I have to say the game has some of the most detailed environments I’ve ever seen and it also seems there’s been a ton of work in creating a living, breathing society and world.
According to the Tropico 3 fansite there’s already been a patch to fix issues, also note the curved roads and well done rocky terrain for the islands, what makes this look favorable for me to purchase (or get as a birthday present later this month) is the sandbox mode where you can create a custom island and start a nation on it.
When comparing this to another modern city building game from Monte Cristo, I have to say that while their game is larger scale, your city looks much better close up and has better handling with ground textures when you put a rectangular building by a curved road. You can also choose to be a ruthless dictator or hold free elections.
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The bottom line is this could be the best building game in years, right up there with The Settlers 6 (I may have to look at no. 7 when it comes out because I never played that series)