Frequently Asked Video Game Questions – Do you have any tips for playing Tropico 5?

Submitted by Anonymous – Do you have any tips for playing Tropico 5?

Yes, I do actually. I have quite a few times for playing Tropico 5 and I will break them down for you. There are basically three modes for this game which are Story, Sandbox, and Multiplayer. Each of these can be tackled with different methods, so depending on what you’re looking for help with scroll down and keep reading.

Story

One of the more difficult aspects of this game, I started story mode so many times before I found the right rhythm to actually complete it, and my main suggestion would be to save often. Finish a goal that was involved with the story? Save your game! This might seem like a simple suggestion, but it’s the best one that I can give. While you might finish one goal for the story you’re working on, you can completely screw up the next goal and have to start all over again, unless you have a backup save. Most of the time you’ll know what you did wrong and at least you can go back and start from your last save instead of starting story mode all over again.

Sandbox

This is by far the easiest part of the game. You’ll of course want to do the two trophies for the Sandbox version and those can both be done at the same time by playing on a tiny island that is going to have relentless disasters. Make sure to set your goals low and it should only take no more than 30 minutes to complete. Everything else that isn’t story related can also be completed in Sandbox mode because you can set yourself up to have unlimited money making those specific trophies that don’t relate to the story mode super easy. While this does take a little while, it shouldn’t take all that long.

Multiplayer

This is a complete pain in the ass because let’s face it, if you can find some random to play the multiplayer with it’s very likely that they will just leave if they aren’t winning. They’re there for the same reasons that you are and that’s to get the trophies not actually play. What you’ll want to do is to get a friend to do this with you or go on PSNprofiles.com and set up a game session. I can’t recommend this site enough because there are some really cool people on there that are willing to help people out. Unfortunately, after getting the platinum for this game I deleted it so I am no longer available to help, but there are a bunch of other people that are.

And there you have it, some tips to help you get by when it comes to playing Tropico 5. I hope they help and if you have a questions for a specific trophy, you can always ask in the comments section and I’ll make it one of my weekly trophy tips.

Have a video game question that you want answered? Go ahead and leave your question in the comment section below and I’ll make sure to add your name into the blog that features your question. If you prefer to be anonymous, then go ahead and type your question into the search box. I’ll be able to see it and maybe one day you’ll be able to see it on this blog.

Tropico 5 Review (PS4)

Believe it or not, I’ve been wanting to play this game since it came out. I just didn’t think it deserved a $59.99 price tag, so I waited patiently for the price to drop, which it never did, but then it was free for the PS+ a month back and I knew it was the perfect time to pick it up. So, was the game everything I was hoping it would be? Keep reading to find out.

I was super surprised that there is an actual story mode in Tropico 5 that revolves around creating your dynasty and ruling your little colonial settlement and building it into something bigger. While you do this you’ll be pushed along by Leon Kane as you move from the colonial era all the way to the modern era. Leon isn’t doing this to help you out though, he craves destruction and is actually using you to cause all of this mass destruction. It’ll be up to you to then go back in time and stop the events that will eventually start World War III. Throughout the main story you’ll be not only dealing with this one issue, but other issues around the island as well such as disasters, rebels, military coups, trying to please every faction on the island by adjusting your islands constitution, and trying to keep the popular vote and remain as El Presidente.

I was surprised that this game even had a story as I thought it was just a simple simulation, build your own city, type game. Which would have been fine, but the added story was definitely a bonus even though at times towards the end it became boring and tedious. I will say that this was not an easy game at all and although there is a sandbox mode that you can just go crazy in, the actual story mode is no cake walk. This was one of the most frustrating but also one of the most rewarding games that I’ve played in a while and the time I spent playing it was mostly enjoyable even though some of it was frustrating. The main thing though is that you want to save before you start each individual mission since if you lose the mission you have to start from square one all over again. While I did this multiple times, it is not fun and I would have saved a lot of time if I just saved before each new mission. Throughout the story mission of the game you’ll get to play on a total of four different islands, but in sandbox mode there are a ton of different islands to choose from and then an island that you can basically generate yourself based on your preferences. You can even design and customize your own “dynasty” as you start off with one member and then grow throughout the game from some pretty crazy scenarios. There are a ton of different things to do for this game and a ton of different little side missions while you play and I have to say that each playing experience is different. I just feel like the game was drawn out just a little too long making the last 6-7 missions feel like overkill.

