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Introduction
Ahoy mateys! Take a look at the pirate game Tropico 2: Pirate
Cove, the sequel where the player has to remain dictator of an
island in the Caribbean. Tropico 2 brings the game way back to
17th century colonization, where pirates were commonplace.
You’re still the ruler, however as long as the pirates let
you. You’re given the title: Pirate King and a tract of land.
Sounds nifty aye? Aye! So set sail to ride the high sees of
the Caribbean and plunder that gold, that wonderful shining
gold! Arrrgh!
Plot:
A plot in a game like this, do you really need one? Well it’s
definitely nice to have a plot, but if there really was a plot
I haven’t seen much of one. The game exists of episodes, which
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stories in themselves. They form a semi-story of
sorts when you plug them all together, but it leaves a lot to
the imagination. So besides a general storyline there isn’t
really a plot. There are also no in game movies or extra info
about characters given between episodes. The episodes themselves are the only indications of to a plot
in the game, but these episodes simply evolve around you as
the pirate king. As the game progresses you grow older and
every episode involves building up a new island from scratch.
The few aspects that do remain throughout most of the episodes
are your captains, and stash where you can store gold that can
be ported to the next episode.
Gameplay:
Thankfully the lack of a plot doesn’t affect the gameplay; the
game is entertaining enough without it. Every game you play
can be a story in itself. After you complete a goal you can
play on just for the fun of it or continue the campaign. A
game can last as long as you can play. Up till now I haven’t been
able to find the limit. The normal speed of one year in the
game takes 30 minutes and a game of 60 years can last 30
hours. Every game starts with a few basic structures and you
will build on from there. As in most games that let you build
up a town and economy you will need lumber, iron and money.
Because pirates are very lazy fellows they wont help building
up the economy, their only job is to drive the economy in
spending their gold in your entertainment facilities. Those
that do work are the captives. These captives are washed upon
your shore after a shipwreck, or you can raid settlements in
order to gain workers. Arrrr!! Thar ain’t nothin like bein a
Pirate King! Even though these captives work their butts off,
they still might get ideas of escaping or even revolting.
Obviously you don’t want them to get any of these ideas, so
luckily you have enough tools to make sure they wont. These
captives need a good beating so now and then. You can keep
them in line by increasing the order and fear in the areas
where they work. Certain decor and several buildings can be
build that will radiate fear or order. However captives do
have a few needs, mainly food and sleep. Make sure they have
enough to eat, because starving captives are useless.
So now you know what keeps the captives in line, but there is
one problem. Pirates resent order and favor anarchy. Of course
anarchy is not good for your captives. The gambling dens,
brothels and drinking facilities radiate anarchy. And your
pirates need these facilities badly so keep that in mind when
you’re designing your islands. Oh and if you thought it would
be easier to simply not build these entertainment facilities
think again, your pirates will show you the way out of town.
Make sure they don’t get disgruntled or enraged. If word
spreads the whole lot of them might try a coup.
So now you might wonder if there is a goal to all of this.
Well it’s quite simple. Either become the ruthless killing
pirate king or the popular and merciful one. The beautiful
thing about this game is that it’s got a very simple
principle. If you need something, just go out and get it. Do
you need more captives? Simply raid a settlement. How about a
skilled farmer or one of the other captives in order to reach
a new level within your economy? Tell one of your ships to
sail out and get the guy. Need more gold? Simply send your
ships out to open waters and most of the time they will bring
back gold. Sometimes they bring back more than just gold, such
as cannons, muskets or new recruits. Sometimes you wind up
with a few wealthy captives that are worth gold. They spend
money at your entertainment facilities and you can sell them
for ransom. Ransom grows the more time they spend on your
island, and even more so when they are entertained on your
island. However you should be carefully watching the number of
them. Because they will use your entertainment
facilities, and if you leave to many of them, your own pirates
wont be able to get what they need. Besides it’s more than a
pleasure to sent them off and fill your own treasury with
their ransoms.
Tropico 2: Pirate Cove has much more to offer. First of
all there’s a bigger picture (no pun intended). Your island is
located in the Caribbean so you have the option to look at the
map of the entire Caribbean. On this map you can see what
areas you have already explored and to what extent it has been
explored. This map also gives you information about these
areas showing info from merchant traffic to military presence.
