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A finely polished trading/adventure game in the Carribean

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 35 / 35
Date: June 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Set in the 1500-1700s, Port Royale lets you control fleets of ships that trade in large variety of goods at 60 ports, and fight with pirates all over the Carribean. Or become a pirate, and prey on the other nations. Or be a mix of both.
Beautiful graphics, extremely stable and balanced gameplay, and great sound to top it all off.
If you ever played Pirates!, Cutthroats, or Seadogs, and wished they had just a little more something, then Port Royale is the game for you.
The game was released in Europe in 2002, and is being released in the US soon.
Open ended gaming doesn't begin to describe this game. If you want to follow the storyline, fine. If you don't, fine. If you want to follow the storyline only when you want to, fine. You want to go to war with a country or two, fine. You want to butter up a country or two, hoping for gifts, fine.
Sail ships, trade in goods, marry a governor's daughter (who gets kidnapped often-it's great), beautiful graphics, great economic model...all this and you get to blow pirates out of the water too!

A bit of caution...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: July 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Though I really love this game, I must say that this is not a game for everybody. Especially if you hate "spreadsheet-like" games. Sid Meier's Pirates! had a very simple trading system. In Port Royale, it is far more complex.

I think Port Royale's peer is not Pirates or Seadogs. Port Royale should be compared with (very old) games like Merchant Prince or High Seas Trader or Koei's Uncharted Waters series.

A little Tropico 2, a little Civ, a little Age of Sail

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 40 / 41
Date: July 12, 2003
Author: Amazon User

A little Tropico 2, a little Civ, a little Age of Sail and an excellent Caribbean setting make Port Royale overall a very engaging game in the Pirate genre. There are basically 2 tacks you can choose at the beginning of the game, though your choice won't keep you from being involved in both throughout the game.

The first choice is as a trader and you get bonuses to help your path. As you discover new cities on the various islands around the Caribbean you will see that each has its own production strengths and weaknesses. You buy where a good is being produced and sell where its needed. There are also goods that are only delivered from the host countries - so these will need to be distributed from their point of delivery. As you become accustomed to the prices in your locality, you can set up complex trade routes and set a convoy of ships to automatic. This frees up your time to take on lucrative and influence gaining missions from governors and adventurers in the local tavern. Of course your trade convoys are not just free to sail the open seas, you must fear the pirates.

Which brings me to the second path you may chose. That of the privateer. This will give you battle bonuses. Engage pirates who are preying on your country's convoys to increase your influence. Buy a letter of Marque and help your country's war effort by pillaging other countries convoys. The ship to ship battles - though not as complex as Age of Sail - are very exciting RTS. You will want to disarm your trade convoys and set them on auto-fight to cause them to flee in most cases, but your military convoys should be armed to the max and ready for battle. There are some interface tweaks here - despite setting the battle on manual, you cannot always fire when you want to and often your ships will turn course despite your directives. Still, with a bit of strategy and the right wind position, a smaller human fleet can take on larger AI convoys with success and allow you to capture ships well beyond your means. You will soon find that you have more ships than you know what to do with! Well set up a trade convoy to support your large military convoys.

When I first sat down with this game I found a steep learning curve and a not so complete manual. I began as a trader and quickly got bored with the more tedious trading activity. My advice to anyone trying Port Royale for the first time - don't get bogged down in one activity - there is a lot going on in this game. Visit the inns and take missions, visit the governors help your nation - and very importantly - build an island industry. My first few games could not support the number of ships I had in sail. By building up an island industry, you will still be making money when you lose a ship to piracy.

One fascinating aspect to this game is the storyline. As you advance in skill, you will be given more and more advanced missions and responsibility from your host nation(s). Eventually, to win the game, you must win governorship of an island.

This game also has a multiplayer aspect - which I haven't yet tried. Will conquer the AI first to get my sealegs on then see where we go from there. Despite some minor interface issues (like the misrepresentative word 'Cancel' to close every dialog - doesn't cancel, saves), I have had few technical issues with this game. I'm currently playing an English buccaneer - I have massive industries in Port Charles and Grand Bahama and a dutch wife. For more details and a great Port Royale community, check the Ascaron forums.

See you on the high seas, matey!

