Patrician
II
Software
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Stats
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Genre:
Strategy
Release
Date:
Available
Publisher:
Strategy First
Developer:
Ascaron
ESRB:
Everyone
Requirements:
P2 233 MHz
32 MB RAM
Win 98/2000/ME
DirectX 7
4x CD-ROM
4 MB Video RAM
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Patrician
II, the sequel to a game that's over a decade old,
has recently been released to the PC, and is easily one
of the best trading games that I have ever played. It
consists of a healthy combination of just about every
tasty ingredient that you can imagine in a trader, coupled
with some builder elements, and even some engaging naval
combat.
While there are a couple of campaigns, the true form of
the game is simply starting up a merchant company and
seeing where it takes you. The setting of the game is
northern Europe, starting in the 1300s. As usual for a
trader, the general goal of the game is to go from rags
to riches, but this title has a further twist. Historically,
as a merchant became wealthy, he gained power and influence
in his hometown, and this game implements that phenomena,
allowing you to even be elected as the Alderman of the
Hanseatic League.
Of course, you start from humble beginnings, owning a
trade office and a ship or two in your hometown, as well
as some start up capital. There are many, many options
ahead of the enterprising merchant, but in the beginning
you are ill equipped to handle much more than trading.
The trade interface is simple and intuitive, and you make
a profit by loading your ships with goods that are bought
cheap, and then unloading the ships in a town that demands
your product. There are twenty different goods to trade,
and any given town will produce no more than five or six
effectively.
The way that the prices and supply/demand model is implemented
is superb. Some goods, such as meat or animal skins offer
a huge profit margin, but are difficult to acquire at
a low price. Other goods are practically worthless to
trade for profit, but can dramatically boost your reputation.
Grain, for example, has a very low profit margin, but
should you supply a town suffering from famine with grain
your reputation increases drastically.
Reputation is important, because it is the second part
of the equation that determines your current rank in the
game. You may have enough money to become a Patrician
or even a Town Councilor, but without the backing of the
people you won't be getting any promotions. Furthermore,
you will not get offered any special jobs if your reputation
dips too low, nor will a marriage broker be able to find
you a favorable match.
As you gain wealth and rank, more options open themselves
up. In the beginning you are too poor to add to your fleet,
but after a few successful trade ventures, you can order
another ship. Ships must be outfitted with a crew (and
it's certainly worthwhile to hunt down a captain as well),
and can be outfitted with weapons as well, useful for
fending off pirate assaults.
This leads to my major complaint in the game. As a trader,
it is completely and totally illegal to outfit your sailors
with swords. You are free to outfit your ships with cannons,
but you cannot arm your actual sailors. This really bothers
me, because you are free to sink attack pirates, if they
attempt to board you, you are largely at their mercy.
If you are caught buying swords, you are fined and your
reputation drops significantly.
The naval combat is excellent though. Should you choose
to manually control your ships in combat, the battle map
comes up, showing all the engaged vessels fighting on
extremely treacherous water (there's a surprising amount
of rocks poking at the surface), with the clouds blowing
across the screen to indicate the direction of the wind.
Wind direction is certainly important to note, as all
the ships in the game are powered by sail, and sailing
into the wind is not a good plan. To damage an enemy ship,
you must maneuver so that you are able to deliver a broadside
barrage from your weaponry (cannons, catapults, or ballistas),
and clearly you must avoid incoming barrages from the
enemy. To capture an enemy ship (practically impossible
without those swords), you can order your men to board
the vessel, though if you are fighting the pirates, they
are probably seeking this same end. The enemy AI is pretty
tough in sea combat, and it is very engrossing. While
you cannot battle directly with another trader's ship
(think what that would do to your reputation),
you can have a ship raise the jolly roger when no one
is looking and then lead a life of piracy yourself.
If your ship is sufficiently well armed and has enough
manpower, you can make it a convoy leader, forming a convoy
of your own ships or inviting other traders to join up.
Should your public convoy reach it's destination without
losing any battles to pirates, you will receive a bonus
from the other ships.
With a private convoy you get some added functionality,
in that when trading your convoy is basically treated
all as one ship--you no longer have to individually trade
for each ship. Furthermore, a private convoy can sail
on an expedition down to the Mediterranean area, in search
of extremely lucrative trade routes. While the journey
is a long one (and a difficult one for your ships, send
one alone and it's got about a 50% chance of returning),
the profit margin on goods purchased or sold at the distant
routes is simply astronomical.
There are still more options before you, as this game
incorporates some builder elements as well. You can build
in your hometown, and you can spread to any town within
the Hanseatic League if you wish. You can build homes
to rent out, public service buildings (such as wells or
hospitals) that offer no profit, but boost your reputation,
or various production facilities. If built a town that
excels at a certain good's production, you can usually
produce a good for a low enough average cost that you
can make a killing off of it. Later, if you get elected
as Mayor you can build military buildings to defend the
town from aggressors. This increases your reputation and
also affects your finances, because if your town gets
raided, you will lose quite a bit of cash.
The gameplay begins at a fairly slow pace, but can quickly
become overwhelming. Fortunately, the title includes an
"autotrade" option for ships that have a captain on board
(or convoys), so you can concentrate on other specific
tasks without going crazy.
Graphics are not groundbreaking, but they get the message
across nicely. There is a lot of detail shown to towns,
with a lot of animation taking place at once, particularly
late into a long game when a town has developed into a
bustling metropolis. Ship to ship combat is fairly pretty,
with ships' status easily verifiable by the "fire factor."
Whenever something significant occurs, such as the completion
of a new ship, or your marriage, you will be treated to
a short in-game cinematic. While they certainly are unlikely
to win an Oscar or anything, they are a nice touch, driving
home the significance of the situation and breaking up
the graphical monotony that this genre of game suffers
from after a few hours.
The music in the background of the game is nice, often
times fading into the background so that you barely notice,
but certainly driving home important situations with fan
fare and such. Occasionally, the music would jump into
the aural foreground, playing music that clearly indicated
something bad going down, but during a time in which nothing
bad was going down. I don't know if this was simply a
problem with my interpretation of the tune, or if it was
a bit on the intentional side--either way, it wasn't a
big deal. There is no real voice acting aside from the
intro movie, and the effects are not really worthy of
note. The sound you will notice most often when playing
this game is the "message received" alert sound, a quick
jingle of bells, quite similar to the sound Scrooge's
door makes when it opens in the Christmas Carol
movies. Sadly, the most common message you receive is
the weekly tax bill, so the sound quickly becomes associated
with evil.
Aside from a few small graphical glitches here and there,
the game ran excellently. This game is truly a remarkable
trade sim, and the number options available to you through
the course of this game is staggering. While the game
is not without it's problems, they are easy to overlook
in light of the many strong points of the game. If you
are a fan of the economic sim genre, you certainly owe
it to yourself to pick up a copy of Patrician II,
as it is a wonderful piece of work.
Concept
Absolutely excellent ideas that truly further
the genre. |
96
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Gameplay
A bit slow paced, but excellent; I wish merchants
could buy swords legally.
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93
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Graphics
Don't let the outdated graphics deter you. |
74
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Sound
A nice musical score, but boring effects.
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72
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Technical
A few insignificant graphical glitches. |
94
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Overall
Truly
an excellent venture. |
86
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