The playability of this game was surprisingly simple once you get the hang of it. Everything that you need to know is in the tutorial so it’s a good idea to play through the whole tutorial and if you need to play through it more than once you can. Without the tutorial I would have been completely lost. The only thing I found frustrating, mostly because of my OCD, was the placement of the roads. Sometimes the roads wanted to curve when I wanted them to make perfect little rectangles and squares. I’m sure it’s not the games fault and is actually mine as I am a perfectionist. The game itself also ran smoothly, even though I did run into a couple of errors including some corrupt data at one point and a few saving errors having to do with the multiple saves and the changes in the dynasty. Other than that I didn’t have any complaints in this department and couldn’t find any other bugs or glitches, although the corruption of a save is a major glitch that really can’t be ignored which is why it’s good to have multiple saves.

The graphics for this game were simple, but still had a good quality to them. They weren’t ground breaking, blow you away with the art style graphics, but they were fitting for the game and basically did what they had to do. Even though most of the time you’ll be playing from an aerial view you can always zoom in on your ant sized people living on your island. There’s no major detail to them, but this game wasn’t meant to be played close up like that anyway. It’s meant to be played in an aerial view and when you play it like that, the graphics are nice.

There are a ton of trophies for this game including 51 for the main game and then another 20 for DLC. I haven’t played the DLC and really have no desire to, but I will say that the 50 trophies it takes to get the platinum for this game are not by any chance easy. Expect at least playing for 80+ hours in order to get all of the story trophies and the miscellaneous trophies that this game has to offer. A lot of the trophies also require a lot of grinding that can either happen in story mode or in the sandbox mode. When approaching this trophy list, I basically played through the story not worrying about the miscellaneous trophies. When it came time to start getting those trophies that I knew I couldn’t earn in the story mode, I set up a sandbox mode with unlimited money and just spend hours grinding for them. Then there are those miserable multiplayer trophies. I’m going to say this right now, unless you have someone to actually help you with these trophies do not expect to get them by playing with random people. Find people to play with either on your friends list like I did, thanks LMD for the help, or setup a gaming session using PSNProfiles.com.

Now for the multiplayer, it’s basically the same as the sandbox version of the game expect it’s competitive or even cooperative if you want. You can set it so that there are different rules for how you win or you can just play with someone and grow the island together. This is by far the hardest part of the game since the servers are just about dead and everyone you play with will leave if they aren’t the ones winning. Seriously people, stop being a bunch of sore losers! I could go on and on about how multiplayer is all about winning and losing and that if you can’t handle the loss then don’t play at all, but this isn’t the time for it. I’m just saying that if you’re going to play the multiplayer to get the platinum, then don’t do it with random people. If you’re playing with someone you know then the multiplayer is actually pretty fun.

Overall I give this game a 4 out of 5.

What’s Great:
+ Story mode that has an actual story to it that isn’t all that bad.
+ Sandbox mode that allows you to just go crazy and build to your heart’s desire.
+ Decent graphics that are fitting for the game.
+ Easy to play on the PS4 on a game that was clearly made to be a point and click type of game.

What’s Not So Great:
– After a while the story is a bit boring and tedious and it should have been cut by at least 6 missions.
– There can be some save errors having to do with the dynasty at times and there was at one point data corruption with one of my dynasties.

This game took me exactly one month and two weeks to complete and that was of basically constant playing and not really playing all that much else. I would say that this is a great game if you enjoyed games like SimCity and The Sims, but if you aren’t into the whole tedious building and simulation type games then it isn’t for you. I had a blast playing and even though I’m going to pass on the DLC, I still think it was a great game and I wouldn’t hesitate to get another Tropico game. If you got this game for free, and haven’t played it yet then what are you waiting for? If you’re looking to buy it, I would probably suggest getting the complete edition since it has all of the DLC with it.

This Week in Trophies 06-19-2016 – 06-25-2016

This was an interesting week in trophies to say the least. I didn’t get that many, which is usually the case lately, but I did manage to get one trophy that I’ve been working on for a very long time, keep reading and I’ll tell you just how long, and I got my newest platinum trophy. Like I said, an interesting week. Take a look at just how interesting this week was.

Mass Effect 2 – 100%

This was one of those games that was on my list of games that needed to be at 100%. If you remember, I started replaying the Mass Effect series a few months back and got a bunch of trophies that I was missing for the first game, but was only missing one for the second game. I am proud to say that this week I was able to get that last DLC trophy making my total completion time on this game exactly 5 years and one month. So, The Last Stand trophy will forever in my book go down as the 5 year trophy. Not something that I’m all that proud of, but at least it’s finally one more trophy checked off my list.

