The combat has been beefed up and multiplayer has been added, but at its heart, it will still be a game about building convoys, establishing trade routes and growing ever more portly and rich. What it certainly doesn't mean that Port Royale 3 is a reinvention, trading in its trading for man-stabbing and its strategy for ship-shooting. I appreciate the fact that the 17th century's closest analogue to thermonuclear warfare - a cannonball - occurs as if to herald the quote, but I'm not entirely sure what it means. Port Royale 3 looks handsome in this trailer, which also contains the greatest press quote in the history of press quotes. While the combat was about as much fun as scurvy, the economic simulation was deep enough to create a compelling experience and taking up quests across the Caribbean made it feel more like a place than a spreadsheet. A game that has no hardship is a game that is no fun.I thoroughly enjoyed Port Royale 2 and if your idea of buckling swash and living the life of an outlaw on the high seas involves cargo management and financial ledgers, there's every chance that you enjoyed it as well. The only other obstacle I encountered was the rare hurricane which was three times slower than your ship and easy to outrun. Countries might not favor you but it’s as simple as giving them materials they need to get back into their good books. None of my goods were perishable and if I bought too much of something there were always enough towns to buy the whole lot ten times over and still flip a profit. I only picked fights that I knew I could win. Once I started gaining money nothing really set me back. My other problem is the lack of obstacles. But if the point of the game is to continue doing mindless busy work then the game will only stay fun for about 10 hours. Maybe if there was a good storyline, or an actual campaign.
What is the point of gaining lots of money if the only thing to do is buy more ships and buildings to make more money? I understand that developers wanted to make a free world game, but it gives me no reason to continue playing. But at the end I felt like I had accomplished nothing. I spent six hours trading, setting up trade routes, fighting pirates and doing little quests. While the game combines so many great aspects of strategy games together, it fails to give players a point. You can micro manage everything or never touch those ships again. In literally 15 seconds I made a trade route that sold the cotton I was producing in town at the same time as picking up materials needed for my ale factory. Maybe you want them to maximize profits, or pick up materials for your factories at home. You pick the towns you wish for the fleet in question to visit, and then pick how you want them to trade. I can’t remember a game that setting up trade routes was easier to do, or worked better in. Even though the trading mechanics are basic it sets the game up so automatic trading works wonderfully. You go to town, but whatever is cheap, and go to the next town to dump it all off. So they are always in demand of the same items. Every town also produces five of the goods on the list.
Every town buys and sells the same 24 goods. The trading system in Port Royale 3 is the epitome of simplicity. The combat is exciting and even the looped town graphics look good. Seeing the world map with all of the ships sailing around makes the game feel populated even if it’s just you and NPCs. The graphics are especially good for a game being released at $39.99. It’s nice to see a developer sink so much time into improving the graphics for a strategy/simulation game. The graphics in Port Royale 3 are much better than I expected. Once you have the basics down it’s easy to start a new match and play the game using either strategy or a combination of the two.
Neither of the campaigns have a good storyline, but they do function as a great way to teach people how to play in an easy and straightforward way. The Trader campaign teaches players how to abuse the market place, set up automatic trade routes, do material quests for cities, and build structures in different towns.
It goes through the basics of making ships, arming them, picking up a crew, and using them. Players learn in the Adventurer campaign how to create a naval army. Port Royale 3 has two different campaigns that really act more as large tutorial levels. Kalypso has published a game that combines a huge variety of things to do into a single strategy game. Port Royale 3 combines the fleet building and combat of Sid Meier’s Pirates with exploration, trading, and town simulation. Just when I thought there was no hope for a Sid Meier’s Pirates 2 it looks like someone came up with a better idea.