|
Here there be pirates, ye argh...
By Martin
Kingsley
Of all the things I expected
from Ascaron, a 16th century nautical trading game wasn't very high
on the list. In fact, truth be told, it wasn't on the list at all.
Considering their last effort was Sacred,
it's a definite sea change (cough cough). As a pirate, merchant
or privateer (and sometimes all three), Port Royale 2 challenges
you to turn a profit and make a success of yourself in the pirate-infested
Caribbean. Ye argh!!
 |
Avast ye, land ahead,
get down
and dance for ye lives, lads...
|
One of the first things to be noticed on slipping the
CD into the drive, you are immediately confronted by the nigh-vertical
learning curve that is inherent in Port Royale 2 (PR2), and this
will stay with you whether you decide to toy with the Free Play
mode or go for one of the handful of scenarios.
Admittedly, most serious strategy/trade games take a
bit of time to understand, but in this case, if it were not for
the tutorials one could quite easily find themselves entirely at
sea (ahem).
Indeed, even then, the only real way to get to grips
with the complex trading system is to, really, make it up as you
go along, until it hits you and you suddenly realise what it is
you've been doing wrong all those years.
Or something.
You choose a nation to represent, from Spain, France,
Holland or England, and then an era (from 1570 to 1660) before setting
sail to make your fortune. This both serves as an indicator as to
where you will be based and the kind of challenges that await you.
For instance, the Spanish hold more colonies in 1570 as opposed
to 1660, and this knowledge you can use to your advantage when plotting
the course of your entrepreneurial empire.
Starting off in Free Play grants you a ship, a warehouse
for stocking goods, and a truly puny amount of cold hard cash in
the year 1600. From there, you must invest in local businesses and
both the import and export of goods, hopefully making a sizeable
profit at the same time.
The more assets you have, the higher your 'rank', and
the higher your 'rank', the more profitable the missions you can
take on from the local Governors, the more profitable missions you
have access to, the richer you become and so it goes. Such is the
freedom of choice presented to you, however, that you don't have
to even do that!
Instead, you can just hang around your hometown and
store goods in your warehouse, buying and selling as other traders
do the dirty work for you. Indeed, when you make enough dough you
can even start considering buying out a few businesses and create
a monopoly.
Still, that's kinda boring, and the real money is to
be made on the high seas of adventure, so it's in your best interests
to get out there and see the world. Thankfully, the basic business
of Caribbean economics is a breeze. If a town has a need for rum
and cannot produce said product on its own, you set up base in a
town that actively distils rum and cart it on over.
Buy low, sell high, is the name of the game, but what
you'll quickly realise is that you aren't the only one putting that
particular formula into practice.
Other traders are quite happy to get to a bargain before
you and make that haul of Persian dates utterly worthless, so trading
is an inherently risky business and one that requires as much luck
as it does entrepreneurial skill.
When not buying or selling, there's always piracy and
privateering, because, as we know, nations just can't seem to get
along with any kind of consistency and, when talks break down, as
they inevitably do, it's time to load up on muskets and head for
the nearest opposing port.
Why? Because the times are right for a 'lootin' and
a 'pillagin', and capturing an enemy port means you get lots of
free goodies, as well as more potential buyers for your massively
overpriced goods, that's why!
Which brings me to the combat aspect of Port Royale
2. To attack either a convoy or a port, you need guns, a big crew,
big cannons and some big balls. Err, cannon balls, obviously. You
also happen to need a ship that isn't going to crumple up and die
on getting within two hundred nautical miles of a musket, so I'm
afraid that balsa-wood raft just won't do.
On initiating combat, or having combat initiated upon
you, the game becomes an aquatic stadium, and you must successfully
line up your cannons with the opponent's big wooden thing… ship,
that's right.
As the different types of ship have, naturally, different
attributes, who wins tends to come down, more often than not, to
who has the bigger ship, as opposed to who has more elite skill.
Don't expect epic Master and Commander-type battles, however,
as, like many strategy games, good graphics are more the exception
than the rule here.
From a distance, I must admit, buildings and civilians
look good, but up close they disassociate into a quagmire of blocky
sprites, being 2D, whilst the ships, despite being 3D, suffer just
as much, with simple texturing and nigh-amateur modeling ruining
any kind of potential aesthetic appeal. Still, it's serviceable,
but I'm certain a tad more work could have, not to mention should
have, gone into the visuals.
Port Royale 2 is not a game for the masses. It's in-depth,
difficult and occasionally hair-pullingly frustrating. Regardless,
it features pirates, rum and some of the heaviest economical micromanagement
to be found outside of a Republican budget and that has to be a
good thing. You'll love it, or you'll hate it.
I love it.
Game: Port Royale 2
Players: 1
Online: No
Developer: Ascaron
Distributor: Red Ant
Enterprises
Rating: 80%
(Ratings
Key/Explanation)
Port Royale 2 is on the shelves now.
|
