

This is the bigger picture, because not only do you have to focus on your island, but also the surrounding waters. This means you'll have to find these somewhere on your island, which usually means going out and kidnapping skilled workers to run various areas of your economy. As they gain experience, they'll start demanding more extravagances, such as cigars, housing or even wenches with all their own teeth. Your basic pirates need grog, food and a welcoming bosom, or in the case of female pirates, somewhere to 'preen' and pick up beauty aids. There's also a lot of what appears to be towelwhipping going on from the pirates, but the less said about that the better.
TROPICO 2 PATCH PLUS
They need basic food and sleeping accommodation, plus lots of scary decor. Your captives, who are either washed ashore, kidnapped or delivered as prisoners, do theīulk of the work. Here, the only groups to worry about are your pirates and your captives, and each group has diametrically opposed needs.
TROPICO 2 PATCH SOFTWARE
Scurvy Knavesįrog City and PopTop software have obviously taken heed of criticism levelled at the original banana republic-sim Tropico, namely that there were too many factions to keep track of. Tropico 2 has all of these cliches in abundance, including a healthy dose of 'avast, me hearties', and style-wise, it manages to pull it off remarkably well, if in a somewhat panto fashion. But the good thing about pirates is that everyone knows how they should work: the wooden leg, the parrot, the oversized hat, the magpie-like desire for shiny things and the penchant for a particular fermented sugar drink, so it's pretty hard to go wrong with them. Suffice to say that Isle Pratchett is no paradise in Tropico 2: Pirate Cove.Įrrol Flynn manage to turn pirates into cool anti-heroes, but since then, they've walked a fine line (or should that be plank?) between being iconic and, well, just a bit naff. My Fifth slave just escaped, my brothel is desperately short of ladies of negotiable affection, there's a banana deficit and my captain is so pissed off. You should be hoisting your Jolly Roger by April. The forbidden glamour of the outlaw life is captured expertly, and the manifold opportunities to be ruthless and immoral should please the most wanton of marauders. While Tropico 2 is unlikely to receive any awards for originality, it’s certainly shaping up to be a highly addictive game. Pirates can actually gain levels as the years progress, so if you treat your cutthroats with the respect they deserve, you'll find they gain in expenence, and consequently start bringing back more loot. Playing through the game also reveals a surprising amount of depth.

(Well, you ask any brigand, you can't just pluck a wench out of thin air, their talents are honed after years of practice.) Thus if you can find a skilled French courtesan, your pirates' happiness will go off the scale. Pirates can also go on missions to find specialist artisans such as gunsmiths, bakers and ahem, quality whores. To keep the place running smoothly you must find captives to do the monkey work, such as picking corn from fields and chopping lumber. Your charismatic anti-heroes must be kept amused with brothels, grog shops, gambling dens, eateries and more before they even think about setting sail in search of wealth and adventure.īut it's not just pirates you have to think about when it comes to sustaining the efficiency of your secret bandits paradise. Pirates are a fickle bunch though, and to get them doing what they do best, they have to be happy. The entire Caribbean is your oyster in your quest to search out new gold and boldly go where no 'privateer’ has gone before. There’s only one way to succeed in Tropico 2 and that is by stealing, killing, lying and cheating. some pirate-type stuff, the entire game is based on establishing a hearty pirate empire. As a sort of hedonistic cross between Sim City, Zeus: Master Of Olympus and, er. The good news is that Tropico 2 seems to offer a lot more in the way of defined gameplay. Chief among its failings was its utter inability to settle on any one particular gameplay goal the resulting mix of empire building, political intrigue and economy management left the player at best confused and at worst bored stupid. So, who was the greatest pirate ever? Hook? Morgan? Silver? Solo? If seeking the answer to this question is high on your list of priorities, then Tropico 2: Pirate Cove could well be the game for you.įirst though, we have a much more pertinent question to answer, and that is, will Tropico 2 improve on Tropico? The original game, as anyone who played it will know, suffered from a multitude of problems that ultimately led to us giving it a review score that was hardly the stuff of legend.
