Port Royale 2
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.
