Port Royale 2

This game is quite nice if you really enjoy simulation/business games like I do, but if you're expecting Sid Mire's Pirates, you better steer away. It is quite similar to that game, but here it is based much more on trade than piracy. It's also much slower paced, which can cause the game to drag on a bit. Also, combat is annoyingly difficult as you can only have 1 ship going against up to 5 ships, meaning that the only way to level the odds in your favor is to lower the difficulty, which isn't ideal. But otherwise, it is great if you're looking for a good trade simulator.

I got it for 59p! Trading away in the colonies is relaxing and fun. Takes me back to a better time, warms my heart with fondness and glorious nostalgia.

...but GOG didn't make any effort to make it run on modern systems. I own a 200-years-old CD of PR2, played it 1000000 times. It refused to work on new computers, so I purchased it again from GOG. Unfortunately it is not possible to play: the game starts OK, but 1) it forcibly stretches to the 16:9 format, 2) instead of water you can see flashing bright spots all over the water surface - eyes and head hurt after 5 minutes. I tried for three days all possible settings. The compatibility settings written by MicroSoft in general are hopeless, it never works, I write about far better solutions, but still nothing works. That's why my rating is 4 - I rate the GAME, not the GOG version (that would be 2).

I've been playing this game since its release. Meaning I started with the disc version a long time ago, but went to the digital version once that got available and CD-ROM players became obsolete. There's something about this game that keeps pulling me back into it. Not just the trading and city building aspect, not just the naval battles, not the ability to loot or annex cities and even not the ability to own your own cities after a plot of land being gifted by a Vice-Roy. It isn't the ability to start with a small boat and ample funds, only to grow your "empire" to its maximum, getting the maximum rank and being loved by all nations. It's all of that and much more. There are challenges in every aspect of the game. The trading is a challenge when you aren't able to set up the automatic routes, as the captain's discounts certainly help a lot. The naval combat is a challenge as you're often facing 5 ships with more crew with your single ship. Even if you got a 5 warship fleet. The diplomatic part of the game is a challenge as you will loose reputation if you fight a nation on behalf of another nation. And unlike them, you can't fight back when there's peace between nations and your Letter of Marque isn't valid anymore. And that while the nations will attempt to cripple your income by attacking your trade convoys. There's a challenge in building up the cities, as the AI loves to drop a building at that exact spot you don't want it to be. But the reward of dealing with those challenges is the best part of this game. Four cities gifted by each Vice-Roy in quarter areas, making it possible to become the "fifth nation" with a total of 16 cities. There are however two flaws in this game. One is that each nation gets its navy upped to 3 fleets above the number of owned cities. Which isn't fun when you reduced a 20 city nation to 10 fleets and all the sudden see them having 23 fleets because of a war with another nation. The other one: the sword fights. Period!

I've really ended up enjoying this, was definitely what I wanted coming from Sid Meyers Pirates! Might seem overwhelming at first but after a while money comes easy and it's pretty straightforward, it really focus on the trading and managing of a colonial marketing empire. My main complaint is the fights overall, they are all awful, it's the only reason I won't rate it 5 stars. I wasn't expecting much from the land battles being a ship game, but the naval battle are not only stupid but also inviting you to cheese it. You can only use one ship at a time in a fight, regardless of your fleet size, but the opponent will field all the ships he brought, at the same time. So in a 5V5, it's 1V5, makes no sense. Same when invading a port/city, you can only bring 1 ship and you have to chip away at the wealth bar of 5 individual cannon towers... It's pretty idiotic and by far the worst of the game, it makes it a chore. But I'm pleased to say that the city and resource management are good, understandable and rewarding. You end up having so much money you throw away ships at the problem until it's no longer a problem.