That's by no means a bad thing; despite its similarity to its forebears, it's still a welcome escape from other city-building franchises, and is a deep enough experience to keep players engaged for quite some time. One can't help but feel like it's shackled by its presumably-slim budget, though, as its lack of radical improvements and its mediocre overall production value will make it a hard sell for people who were indifferent to previous Tropico games.
If you'd told me five years ago that a game of this scope, and this level of polish, would come out of a twelve-person indie studio, I'd have thought you were nuts…but here we are. Transistor is easily one of the best things I've played so far this year, and in a field of games made by hundred-person teams and with hundred-million-dollar budgets, that's an extraordinary feat.