Speaking of Tropico, I played a lot of Surviving Mars last week and this (same developer). I have to say, I see a flawed gem.
Pros:
- I get to be Mark Watney's mission project manager!
- Resource gathering and balance is addictive
- The thematic clothing of the game is very good. Some of the plaintive synth music playing as I tilt the camera to ground level looks just like a Chris Foss painting
- Environmental challenges are really very appropriate (dust storms, static storms, dust-devils, etc)
- The tech tree is unique in that there are five major subjects but you can research in any order you wish
- The balance between robotic support systems, human labor, and Earth support missions is very good and feels real
Con:
- I play on the couch with my Steam controller. The controller interface is currently usable, but has bugs including tooltips not showing up for the right building, having to tab over to another construction page to enable the selection, etc. It gets irritating. I may go back to the mouse interface and use a fan controller profile.
- Pathfinding is passable, but rovers and trucks regularly do not use tunnels which is stupid. If I turn my programmer brain on, I can think of multiple search methods to prioritize the efficiency of tunnels. No excuse for this.
- Resource sharing between pads (you lay down outside storage pads) is a hot mess. It's not bad through the mid-game but late-game resource management gets teeth gnashingly frustrating when you have to get electronics and metals 2/3 of the way across the map and the flying shuttle-craft just don't seem to "get it".
- Route management to help with resource management is pretty much absent. I can set up a temporary route to haul resources from location 1 to location 2 until location 1 runs out (then the vehicle just sits there). This is brain-dead and requires all the wrong kind of micromanagement.
- Domes exist as entirely separate entities. Until you have flying shuttles, colonists will not move between domes beyond a set distance. This makes specialization very very difficult. Which is silly because resources across the map are unevenly distributed. If you have to replicate 3/4 of services for every dome but not make resources available everywhere, then you'd better have good resource management tools (Narrator: They don't have good resource management tools).
On the whole I waver between really liking the game and really wanting to like the game. The flaws only really start to emerge mid-to-late game, unfortunately. So you're left with a very unsatisfying abusive relationship. Loving and wooing at first, but then acting like a senseless simpleton later.