistic, which contrasted with the beauty of the island and the peppiness of Juanito, which was a neat touch, in Tropico 4, everything looks sorta toy-like.

They recycled a stupid amount of assets from Tropico 3 and are charging 40 bucks (Tropico 3 was also 40 at launch.) for the same game. My recommendation so far is to just buy Tropico 3 and it's expansion for the time being.

For what little I played of Tropico 3 I actually quite enjoyed it, shame to see them be so lazy for the sequel

A quick comparison image...

The longevity for Tropico games sucks too. Took me a couple of hours to have built everything in Tropico 3, and the rest of the game was just the same.. over and over again. One of the worst purchases I've ever done.

Interesting. Everything that I had seen of Tropico 4 looked more like a limited expansion pack to Tropico 3 than something that deserved a full game price tag.

I love the Tropico series and it seems that they are just trying to cash in on the good will they have gained from a pretty solid game in Tropico 3 which is a real shame. It is one of those games that I really wish I was incharge of because there is so much they could do with this series that they just don't seem to see the potential.

Not getting another tropico game after getting the 360 version of 3 which included a bug that meant it was impossible to use a game save with a population over 500. I believe their excuse for not patching it was they were working on 4.

@Von said:

The longevity for Tropico games sucks too. Took me a couple of hours to have built everything in Tropico 3, and the rest of the game was just the same.. over and over again. One of the worst purchases I've ever done.

Yea it can be repetitive, but I felt like there was enough scenarios to keep a decent variety, I also got it on sale for like 12 bucks with the expansion, so I've gotten a fair amount of value out of it already.

I bet if it was Pirate themed it would have pissed off the entire fanbase.

I bet if it was Pirate themed it would have pissed off the entire fanbase.

as far as I'm concerned this game is to disimilar to eve online for my taste

What if I want the 4 on my copy and not a 3?

I would jokingly say that maybe they were hoping not enough people bought the third game to notice, but the sort of people who would buy the new game in the first place are the hardcore fans of the series, it being a niche title as compared to your Call of Warfares or the world.

WOW.  You know as soon as I saw this advertised on Steam I thought it looked almost exactly the same, and probably a bit of a rip.  After seeing your post though in sets in stone my initial belief that it should have been an expansion, and how the expansion for 3 should have been a patch.  I mean all the stupid ass expansion for 3 did was offer a few new scenarios and the garbage dump becuase the vanilla game didn't offer you any way to increase standing with the environmentalist. 

See, when these small companies picked up these licenses, they had essentially a good game already and they just needed some graphics work and minimal level design.  It should come as no surprise that they lack the resources to one-up themselves now that the 'remember Tropico' card has been played - though I am surprised that they tried.

One of my favorite series, very dissapointed by this sequel. I installed the demo and literally have to double check if i didnt accidently download demo of Tropico 3. I cant believe they did not bother to change most of things. I bought Tropico 3 Deluxe Edition of Steam, but i feel like 40$ for this "sequel" (more like Tropico 3.5) is a ripoff.
 
I wanted to buy this game, but this is just not right.

So. A game you loved is a bit to close to a game you...wanna love? Hmmm, just enjoy it.

It is hard to enjoy it, when you played lot of Tropico 3. It is the same experience all over again. It even looks the same, they didnt bother to change much.

Wow, that's pretty bad. I'd expect that from the folks that churn out identical time management and seek-and-find games every three days, but not from a series like this. 

I played Tropico 3 quite a bit back when it came out. I've been playing new one, 4th, for a few days now and I must say that its a big improvement. Yes, they use stuff from the 3rd game but so what? It worked well so why not expand on it in the next game? I've checked around and the majority of forum users highly suggest the 4th over the 3rd due to all the improvements. But sure, QQ about a $40 game and then QQ some more when they stop making them cause there are soooo many city sim games out there these days...... *work IE does not work well on this site so sorry for word wall*

Just wait til the price drops. Don't buy it day 1. I just got it for 20 bucks on amazon last monday, at that price I'm fine with a big Tropico 3 expansion.

It works for me only because I no longer have a PC.

I got T3 for PC and it's expansion and while I tried it on 360, it had some game breaking glitches and no post release support.

This one has had those glitches fixed and has been getting the same DLC and should also be getting the modern times expansion. It's been a while since I've played 3 so it works out great for me (although I would rather play it on a PC).