Tropico 5 – 72%

I finally finished this game this week, yes it’s not 100% because I have no plans on purchasing the DLC, and got a super Ultra Rare platinum trophy. Depending on where you look it has a 0.1% achievement rate on PSN and a 3.73% achievement rate on PSNProfiles.com. Either way it was no easy feat and I’m extremely happy to have finally gotten it. I’ll have my review for the game as a whole posted this week.

That was it for this week, but now you can see why it was so interesting to begin with. Now for the upcoming week, I plan on playing some Mass Effect 3 since I already finished two. I have a bunch of DLC trophies to get for this game but I’m looking forward to fully completing my newest Shepard’s story since this is the first time I’ve played the series though starting from the first game. Now that I’ve finished Tropico 5, it’ll also be time to move onto something else. While I’m not really sure what I’m going to play, I think I’ll stick to what’s on my system and not play anything new. I’ll let you know how things turned out next week.

This Week in Trophies 06-12-2016 – 06-18-2016

I’m not going to lie, this week I spent my free gaming time binge watching 13 episodes of Orange is the New Black. It’s one of my favorite shows and I wait for this weekend every year since the show came out because just like potato chips where you can never eat just one chip, you can never just watch one episode. Anyway, I did get a pathetic amount of trophies this week, so this is going to be a super small blog so that I can get back to some gaming.

Tropico 5 – 51%

I continued working my way through the story mode this week while playing a little sandbox to pick up some trophies that I was having some difficulty with during story mode. I’m so close to getting this platinum trophy it’s not even funny anymore and I’m in one of those modes where I have to have it and it’s basically my main concentration of a game.

And that was it for this week, I told you it was pathetic. Looking back though, it was totally worth it because this season of Orange is the New Black was just amazing and probably their best season to date. This coming from someone who actually enjoyed last season. Anyway, for the week ahead I plan on playing some more Mass Effect 2, which I’m thinking I need a couple of more full days and then I’m done with this game, as well as playing some more Tropico 5. I might dip my toes back into Table Top Racing: World Tour and I really want to start playing Dying Light again. I’ll let you know how my week goes next week.

This Week in Trophies 06-05-2016 – 06-11-2016

I would say that this week I was finally able to get back into the game as I grew accustomed to my new schedule, which will probably change now that I’ve grown accustomed to it, and was able to schedule out more convenient times for me to play. I had an overall productive week and was pretty proud of my gaming accomplishments. Take a look and see just how far I progressed trophy wise on a few of the games I’ve been playing.

Table Top Racing: World Tour – 44%

Two more trophies to add to this game this week as I try to get as much done as possible. I will say that I rage quit a few times with those damn drifting challenges because for some reason I just can’t get them and they frustrate me, but every once in a while I go back after taking a break and pick up right where I left off. Even though I’m two steps closer to the platinum, there is still a long way to go.

Gone Home – 47%

I’ve been wanting to play this game for a while, but I could never really justify the price of the game for something that seemed pretty damn short depending on how you played. Anyway, I played through the game once and was surprisingly pleased with the overall story. What I’m not pleased about is that the Homerunner trophy is glitched. I’ve completed this game in under a minute multiple times, I know because I had someone time me, and this trophy still has not popped. I’ll go back and collect the rest of the trophies that I need for this game before seeing if this glitch can somehow be fixed by uninstalling and reinstalling.

Minecraft: Story Mode – 76%

I had no intention of getting this DLC and I tried really hard to pass on it, but I’m a sucker for endings and I have to see how this game ends. I started and finished the entire 6th episode this week, and I’ll have my full review posted within the next couple of weeks.

Tropico 5 – 43%

I was finally able to get back into this game this week and it’s my plan to finish up with the main campaign and get all of those trophies before moving onto the multiplayer for the final trophies. I’m really really close to getting the platinum for this game and I’m looking forward to it since it’s probably one of the more challenging games that I’ve played in a while.

That’s it for this week. I would say that it was a pretty nice week when it came to trophies as I was able to get a bunch of different trophies for a bunch of different games that have been sitting on my system while also getting to play a new game as well. For next week, I’ll continue to work on Mass Effect 2, as I’m almost done with the game thanks to my full day of playing, continue to play Tropico 5, Table Top Racing: World Tour, and Gone Home. I’ll also try to get a couple of other games in that I’ve been itching to get back to like Dying Light and something else that I’m not sure about yet. I’ll let you know how things worked out next week.

