Tropico 2: Pirates Cove Review (no fat)

by Frog City Software Platform: PC Genre: Sims	ESRB Rating: Teen Release: 2003-04-08	Tropico 2: Pirates Cove Features: Pirate island city building simulation Strategize to manage rowdy pirates and rebellious slaves Soliod graphics and soundtrack EDTV 480p Support Dolby 5.1 Surround
	Egamer's Rating: 8 / 10. Reviewed on: 2005-10-26

Game Description

In the latest Tropico installment, Tropico 2: Pirate Cove, you no longer are the dictator of a South American country. Rather, you play the role of a pirate chief who aspires to build a rough and ragged city by bringing together the disparate groups of pirates and slaves… and some rather ill gotten gains to finance the whole operation.

Tropico 2: Pirate Cove Gameplay

Your aim is to build a city with the help of your pirate mates. During the game you will send your pirates to sea, appropriately armed, and they will come back with their plunder and captives.

However, your pirates will not directly build your city. Instead, the city will be built by slaves – the captives enslaved on the high seas – and the financing will come from the loot your pirates bring home.

With the nature of the people who populate your city, you have to take some unique steps to keep them happy, content…and in line. While the underlying premise of many a city building simulations is to keep the population happy and content, but when your community is comprised of pirates and slaves you are left with some options.

While Sim City games require you to consider public services and accommodations such as hospitals and schools, in Tropico 2: Pirate Cove, your pirate city requires you to have an abundance of saloons and other venues of adult entertainment. Along with that, you need to ensure control over your people through the prominent presentation and regular use of such devices as the gallows.

The road to achieving a solid, robust community in Tropico 2: Pirate Cove does take some interesting twists and turns along the way. One of the more interesting elements of the game is found in the mechanism that is in place to raise money for the furtherance and expansion of the city. Bands of pirates plunder riches from other areas an ships in order to fund the building and improvement projects within the city.

Tropico 2: Pirate Cove Visuals and Graphics

Visually Tropico 2: Pirate Cove is completely new from what came before in the initial installment of the game. In fact, Tropico 2: Pirate Cove is far more than the initial installment sprinkled with pirates and slaves. Rather, the environmental scenery associated with the game and smartly crafted. The detailing of the buildings and other elements that make up the (hopefully) growing city are well constructed and captivating on many levels.

The pirate ships are interesting in their detail and there are no particular glitches plaguing the game.

Tropico 2: Pirate Cove Sound Quality

The background soundtrack and limited special effects are appropriate to the game. While there is nothing spectacular, the audio devices work to nicely compliment the ins and outs of constructing a pirate city.

Tropico 2: Pirate Cove – 2 cent

To the credit of the developers, Tropico 2: Pirate Cove is not a mere takeoff and continuation of the first Tropico installment. Rather, it is a completely different concept all together -- a unique variation of the city building simulations theme, Tropico 2: Pirate Cove provides some interesting challenges for a person who enjoys the genre.

Tropico 2: Pirate Cove Cost

Tropico 2: Pirate Cove currently retails for $9.99US at the time of writing.