This map is also used to decide the destinations for your
ships.
You also have several edicts to issue. Most of them cost you
cash, but depending on the situation they can be very useful.
Examples are free drinks for your pirates, recruiting new
captains, releasing captives of one particular nation or order
random executions to increase fear amongst the workers.
Your island is also filled with souls. Every captive and
pirate has their own thoughts and own needs. When you’re not
fulfilling their needs you can find out what the problem is by checking out
the characters. Each
person also has their own qualities along with courage and
leadership. These last two are important when it comes to
revolting or simply fighting aboard the ships.
Graphics:
The graphics of Tropico 2 are excellently crafted. There are
quite a few different “zoom levels” that let you can see as
much as you want to see. It’s possible to see the entire
island all the time; however everything gets really small.
Luckily there is a very detailed “zoom level” in which you can
check out everything your captives or pirates are doing. You
see them taking a nap when they need some sleep and when
working you can follow every one of their moves. It’s a
pleasure to simply look around and enjoy the different
buildings. Each one of them is quite detailed. It’s obvious
that the developers put a lot of work into them and I must say
they did a very good job. Every building looks just right and
in its place. The ships also look good, although I was
disappointed about the fact that ships don’t make normal
turns. They seem to turn at 45° angles. Still it’s very
satisfying to see the ships lining your coastline when they
return with gold. Another disappointment was the fact that
when your island comes under attack by an invading force you
don’t see them invading on the map, but you will see an
animated movie after which you will get a notice whether you
won or lost. It would be much more fun to see ships engaging
each other in game and to see the invading forces getting
mowed down when they try to pass your forts.
Sound:
Just as the graphics are, the sounds are awfully detailed.
When hovering over the map in the 1st “zoom level” you hear
all the different sounds produced by your captives. Many
buildings have their own environmental sound. The voice of
Smithy, your personal advisor, is well done and funny to
listen to. Even though he is funny, it’s still a good thing to
be able to turn him off, he can get repetitive. The music
definitely adds to the atmosphere too. It simply fits the
Caribbean and ocean theme very well. Still it might become
annoying when you play the game a lot. I think there is about
one hour of music and you’ll hear the same tunes coming by
pretty soon again. But because it fits the game very well
you’ll also find that it’s a shame to turn it off.
Fun Factor
Pirate Cove is definitely loads of fun to play. There is
enough to keep you going and exploring the game for awhile.
The fact that you can build a big society of pirates alone is
a bonus. The game has enough events to make for different
experiences while playing for a longer time. For example, an
invading force can attack your island when one of the
colonizing powers decides that you have become a threat.
Captives can become restless and try to flee, but when
security is tight the guards chase the escaping captives and
waste them. An interesting little tidbit, disgruntled pirates
start killing by passers at random. Oh and you can instigate
war between two colonial forces by sailing one of their colors
and attacking the other party.
You can keep track of all your pirates and captives and try to
find out what they need. Reading their minds is a nice feature
and its fun to see what they’re thinking. Even though the game
has many funny features it still can get boring at times. It
helps to speed up the game sometimes but even then it still
takes time to build up an island that’s thriving with
activity. This is a minor complaint though. The game usually
gets better when more stuff becomes available and you start to
earn loads of gold.
Overall:
I need to tell you whether Tropico 2: Pirate Cove is worth the
money. Well I think it is if you like this type of games. If
you want nothing but mindless action, you shouldn’t even try
to read the box of Tropico 2. For those that enjoyed the first
Tropico and like the prospect of playing a pirate king, its
definitely worth it. The developers added enough to the game
to make it a worthy sequel. I’ll tell you that this game is
even very relaxing at times and when you just want to have
nothing on your mind but scaring a few captives and
entertaining pirates. The graphics, sounds, and gameplay all
mix up very well and make it a great gaming experience. And I
must add that with the new patch available by now the game is
very stable and I have never experienced crashes or irritating
issues. I give Tropico 2: Pirates Cove 4.5 planets out of 5.
Pirates Rock!!
Arnie Rating:
4.5 out of 5 Planets
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