Tropico 2: Pirate Cove

List Price: $24.99

Features:

• Create and control your pirate haven through 16 swashbuckling episodes filled with shady mates, landlubbers and talking parrots
• Fuel your island's economy by plundering wealthy merchants, then take captives to use as a workforce
• Keep the buccaneers satisfied with rum, gambling, women and feasts
• Try to lure legendary pirates like Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, and Black Bart to your island -- they'll expand your influence and treasure chest
• You can even build parrot aviaries to produce the perfect pirate companions

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

Starts out fun, gets old, then back to fun [Posted on 2005-11-02]
I love this game! It is such a blast to play. It's exciting, challenging (unless you want it easy, 'cause you can certainly do sandbox mode), and fun. If you like the original Tropico, you'll like Tropico 2. However if you are looking for a really challenging game, Tropico 2 may not be your best choice. While it can be a challenge, it's pretty easy- especially compared to Tropico. (This is excluding sandbox modes.) I also agree with the people who say the game gets old, but, honestly, what game doesn't??? Fortunately, unlike many games, if you take a break from Tropico 2 for a little while, the game will be just as fun when you come back as when you first started playing. Maybe more, you actually know what you are doing when you come back.

This is not a mac product! [Posted on 2006-07-13]
Hi, I'm sorry to take up space meant for reviews, but this game certainly doesn't work on macs, even though it was listed as a best-selling mac game.

Very Good Strategy Game [Posted on 2007-03-16]
I was a little late for the computer game market. Tropico was the first game I purchased. Tropico 1 and 2 are from PopTop; that's Railroad Tycoon, the best. At first, I didn't like Tropico 2 Pirates Cove. The game was quite limited in detail to Tropico. But then, in time, I grew to really like it, and I do continue to play it (as a strategy game). It has an aire of Risk, and gambling that the original Tropico did not have. This gave it more REPLAYABILITY.
I gave the game a lower rating than I would like to as I thought it could use some enhancement and improvement. Some game magazine have other versions. I hope this commment was useful.

Tropico2 could it be any more fun? [Posted on 2008-01-18]
I had my reservations about Tropico2 after loving Tropico so much.
I was pleasantly suprised. The gameplay is just different enough from Tropico 1 to feel like a different game. Very fun to play and of course Daniel Indart's musical tracks are every bit as good as in Tropico1. These games have turned me onto a whole new genre of music. You'll find yourself playing just to enjoy the great tunes.
Two thumbs up, mainly because I only have two thumbs. :)

Pirate Sim with Jaunty Pirate Tunes [Posted on 2008-02-16]
The sequel to the tourist resort management sim, "Tropico 2" takes the concept of running a tropical island and then goes back a few hundred years to when said islands were under the control of brutal, ruthless pirates.

As a pirate king or queen, you are given an island with which to make a profitable and well-defended secret pirate base. This will mainly be a shantytown of tents, wooden buildings, and the occasional masonry for higher-class establishments. There are two main groups you need to deal with. The first of these is the pirates; these are the people responsible for looting, pillaging, stealing, and plundering.

Pirates are the higher class of your society, the skilled labor, and the ones that you need to keep happy. Pirates' desires include alcohol, food, money, and various vices. Buildings must be constructed and maintained to keep the pirates from killing each other or killing you.

Captives, on the other hand, are taken from raids or shipwrecks, and are your prisoners; as such, they perform the more menial jobs, and simply need to be kept orderly and afraid. Most prisoners are unskilled, but some have particular abilities like being a cook or being a surgeon. These types of prisoners are necessary for certain jobs and will usually make your pirates happier. In general, prisoners respond well to order - that is, they will stay in line - and pirates respond well to chaos (so that they don't feel hemmed in or controlled, which would make them angry); certain buildings will radiate either order or anarchy, and thus it is best to try to position them near areas used by the correct group.

Your pirate cove is a haven of industry, as well; various crops and resources need to be harvested and converted into things useful for your pirate crews. For example, buildings are mostly constructed out of lumber, which first requires a logging camp. Haulers then carry the wood to a saw mill, which turns it into lumber. Both processes are time-consuming, which may result in a bottleneck if you have too much harvesting and not enough producing. Your industry creates everything from food and drink to buildings to ships to weapons. You can set priorities for each structure so they know how important their work is, depending on the situation.

The main focus of a pirate game will be, of course, piracy. You can make ships at boatyards or shipyards and moor them at docks. These ships have captains and crew, and can be sent on missions like raiding settlements, attacking trade routes, or masquerading as a particular country's ship to cause a war between two countries (which pirates then use to their advantage). Essentially, you give the ship an assignment and some parameters (how to engage and how much money the crew should keep for themselves) and send them off. As you engage with countries, they may find and attack your home base, so you can build forts and watchtowers to prepare and defend yourself.

The graphics in this game are vaguely cartoonish, and look pretty good. The design of the buildings is ramshackle, and appropriately pirate-themed; it looks a lot more "real" than if all the buildings were in mint condition. The interface and displays are all well-integrated into the pirate theme, as well. The sound is good, with some good, jaunty pirate tunes playing in the background.

As a whole, this game is pretty nice. It's a sim game, all right, but it has enough pirate themes to make it interesting. Even though it should feel like it's been done, it's still got enough going for it that it's worth the effort.

8/10.

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