Weekly Trophy Tip – Tropico 5 – Claustrophilia

This week’s trophy tip comes courtesy of Tropico 5. The thing with this game is that while the campaign is super difficult, the trophies that don’t involve playing the campaign don’t have to be that difficult. This is one of those trophies that can easily be gained and doesn’t take a lot of time to do so.

Tropico 5 – Claustrophilia
Won a Sandbox game on a Tiny island – Bronze
TIP: When starting Tropico 5, in order to get this trophy you want to click on New Game and then click on Sandbox. Once there you can use an already existing Dynasty or create a new one, the choice is yours. Once you have your Dynasty chosen you’re going to want to adjust the settings Map settings. Here is where you’re going to choose that you want to play on a tiny island. What you’re going to do is go to Generated Map and click on it. From there you’ll choose the island size. Choose tiny, but before starting adjust a few more settings so that you’ll be able to get this trophy quickly. Change you’re starting money to Unlimited and change the economic difficulty and political difficulty to very low. Then change your victory by points and set it to 3.

BONUS TIP: It is my strong suggestion that since there are two trophies for playing on Sandbox mode that you also get the To Live in Interesting Times trophy as well. While you’re setting up your gaming for playing on a tiny island, go ahead and change the disaster settings to relentless. Once you do this you’re ready to play the game. One a tiny island with the victory set to a low point the chance of getting a disaster before you hit the 3 points is extremely low and you just got two trophies instead of one.

Have anything additional to add to my tip? Let me know in the comments section below and I’ll add it in and give you credit. Need help with a specific trophy? I’m always looking for my next weeks tip so throw out some suggestions in the comments section. If I have the trophy I’ll post a tip on how to get it.

This Week in Trophies 05-15-2016 – 05-21-2016

I would have to say that this week was a pretty standard week when it came to trophies. It wasn’t my best week ever and it wasn’t my worst week either. Now next week, next week might possibly be the worst week ever, but we’ll talk about that next week. Anyway, I thought that I managed to get a decent amount of trophies this week and here they are.

Tropico 5 – 33%

I continued playing this game this week whenever I got the chance to do so and I’m still having a pretty great time playing. I got through a little more of the actual campaign mode but realized that most of the trophies can actually be easily obtained through the sandbox mode. Either way the game is still fun and I’m getting a lot out of it.

The Four Kings Casino and Slots – 47%

The only reason why I even played this game this week was because I needed something to play while Far Harbor was downloading. The upside of playing was that I was able to get some trophies for this game making me get just a little closer to getting all of the trophies for this game.

Fallout 4 – 76%

I made my way back into the world of Fallout 4 this week to play the new DLC Far Harbor. I have to say that so far, I’m enjoying the DLC. There’s a hell of a lot more to do then the other two DLC’s that have been released and there’s a lot of exploring to be done on this new island that you’re brought to. There’s a lot of history there and there’s actually a lot of lore which was impressive. I’m really enjoying the DLC and playing any chance that I get.

Table Top Racing: World Tour – 35%

I played this game this week mostly when I wanted to play a game but had a limited amount of time. After a while this game has been getting a little boring, but I’m sure that with some diligence that I’ll be able to eventually get the platinum trophy for this game.

That was it for this week, like I said a decent week for trophies. Now for the upcoming week, my schedule is so damn packed that I’m not even sure I’ll be able to game. I will try to get some more Mass Effect 2 in because it seems like when I last played, all I did was mine planets and got one story mission done. Other than that, I have no idea since I will be heading off to MegaCon this week. MegaCon is something that I really look forward to each year and while it does mean some time away from gaming it also means that I get to do some nerdy things for a weekend. If I happen to get any trophies this upcoming week, I’ll let you know about it. If not look for my MegaCon blog which will be posted after the event.

This Week in Trophies – 05-08-2016- 05-14-2016

With Uncharted 4 coming out this week, I didn’t really think I would be playing much else, but I actually had some extra time on my hands this week and was able to play a lot more than I expected. I thought this week was pretty exciting as I played through the whole Uncharted 4 game and even got a platinum trophy, not in Uncharted, but in another game. Keep reading to see how my week in gaming went.

