Left-clicking on a town while you have a ship in port brings up a view of the settlement's buildings, which control most other game functions. Yes, it's still a spreadsheet, but don't let that scare you-it's the most user-friendly spreadsheet we've ever seen in an economic sim. Right-clicking on ports of call after arrival brings up the trading window, and this is where you buy and sell goods on a chart that shows prices and uses a color scheme to indicate the availability of goods. Journeys can be accelerated by holding down the space bar to turn up time acceleration. Ships are maneuvered by right-clicking on a destination. Most of these scenarios take well over an hour to complete, so by the time you're finished with them you'll be thoroughly prepared for the free play campaign (the game's only other mode of play).Įase of use is further enhanced by the superb interface. These scenarios practically form a game unto themselves. Starting at the lowly rank of ship's boy, you soon trade goods, set up convoys with around a half-dozen different types of vessel from sloops to galleons, build businesses in towns, construct settlements of your own, stage sea battles, and even track Blackbeard for the governor of Havana. Unlike the first Port Royale, which dumped you into the deep end without even a tutorial, eight starter scenarios here cover every aspect of building a shipping career amid the feuding English, French, Spanish, and Dutch Caribbean colonies in the 16th and 17th centuries. While the visuals aren't much to look at, it's impossible to make Caribbean islands look ugly, and the map screen gets the job done in an attractive board-game style.Īccessibility is the biggest reason for this broad-based appeal. Buccaneers, tropical locales, and piracy on the high seas are fully realized in Port Royale 2, and the intricate real-time design is geared to win over even those who aren't fans of economic simulations. Ascaron Entertainment's Port Royale 2 might focus more on shipping cartels than on sea battles and swordplay, but its brilliantly realized gameplay is more than just number crunching. All the attention being paid toward the imminent release of the remake of Sid Meier's classic Pirates! is doing a disservice to another game set on the rolling waters of the Caribbean.
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