14 DAY TRIAL // When I first heard that the first expansion for Tropico 5 was called Waterborne, I was almost excited because my brain immediately conjured an image of a classic Latin American dictator trying to exercise his power in the middle of an underwater city, with high-powered recycling units struggling to deal with the smoke coming from its giant cigar.
I was imagining hydroponic cane sugar plantations and rum factories and submersibles that moved all the trade towards the surface, as the totalitarian bubble-bound city led by my character planned how it could extract more money from countries that did not have underwater tech.
At the worst, I believed that Waterborne for Tropico 5 was supposed to take place on vast ocean platforms used to ensure the fact that El Presidente stayed in power even if his country was invaded by the envious Axis or Allies or his government was overthrown by rebels.
When I finally got to play the game, I was sorely disappointed to find out that the expansion was basically only adding some buildings, maps and missions to the game and failed to take the premise of the game and do anything interesting with it.
This is a massive failure of imagination on the part of the Tropico 5 development team and shows that some teams prefer to play it safe even when they have both the idea and the game that could support a special experience.
The industry does not want to take massive risks
Haemimont Games has done a good job of turning Tropico into a sort of alternative to the concept of traditional city simulations that knows when to deploy a little humor and absurdity.
But Waterborne shows that they see downloadable content for their title just as a source of extra revenue that’s designed to simply allow players to expand their experience in interesting ways.
I would like them to try and take some more risks in the coming months or even take the core concepts of the series and seriously shake them up for a sequel.
Waterborne for Tropico 5 could have been a great, slightly absurd take on the genre, but instead it’s only a by-the-book expansion with little soul.
