Town building isn’t as advanced or hands-on as Tropico 6, for example, but there is still a layer of strategy about it. Finally, once you have over 500 workers within your constructions, you can apply to take over the town via the Viceroy, giving you full control over the town management and expansion. After you’ve traded a certain amount of things, you can buy a builders license which allows you to build various manufacturing buildings or production farms. When you first approach a town you can’t do anything so you must buy a merchant licence so you can simply buy and sell goods to them. There are three stages to each town – merchant, builder and owner. Strategically build your towns to increase productivity.Īlthough Port Royale 4 is a game about trading goods, it also has a strong emphasis on town building and expanding your cities. Pirates: This is a female character who will never get attacked by pirates, starts with a Pirate barque, and only loses 50% fame points for performing piracy, but all buildings are 20% more expensive. Merchant: this is a female character who doesn’t require any trade licenses in any town and can trade with everyone – even if you’re at war with that nation, but the combat vessels cost twice as many ‘fame points’ to create.īuccaneer: This is a male character who can obtain Letters of Marque for 90% off and comes with five fame points at the beginning, but loses twice as many fame points if they resort to piracy. This is a male character who increases the experience of his captains 25% faster and has better control over vessels he’s obtained within combat, but he’s 20% weaker against the enemies boarding his ships. There are four classes you can play as within Port Royale 4, each one offering a few positive and negative trails that define who they are. But, before I talk about them, let’s take a closer look at the core aspect of the game – trading… The game introduces a few new features to the franchise, such as the naval battles, which can be quite difficult as well as cripple your progression if you make a silly mistake as I did. If you’ve played Railway Empire then you’ll be accustomed to how the game works in terms of being given set tasks with a deadline and long-term goals for the scenario, you’ll always have something to do. You can play as one of four campaigns (once you’ve completed Spain) which give you a different perspective on the events which are happening around you – Spain, England, France, and the Netherlands. Port Royale 4 is a game about trading goods in order to amass great wealth and further expand your reign by taking over towns and building structures to both please those who live there and boost your income. Those who really, really love the original two games may feel disappointed (I’d recommend reading the Steam reviews as those seem to be from people who have played the originals), but from this point on, I’m looking at the game with a fresh set of eyes and no comparison to previous entries. So, after spending around 35 hours playing through the first campaign and becoming the greatest merchant in the whole of the Caribbean, what did I think of my first ever Port Royale game? Let’s find out…Īs such, this review is coming from someone who loves Tropico and Railway Empire, hasn’t ever played the previous Port Royale games, and has no problem with games being ‘dumbed down’ in certain aspects in order to allow everyone to enjoy the game. Gaming Minds Studios is a part of Kalypso Media, a publisher who clearly knows how to make a resource management game in a way that can be complicated and in-depth, yet simple and beginner-friendly (to a point). My first impression when playing Port Royale 4 was, is this Railway Empire but with boats? I then realised that the same developers who were behind the addictive train-based industry simulation are also the people who have developed this game, utilising a lot of the same mechanics in both titles. This week, for the first time, I’ve expanded my collection to include naval trading via the incredible Port Royale 4. These games are Railway Empire, Tropico 6 (and 5), Avon Colony, and Surviving Mars, a group of resource-management simulation games that put you in control of cities, railway efficiency, and space colonies. Over the last few years I’ve been addicted to a few games which I refuse to delete off my PS4, games which I can put on for a few minutes then find I’ve spent a few hours managing my towns and people.
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