Strategy games have a lot
of various designs these days, from taking over and expanding Roman empires to
hitting the dunes of a faraway planet and annihilating aliens creatures, and
it’s no surprise that with the success of movies like Pirates of the Caribbean
more titles emphasizing seafaring adventures or piracy on the high seas are
beginning to pop up on store shelves. The newest edition to this line of
direction is Port Royale 2 by Ascaron Entertainment, and I can say as someone
who really hasn’t had a lot of desire to play these kinds of games before … it
worked out pretty good for me in the end.
Port Royale 2 starts off
and gives you the option to go through a group of scenarios to start that are
designed to teach you all of the ins and outs of the game. Afterwards, or if you
decide not to do them … your call … you then can play a free design mode that
pretty much allows you to do and be whatever you desire to do or be. In the
game, you can go from port to port on your explorations buying products like
grain or rum at low prices and trying to sell high in ports that are
experiencing shortage to amass wealth and move your rank up, buy land and
warehouses and become a wealthy merchant, or you can also earn cash by deciding
to turn to a life of piracy (or pirate nabbing) to grab ships, treasure, or
eventually even towns either by sea or embarking onto land to try and take over
on foot.
Fortunately, everything
in the game was covered rather well in a pretty simple point and click format,
since having a lot of different options like putting together convoys, trading,
taking on missions, and / or boarding ships and fighting with cutlasses can seem
a little overwhelming. In the game, you will primarily have two different
viewpoints, one being of a town view while docked or one at sea while navigating
to various destinations. While at port, the screen gives you an animated and
detailed view of the city, including all buildings and even people moving about
on their day to day activities. Each building represented can be accessed and
interacted with, so you can head to the market to buy items, head over to the
Governor to see if he has any missions for you to take on, or even head to the
local hangout to play a gambling game and try to win a little cash if you wish.
You can also use the ports to recruit crew, buy goods, or even buy new ships to
add into your nifty little sea group which also helps carry more goods or give
you the edge when trying to take over a town or win a battle at sea.
The overhead sea map that
you will also encounter basically is a zoom out of the world and will show you
other vessels sailing in the water (including pirates in the area) as they pass
into your vicinity, and it will also show you the different ports and will give
information on products that they are in need of or are in short supply of at
the time to help you determine where you might be better off turning a buck by
selling your cargo. This is also where you can set up ship to ship attacks if
you are running a government mission or if you have decided to turn to a life or
piracy, and here’s where things can get a little interesting for you folks who
are a bit more action minded.
When two ships or a town
get into a fighting situation, the screen will change to a view of the water and
will give you an opportunity to select which ship in your group you wish to
select. Once you have done that, the battle commences. The ship is steered by
using the right mouse button, and things have to be taken into consideration
like positioning the side of your ship in a proper angle to hit the opponent,
and you also have selection of different types of cannon ammo to use. Want to
take out the hull? Use straight cannonballs. Want to shred the sails and render
them unable to move? Use grapeshot. It gives you a decent opportunity to try a
little strategy out, and also to help get a leg up in a fight with an opponent
who may be a little stronger than you. If two ships meet and are boarded, a
fight can also ensure between the captains which has you facing an opponent
outlined by a tic tac toe looking grid, and you then select which area you would
like to strike in based on timing. This also is good for helping to keep your
crew alive, since when the captains fight it out, crew does not battle and this
can be very important if you are low on men or haven’t fully recovered from a
previous engagement.
Now, the above info on
ship to ship combat may sound pretty neat, but there are a couple of flaws with
it that tend to really stick out and can lead to some irritation (I know it did
for me a few times). See, no mater how many ships are in your group, you can
only use one at the time … so when going up against a fleet bigger than you it
can quickly turn into an overpowering causing you a lost ship. Would anyone in
their right mind send a sloop up against three other sloops and a couple of
galleons? Well, I don’t speak for anyone but myself … but I’d guess the answer
would be “no”. Also, the captain battle is all based around timing and
clicking, and once you get the hang of it, it really won’t pose much of a
challenge to anyone after the first couple of times, thus making a potentially
exciting fight one that just becomes hum drum after a couple of tries.
