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difficult and complex, but great

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

As the title indicates, this game is complex and can be difficult. It is also, if those traits are interesting to you, incredibly addicting. This could be a bad thing :-)

I love Sid Meier's games: the Civilization series, Alpha Centauri, etc. Civ 2 and AC are my favorites due to the detail and control available. I mention these due to the traits of those games being similar to this one. The context, however, is starkly different. A little more background: I just bought this game a few days ago after a hankering for Avalon Hill's Blackbeard, which is a great board game. I went online to do some "research" on Pirate games, and read a few reviews of Port Royale, its sequel, and Pirates! by the aforemention Meier. What I read led me to Port Royale, and I found a copy and bought it. I've played games for years, and enjoy them, everything from RTS to FPS, and running the gamut from graphically boring to exquisite (Neverwinter Nights, for example).

To the game: The aspects that appeal most to me in any game are: a sense of adventure, open-ended potential, and a vibrant game world with a decent AI. I'd say that Port Royale has all of these in abundance. There are many paths to success... one can choose to be a lawless pirate and attack ships and sack towns, one can choose to create a booming trade business via shipping, one can build businesses in a number of towns to facilitate that, one can choose to build reputation with a nation and rise to the level of a governor, or one can choose to do all or a combination of any of these things. Replay value, in my opinion, is very high.

The sense of adventure is created partly by the large environment, and discovering new towns. It is helped if you ignore the map that comes with the game, which actually depicts every town's location, which can come in handy when you decide to take on missions at the behest of the various Governors. The rapidly shifting economy is also a repeated source of randomness and adventure, as commodities shift in value drastically through supply and demand.

The open-ended nature of the game is driven by the aforementioned various paths one can take, and the fact that you can choose to ignore missions until such a time as it becomes convenient. Missions are time-sensitive and difficult in many cases. Ships take damage in sea battles, and need be repaired and armed against future attacks, even if you are taking the path of the merchant, so it may be prudent to wait before taking on a mission.

The complexity comes mostly in learning the trade system and managing businesses. I thought I'd be bored with the trade aspect and choose to be a pirate or a buccaneer, but I actually find the trading system to be a blast. My first few runs saw my ships destroyed, and my businesses going into the red.

Life on the seas is managed by the control of one or more convoys, which are always represented graphically by one ship. You can grow your convoy in two ways (that I've discovered): one: by capturing ships on the seas, or two: by purchasing ships and adding them to your convoy. You can operate multiple convoys if you so choose, simply by buying or removing a captured ship from your existing convoy, and then hiring a captain. Controlling multiple convoys adds another level of complexity, but can be a lot of fun, and is a great way to build one's fortune.

The game offers automated trade controls as well... one involves setting buy and sell orders at businesses (storage facilites) in towns that can take advantage of the dynamic economy, and another involves setting up trade routes, which I have yet to do.

I recommend that anyone who finds the traits I mentioned compelling tries this game. If hack and slash and immediate gratification is more your speed (and I like that, too), stay away. You will be frustrated and annoyed.

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