Introduction
Released in April 2003 as the sequel to Tropico, the game is a city building game, and so far the only one in the series to focus on pirates and instead of Banana Republics. Why is this game worth revisiting or visiting if you missed it back in the day... Stay around to find out!
Gameplay
So the basic purpose of the game is to develop your pirate haven on an island in the Caribbean. You start with a small Pirate Palace, a stockade to hold captives, a plantation or two and a sawmill. Your job pretty much resumes to developing that settlement, start cutting down trees so the sawmill can produce lumber, build different factories, ports and send ships raiding or to plunder other ships. The captives take care of production and construction and have to be kept under control with food, rest, fear, order and religion. Pirates on the other hand are the exact opposite as they prefer anarchy, defense, alcohol, wenches, betting and having their own homes where to stash their loot. Of course among that you can also sign different small treaties with certain nations to avoid war or being hunted, enact certain edicts to benefit your population or yourself, depending on the case. |
| Humble beginnings |
The game features a simple campaign where the pirate leader will be one you create and mostly will focus on scenarios where you have to stash a certain amount of loot or build something in a certain amount of time. Custom games on the other hand let you pick an area of the Caribbean where to begin, a pirate captain from the famous ones, including Blackbeard, Calico Jack, Henry Morgan and plenty others. Each character has a different nationality and bonuses.
Graphics & Sound
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| Ready to Plunder! |
Even though it is released in 2003 the game is still built around an isometric engine and makes use of sprites, but it allows map rotation 90 degrees at a time. It looks quite colorful and has a very piratey design. The UI is quite easy to understand and read with everything laid out. While it's nothing extraordinary, the overall aspect of the game is pleasant to the eyes. The environmental sounds are quite simplistic, usually low quality and boring but the game shines with the soundtrack, being mostly a mashup of exotic Caribbean sounds mixed with pirate songs.
Compatibility
Well if you get the game on GoG it's pretty much plug&play and most compatibility settings are already made. One tiny issue is that you will have to stick to 4:3 aspect ratio and a resolution up to 1600x1200 and 800x600 in the main menu. There might be some cases depending on the computer where you will have to go to the game folder and start using the safe mode executable.
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| Basic Pirate Needs. Alcohol and a home |
Wrap-up
With being the only game in the series to feature a non Banana Republic theme, the game provides quite an entertaining gameplay, helping you develop your pirate haven while keeping both your captives and your pirates happy, despite both wanting pretty much contradictory things. While you can't focus on so many different business types, lacking things from other Tropico games like tourism, the game can still keep you busy for hours and hours building you evil little island.
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