One really neat idea that
was placed into the game (with some less than stellar results unfortunately) was
the ability to take towns, or attempt to do so, by getting out on foot rather
than fighting strictly by ship versus city cannon defenses. When you opt to do
this, the screen goes to a more RTS style of viewpoint, and you move your men
around by clicking to tell them where you want them to move or engage in combat
with. The problem here though is that everyone moves as a unit versus being able
to really set them up in separate groups to flank or whatnot, so if you happen
to be outnumbered you will pretty much be assured to lose your crew. Cool idea,
but a little better thought into this area would have made it a lot better.
Another issue that really
got frustrating to me personally was the fact that the tutorial information
seemed really quirky and turned out to be more of a hindrance than a positive
thing. The tutorials are laid out so that you will get a text message telling
you what to do, and then it is supposed to change to the next statement after
you have completed it … but this wasn’t the case a lot of the time. For example,
one scenario told me to open the dock information. OK, done. Next, I had to buy
cannons and ammo. Done. Next, I was supposed to recruit as many sailors as I
could … which I did … but then the messages stopped. Now I’m stuck trying to
figure out what to do next, so I backed up into the world map, then back to the
port, then re-opened the dock window, then back to the world map, then back to
the port, and then finally the message changed to tell me to go to the
Governor’s mansion. This was only one example of this happening, and it did pop
up more than I would have liked to. I even tried re-booting and re-installing,
but still to no avail.
Graphically, the overall
look to the game was done pretty well, but was overall very simplistic. The
colors are vivid and look nice, and while towns are static with animated
characters moving around them, a zoom in with the mouse wheel caused them to get
somewhat blurred and pixelled which really caused me to stay at more of a
non-zoom level. The ship battles looked pretty good though, and some little
extra effects like sea creatures swimming by or some of the best water
reflections that I’ve seen in a while, while in port were added in for effect.
The sounds to PR2 were
also done decent, with some good music in the background to kind of set the tone
for the game. The environmental sounds while at port also did a good job of what
they needed to do, and at times you can hear your crew yelling and whatnot while
locked down in a battle at sea.
Overall, I have to say
that Port Royale 2 was a fun game despite some issues, and there is definitely
something to be said for being that open ended that you can pretty much do
whatever you want and take whatever actions you feel necessary to do to
ultimately write your own ending. Gamers who enjoy a little more action or fast
paced gameplay may find this to be too slow for their tastes, but gamers who
like to try their hand at running a business, trading, or being a little more
slow and steady who also enjoy stories and games about life on the high seas
should get a kick out of it if they can look past the problems mentioned. It’s
definitely a game that can be played and replayed over again since the story
will never really come out the same at the end, provided that you can look past
a couple of deficiencies.
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Gameplay: 7.5
On a bright note,
the game is set up in a simple point and click format to easily navigate and do
many different things. Unfortunately, you may have to figure some of these out
on your own if you have the same problem with the tutorials that I had. Also,
the ship to ship combat was neat if going one on one, but attacking a group is a
bad idea since you can only control one ship at the time and many times you may
find yourself outnumbered.
Graphics: 7.4
Everything in the
game is brightly colored and it contains some animations against static
landscapes, but zooming can also cause blurriness and pixellation which makes it
better to stay at a distance. There were some neat effects added in though, like
birds flying and some cool water reflections.
Sound: 7.5
The music turned
out well, and I personally thought that it added to the game. The sound effects
were decent overall, and ship firing will boom out cannon sounds or you may hear
some shouting of crews engage in battle.
Difficulty: Hard
It definitely has
a learning curve, and there will probably be mistakes made by the new player
when starting due to overbuying and taking losses in the pocketbook while
trading, or going up against a fleet and getting smacked due to insufficient
weaponry to mount a decent offensive.
Concept: 7.5
There were some
good ideas implemented into the series here in the second installment, but there
was definitely some room for improvement in areas of combat that could have made
it a lot better.
Overall: 7.4
Overall, I have
to say that I enjoyed the game personally even with its technicalities. It’s
detailed, and you can see where there was a lot of thought put into trying to
give players an open ended game to play. Unfortunately the issues may tend to be
more frustrating for some than fun, but players who want to take to the sea and
try their hand at becoming a wealthy merchant, mercenary, or pirate should find
it enjoyable and something that definitely can’t be beat in a day.