Tropico 5 – 17%

I’m working my way slowly through this game. I did have a corrupt save file which basically ruined everything and forced me to start again, but to tell you the truth I wasn’t really all that mad about it. Which is weird because a game corrupting a save file is not a good thing. Anyway, I powered through and continued playing this week.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – 30%

So I got this game on Tuesday and I finished it on Friday. This was probably the longest Uncharted game and I was a little indifferent about the whole experience. Uncharted is one of my favorite Playstation franchises and I’m not sure if this was the proper way for the game to go out. There were a few things I didn’t like and very few things that I actually liked. Playing this game did make me think about a new blog though. I was thinking of doing a Spoiler Chat type of blog where I talk about some spoilers from some games since I really don’t like getting into spoilers in my reviews. It’ll be a type of blog where I comment on some spoilery things and you can also feel free to comment on some spoilery things. I think it could be fun, but we’ll see.

Arcade Game Series: Dig Dug – 100%

That last trophy was such a pain in the ass to get, but I finally did it and I can now be done with this game. I’ll have my full review of the game up in a few weeks.

Table Top Racing: World Tour – 21%

I turned on this game for a little bit this week so that I didn’t get too rusty at playing and was able to get more than a couple of trophies while doing so. I’m still really enjoying the game when I play which is unusual for me because I generally don’t like the whole racing genre of games.

And that was it for this week. It was pretty exciting and while I knew I would be spending most of my time playing Uncharted 4, the platinum trophy was a very nice surprise. As for the upcoming week, things should be pretty calm to where I’ll get a couple of full days in gaming. At least I hope so. That could all change like it usually does, but my plan for the week is to play some Mass Effect 2 on Sunday, continue with Tropico 5 and Table Top Racing: World Tour, play Fallout 4’s new DLC Far Harbor sometime this week, and other than that I’m really not sure. I’m still missing a bunch of trophies for Uncharted 4, but I don’t know if I’m ready to go back and get them just yet. I’ll let you know how my week went next week.

This Week in Trophies 05-01-2016 – 05-07-2016

This was one of those weeks where I felt really scatter brained and that meant that I not only started one new game, I started three new games. Which now that I have a clear head I realized was really stupid because Uncharted 4 comes out this upcoming Tuesday and there’s nothing that I want to play more than that. Anyway, I’ll most likely be paying for my mistakes as I end this month not accomplishing anything, but here’s a look at the trophies I was able to get this week.

Mass Effect – 72%

I finished my first replay through this game early last week and was really happy with the outcome. For all the faults that I found with the original game, I have to say that the second time around I enjoyed it a lot better than I did the first. As soon as I can I’ll be importing my recent Shepard into Mass Effect 2 in order to hopefully get the last DLC trophy that I need for the 100% on that game.

Battleborn – 12%

I got this game a whole day early and was able to find out really early that I’m not liking this game at all. It’s a real struggle for me to play it because there are so many things that I think are wrong with it. The first thing is basically that there’s an episode based story which is just stupid. There is no constant playthrough, no actual missions or side mission and you can’t just open your party for random people to join, you have to go into a matchmaking system and then hopefully everyone will agree on which episode to play. If not you’re pretty much screwed and you’ll end up jumping around making the story not even make sense or make you feel like you shouldn’t even be invested in the story to begin with. Instead of this game, I really wished that Gearbox would have worked on Borderlands 3.

Table Top Racing: World Tour – 12%

I got this game free this week thanks to PS+ and I decided to give it a try. I figured what the hell. It looked interesting enough, even though I’m totally not into racing games, and it was different. I gave Rocket League a chance so I wanted to do the same with this. I have to say that I actually enjoyed this game a hell of a lot more than Battleborn and am playing almost every chance I can get. I look forward to one day hopefully getting the platinum trophy for this game.

Tropico 5 – 14%

Who ever said that PS+ doesn’t give you anything good? I’ve been waiting for this game to go on sale since it came out and could never find it at a decent price. Do you know what price is really great? Free. I jumped at the chance to download this game this week and start playing as soon as I possibly could. I did not regret doing that one bit. I find myself playing for hours upon hours when I didn’t intend to in the first place. The campaign is challenging and frustrating, but I’m really enjoying it.

That was it for this week. It was nice that I had a little more time to game but that all changes again this week. This week is busy busy for me which means that I won’t get all that much time to game and I absolutely hate when that happens on a week where a new game comes out that I’ve been waiting for. Anyway, for this week I doubt I’ll even get a chance to start Mass Effect 2, so I’ll probably skip it, I’m definitely going to start Uncharted 4 sometime this week, I’ll probably play Table Top Racing: World Tour and Tropico 5 when I get a chance, and I might try to go back and play some Battleborn if I’m absolutely bored out of my mind. I’ll let you know how things played out for me next week.