Based on what I've seen, each seems to have some interesting wrinkle designed to make you engage with various systems. Tropico 6 will launch with 15 story missions, and each mission map can also be played in sandbox mode (on top of a further 15 maps exclusively designed for sandbox play). And even when you've hit the relevant time period, you'll need to spend money to unlock blueprints for more advanced buildings. As in Tropico 5, you'll need to progress through different eras-from the colonial era to modern day-with new building options, edicts and research unlocking as you progress. Not all options will be available at the start of each mission, though.

And teleferics can transport Tropicans up to hills and plateaus, letting you build at different elevations. Tunnels, for instance, let you extend roads through mountains-reaching otherwise inaccessible parts of the map. Many of Tropico 6's new features are simple in nature, but let you make the most of the space available on each map. It's not a major new direction for the series, but I enjoyed creating these specialised ad-hoc communities. The businesses required workers, which meant building houses, and the residents required services and entertainment, which meant more businesses. Away from the main city, a small logging settlement emerged, focused on felling trees and turning the logs into planks that could be exported. In a mission I played in the beta build, I found it more useful to grow small communities around key businesses on satellite islands. In one of the maps I'm shown, certain resources like iron and gold are limited to a satellite island, forcing players to create mines far away from their main settlement. 'But of course we also wanted to ensure we gave the player meaningful ways to engage with the archipelagos and new islands.' This is primarily achieved through resource distribution. 'It perfectly fit into the Tropico theme because it underlines this tropical Caribbean atmosphere,' says Mussler. 'We figured for El Presidente, one island wasn't enough,' says lead level designer Mark Mussler, 'so we wanted to provide him with a bigger playground to operate in.' Each mission will now take place on an archipelago-with one main landmass surrounded by smaller satellite islands. But for all that's the same, a few new features should help alleviate any claustrophobia.

In many ways this sequel will be familiar to Tropico fans, despite it having a new developer-Might & Magic's Limbic Entertainment-at the helm.

Tropico 6 vs civ 6