Port Royale 4

I cant believe I was excited for this garbage. Time progress is awful: it is too slow, but can be sped up by zooming out... Space now only toggles the pause. This is just total idiocracy, all they had to do is maxspeed while space is being hold and normal speed (which we could set in PR3 and P2) when not pressed! What was so difficult about it?? Dont fix if it aint broke! Naval battles are the worst in the series: slow, boring and difficult to figure out. I did not think that you could make it worse than in PR3 but hey, at least you achieved something. PR2 had the best battle system and we told you that thats what we want but nooo. All our legitamete concerns were treated with the same response from the devs: HaVe YoU pLaYeD tHe GaMe? Well now I have! Graphics are terrible: on the surface it looks passable but everything blends together, I can not distinguish between different building and I can not even see which buildings are mine and which belong to the ai, not to mention that everything looks lowres, especially the coralreefs (?) in the middle of the ocean. Trading menu is needlessly huge (PR2 could fit it on the screen and was easy to navigate), this abbomination takes forever to use. Tying combat ships to captains, captains to famepoints and even randomizing captain stats is unnecessarily convoluted and annoying. All you had to do is take PR2's battle, PR3's building system, add a few extra features and nice graphics optionally mixing in some treasure hunts or some other fun activity and be done with it. Instead, despite the vocal player feedback, you went after your own heads: released this boredom and confusion simulator withthe most annoying mechanics ever in gaming history and called it a game! We told you what we wanted and you ignored us and it shows. NOONE should buy this garbage, just play PR2 and PR3, you know... actually fun games. I will be getting a refund this is just awful. I sincerely hope PR5 will finally be a good game after 10+ years!

Port Royal 4 is a fun, unique, albeit difficult to strategy game to get into. There are a series of useful tutorials that you can access in order to better understand most functions of the game, however, the campaign doesn't offer much in terms of progressive skill building. It's like jumping on a bike and figuring out how to ride it without training wheels. For some, I think this is a great way to experience a new game. To often games go way overboard with the handholding. Once comfortable with the games design, it is quite enjoyable and can offer many hours of entertainment.

enjoyable as exploration and sim building in the beggininng. war monger after fleets are built.

I used to spend a lot of time with PR2 - a game perhaps simple, not too demanding, a little too easy, but nevertheless very nice, relaxing, comfortable to use. The only drawback was the repetitive naval battles: excellent at first, but a bit tedious in the later stages of the game (we always win without losing ships and take over the opponent's ships, but it takes a VERY long time and repeats dozens of times). On newer computers the game unfortunately broke on the graphics of the sea (instead of it there are flashing dots - it is simply impossible to play, the same with the underdeveloped GOG version). PR3 had low ratings, I deliberately skipped. But I threw myself into PR4 with great enthusiasm. Here are impressions from the first four hours (yes, I know, it's too early and maybe something will change in the later stages of the game): PROS - is almost the same PR2 that I liked, - a little more production and trading options, CONS - graphics probably worse than 15 years ago, when I first saw, I thought the game was released maybe in 2008 (higher resolution of course, but everything unreadable and clunky), - interface definitely worse (unintuitive, inconvenient, everything has to be searched for, is not available at once - from the annoying adjustment of the pace of the game to trade and construction), - I don't think I'll marry (in PR2, governors' daughters were an important element), - naval battles have become VERY strange (simple, no longer requiring dexterity and quick thinking, and really strange). - I've been playing for a short time, but I've already noticed some underdevelopment of missions (I was supposed to sell 300 t of sugar to Netherland, having a capacity of 200 t I had to sail 2x and even though I did it immediately - I didn't make it on time). I don't know why in all companies larger than two people (when managers appear) they strive to spoil what works perfectly and to add garbage. Despite all this, I'm glad to be playing PR again.

Its a nice successor to the earlier titles in the line. I do feal some of the managment has been oversimplified to alow for the concol relaeses though. Overall worth a purchase and play if found on sale.