Published by Gathering
Developed by Frog City
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Released - Out Now
Price : £29.99

It's not often when I'm given a sequel to review that I'm still playing the original game. Tropico was a great game that I honestly think didn't get the credit it deserved. The sheer amount of strategies that were possible in the game went over most reviewers heads and even after all this time I'm still finding different ways of playing the game. Anyway the bottom line is that is deserved a sequel and now we have one. Tropico 2 Pirate Cove has been developed by Frog City, not the original developers PopTop Software. Of course a change of developers is usually bad news but this time it isn't. Frog City are the brilliant developers responsible for the Imperialism series and Trade Empires, another underrated game. If anyone could make Tropico 2 a success, other than PopTop, it was Frog City.

As the title suggests this time around you are in charge of pirates and not a banana republic. It's still a Caribbean Island where you rule but instead of smoking fat cigars and playing the US off against the Russians it's time to shiver your timbers and set sail in search of captives and gold. Whilst the game might have made a significant shift in theme, the nature of the game will, for the most part, be instantly familiar to fans of the original Tropico. That's not to say this is simply Tropico in a Pirate guise though and whilst many aspects of the gameplay might have remained the same there are some key differences.

In Tropico 2 you play as the Pirate King. You still have to maintain a small tropical island and look after the welfare of its population but this time your wealth will come from pirate activities rather than simply exporting goods. Of course being a bunch of Pirates though, people don't just turn up to work on your island (well actually some do) and part of your duties is to send out a ship to capture some. Keeping the captives happy enough to remain on your island is no easy task and you'll have to make sure they are supplied with all the amenities they desire. Should you capture wealthy captives then you'll be able to ransom them to collect extra gold. You can instruct your pirate ships to Cruise, Raid and Kidnap. You can even order them to kidnap specifically trained individuals that will unlock new building types. Of course this is going to cost a lot of gold so making sure your islands supply of gold is plentiful and constant is always a must. It is also worth mentioning that ships must be well staffed and stocked before it will leave to begin a mission.

In Tropico you always had the threat of losing an election that would effectively end the game. You had a number of years between each election though so you had time to win over the populace of your island. Tropico 2 also offers the risk of losing your position if you don't give your people what they want. There isn't any breathing space here though and if you should fail to please the ipeople then you face a strong chance of mutiny and if it's successful it will be game over. The different factions you have to contend with this time are English, French, Spanish, Gentry, Literati, Gunners and Hedonists. Just like in Tropico it's not going to be easy pleasing all these factions. Just as in Tropico a variety of edicts can be issued to aid you in pleasing these factions.

The game offers a campaign, scenarios, tutorial and a sandbox mode where you can create a game with the parameters of your own choosing. The tutorial, in all fairness, isn't needed as the majority of the campaign is created as a tutorial and does a very nice job of teaching you the ropes. The scenarios are self-contained adventures, some of which are based upon real and fictitious pirates. There are scenarios to suit all abilities and for me they are the highlight of the game. Tropico 2, like Tropico, is a single player game only which is a little bit of a disappointment because it could have been a lot of fun as a multiplayer game but nevertheless the quality of the single player game cushions this disappointment rather well.

Graphically the game looks very similar to Tropico in many ways. The terrain graphics are identical which isn't necessarily bad news as Tropico was one of the best-looking strategy games out there when it was released. The new pirate characters look equally as impressive as the characters from Tropico. The new pirate buildings are also impressive, even on the closest of zooms. The ships look decidedly jaggy, which seems odd when compared to the rest of the graphics in the game. The interface has been smartened up somewhat in Tropico 2 but it will still be instantly familiar to players of the original game.

Tropico 2 is fine for deaf gamers. All the messages and information are given in text. The Almanac (I think that's what it was called) has been replaced by the logbook but it's essentially the same thing. This logbook enables you to assess how successful you are as a pirate king as it gives you all the information you need to successfully maintain your island. The only speech that isn't given in text is the verbal comments that your islanders come out with when you click on them. This is only usually a brief comment and doesn't really do anything except add a little bit more of a piratey nature to the game. It's also worth mentioning that the manual is actually rather informative and covers the essentials of the gameplay.

Tropico 2 Pirate Cove is a successful sequel to Tropico. Some things could be better but these are usually quirks of the interface such as the inability to ransom all of your wealthy captives with one click. Despite the game focusing on pirates this time around it still retains the Tropico feel and humour and should definitely appeal to fans of the original game.

Overall Game Rating: 9.0/10
A great sequel to a great game. Frog City have created a hugely enjoyable game in Tropico 2.

Deaf Gamers comment:
No problems at all for deaf gamers.