I had Patrician 3 and it was a game I enjoyed. Recently I purchased Patrician 4 but after a few hours of play I did not see any major improvements over the previous version. For some reason game software writers think that eye candy is an important improvement, which is not. Actually the graphics of previous version were more likeable. Other than new graphics and a more difficult user interface there is not much new material. The fonts are only for the eyes of a 15 years old and are not scalable which reduces the pool of possible buyers like me (I am a retired professional with free time who has macular degeneration in the eyes and the small fonts make this game less enjoyable.) Granted I did not progress enough to have sea battles yet but certain aspects of the user interface pushed me to stop to play it for long. For example I still did not discover where you can see your total amount of money during a purchase. The amount of goods you buy or sell is determined by moving the mouse to right or left but it is difficult to set it exactly because of mouse sensitivity. Is there a mouse sensitivity setup button? In summary, this is a game not much different than its previous version. It may be attractive to first time buyers of the title at its discounted price, but not to those who already have the Patrician 3.