Partician II in the caribbean

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: July 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Well designed game and fun to play, but built on the same platform as Patrician II. Improvements to the trade screen makes micro-managing trade convoys easier and graphics are better. If you've played Patrician, it's going to look VERY similar.

Reminds me a lot of Pirates! (which is a good thing)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 31 / 31
Date: July 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

A very fun and addicting game, Port Royale has many good points and only a few drawbacks. It does resemble a much updated and improved Pirates! Gold. First and foremost what I like about the game is that it is non-linear, which means you can do whatever you want to. You can be a pirate, a bucaneer, a merchant, or a little of all three. You can accept missions from Governors, you can raid towns, or you can trade. (This is opposed to the 3d shooter games where you need to find some yellow key I can never find to open some door. Warcraft-like games always involve get as much resources as possible and have a big attacký.little actual strategy) Another good thing is that if you might loose a battle, you can pick up and continue. There isnýt constant reloading.

The sea battles are rather fun. They resemble a typical real time strategy game. The beauty is that there is a whole world outside it. Trading is fairly simple and straightforward. It solely involves buying commodities low in one town where they are made and selling them is a town where the are in demand. You can also build business which produce goods, which you can sell. Crews, supplies, and the business cost money to operate.

The only percieved bad side is the steep learning curve, so the game may not be for an impatient 12 year old. It takes a few hours to get the hang of the game, but it is necessary for a complex game and its worth it. (Consider it may take 3 hours to learn, but if you play it for weeks, itýs not a big deal.) The complexity is what makes it different and better than the Warcraft-like game, though hence, some learning is required. The automatic trading routes are decently tough to learn and require that you periodically check up on your trading routes. They also require some time to set up because you have to remember what is a good price to buy and sell and which towns have what and which towns require what. It is best to do a ýdry runý which you manually sail the ship from port to port in your route and then decided what to buy and sell where. However, it is a good system. Although complex and somewhat time consuming, I donýt have any idea to improve it, without ýdumbing the game down.ý I couldnýt say ýI would do this instead.ý One good thing is you can set your routes to fight automatically. Usually you are strictly fleeing, so it removes what would be a constant harrassment.

The other small negative is that the book could give a little more help. Itýs not bad, but it could be a little better. They make a couple minor mistakes in the translation from German. A ýlinerý is supposedly the best ship you can get. They really mean a ýship of the lineý. Overall, I had to give the game high marks, because itýs one of the most fun and most addicting games in recent memories.

Port Royale is a great game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: July 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you love sailing the high seas, fighting pirates, finding treasure, and adventuring (at your own pace), then you'll love this game.

If you like sim audit youýll love Port Royal

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 6
Date: August 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I was hoping to do a little pirating, but instead found myself muddled in finances. When you can't get through the tutorial without confusion its not good.

Avoid this game!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 10
Date: August 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I played the demo of this game and loved it. I purchased the retail version, it is very buggy and usually doesn't work. I've tried getting help from Ascaron but they don't respond to my e-mails. Check out the forums at Ascaron.com. There are many others that are having the same problems and getting no help from tech support.

good game if you are into sailing the seas

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: October 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

its like an updated version of pirates
i did have a lil trouble getting into the game do to my graphics card, but now its up and running great. online support is not worth a hoot, so if you are having any trouble you have to do the research on how to fix the problem yourself.
but the game itself is well worth the purchase.
its definately a time consuming game, and takes a while to build up your money. but once you have the money then the rest is all down hill. merchants, pirates, and high seas treasure hunting.

good concept

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: November 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Conceptually good game, but in practice you spend more time setting up industries to support your sailing adventures. Ascaron states you can choose path of Bucaneer or Trader, but the adventures do not pay enough to subsist solely on the high seas. Sea battles are entertaining, but you cannot control choice of ammunition or direction of your vessel at times. The most challenging problem is a reputation; it takes very little to damage it and a whole lot to boost it. The return in terms of price for goods and ships is almost not even worth caring. The price fluctuations are excellent and prevent cash cow trading.

Concept: 4/5 (whats not to like about pirates)
Graphics: 3/5 (no 3D battle scenes)
Entertainment: 3/5 (the map and cities are ALWAYS the same)
Speed: 1/5 slow to become interesting
Overall: 3/5

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