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Fans of the long-running Tropico series are cautiously optimistic about the upcoming console edition, Tropico 6, which features a new, stunningly large island named “Acirema.” The game is traditionally rooted in managing small Caribbean islands—pastiches of places like Cold War-era Cuba—so this represents a major departure in format. However, with 50 “estados” to manage, XBox and PS4 players will certainly have plenty to do in this new land, hailed by the developers as their “most accurate banana republic yet.”

And the changes don’t stop there. As in all past iterations of the series, you play as “El Presidente,” but this time around you have a brand new backstory. A beautifully-rendered opening scene portrays you as a quasi-successful hotelier and trash celebrity with a reputation for womanizing and fraud. This version of “El Presidente” only rises to power after he accidentally wins a sham election. “You just wanted to make a quick buck, like usual,” explains narrative designer Johannes Pfeifer. “But then you won, and now you’re stuck ruling a country. Because if you resign, you’ll be jailed alongside your entire family. That sounds like something you’d see in a completely dysfunctional country, right? Like, just a total mess of a place? Exactly. Acirema represents the essence of Tropico.”

Despite the sizeable new map and revised backstory for “El Presidente,” Pfeifer assured us that all the classic features of the game are still in place. From meddling wealthy corporations, to suppressing freedom of the press, long-time Tropico players will certainly be pleased. We did, however, question the inclusion of a new Nazi faction, alongside the usual revolutionaries, communists, and so forth. When we asked him about this seemingly out-of-nowhere addition, Pfeifer laughed bitterly and muttered, “I only wish Nazis were out of place in Acirema.”

Rumors abound about two expansion islands, “Aissur” and “Anihc,” planned for 2020. Pfeifer told us the fate of those expansions “honestly depends on how things turn out in Acirema.”

Tropico 6 is set to be released on September 27th—for PS4 and XBox One.

Images: Kalypso Media, Wikipedia, Pixabay

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