Port Royale 2 - early look

[Sean Tudor]

I just received my copy of Port Royale 2 today and so far it is a winner. It now includes better graphics, a refined menu system, and a whole set of tutorial scenarios that ease you into the game.

The version I received was already upgraded to the V1.10 patch. It included a 64 page B&W manual and a colour map poster. The CD includes a 74 page full color version of the manual.

The game seems to be set to a fixed resolution of 1024x768 but the graphics still look great.

You can invade a town from land, take over the local market with aggressive trading, buyout businesses in a town, engage in sea battles, have a sword fight with an enemy captain, embark on special missions, and collect pieces of treasure maps. You can even engage the treasure fleet.

One point to note. In a sea battle you can only engage the enemy using one ship at a time against up to 5 enemy ships.

It's basically Pirates! on steroids. I love it ! :wink:

[Brian Rubin]

Damn Sean, that sounds wonderous. Can't wait to see the final version. Thanks!

[Dirt]

Despite the fact the first game was a poorman's Pirates!, I had tremendous fun with it. Playing alone, at night, in my apartment with my stereo speakers cranked up, my mouse in one hand and a bottle of brew in another, left me jumping off the ground even after yet another pirate ship attacked. Even though you knew a pirate ship was gonna pop out, the build up for where, how, and how many was palpable.

[GreasyPig]

I'm surprised there isn't more talk about this title. From the reviews it sounds like much more detailed Pirates! which is right up my alley.

Any more play time with this one Sean? Is the difficulty as bad as the early reviews make it out? Micromanagement is my bag.

GreasyPig

[Sean Tudor]

I'm surprised there isn't more talk about this title. From the reviews it sounds like much more detailed Pirates! which is right up my alley.

Any more play time with this one Sean? Is the difficulty as bad as the early reviews make it out? Micromanagement is my bag.

GreasyPig

I am not finding it difficult at all. The important point is to manage your trading fleets well. Once your captains reach level 4 skill they can be set to auto-trade which takes some of the busy work out of the game.

The biggest problem with PR2 is the lack of copies on U.S. retail stores. I have read that the distributor fouled up the release in the U.S.

There is also a petition on the Acaron forums asking the devs to add multi-ship combat back in to the game. Currently you can only command one ship at a time in a battle against multiple enemy ships. The first Port Royale allowed you to command all of your ships in the one battle.