Tropico 2: Pirate Cove is less a full sequel to Tropico and more of a change of venue.  Instead of the leader of a banana republic, you are now a pirate king running an island full of cutthroats, scallywags, and wenches in the Caribbean in 17th Century.  The game is not a historical sim, though, deriving as much inspiration from Pirates of the Caribbean as it does from the history books.

A bustling pirate port.

As a pirate leader your primary goal is to amass wealth and there are two ways to accomplish this in the game.  The first is to commission pirate ships and send them on missions of plunder to obtain treasure and wealthy captives to ransom.  The other is to build a thriving economy on your island by providing plenty of entertainment for your pirates and any wealthy captives that you've decided to keep around for a little bit.  As the top pirate on the island, you're entitled to take a cut of the proceeds from both of these activities.

The cogs in your pirate economic machine are the slaves (called captives in the game) that you capture from nearby settlements.  Pirates don't like doing manual labor, so your captives will be working your fields and mines, sweating in your production structures, and providing entertainment for your pirates in taverns, casinos, and houses of ill repute.  Captives are your most important resource - without them none of the structures would function - so keeping them in line is very important to your success.  The game measures each captive's relative resignation to their fate; the more resigned a captive is, the less likely he or she is to try and escape.  To maintain order and fear, you'll need to have some extra pirates on hand to serve as overseers and to build special structures such as gallows and interrogation rooms.

Of course captives aren't the only residents of your island, and wouldn't you know it, your pirates prefer an island that radiates chaos and safety.  Make pirates walk past a gallows on their way to the tavern and they will begin to grumble, while slaves working in an area filled with casinos and drinking halls will begin to get the idea that it wouldn't be so hard to escape with all the carousing that goes on on the island.  Pirate management is further complicated by the fact that as pirates gain experience they advance in rank.  As they move up in the world, so do their tastes.  The tavern they always enjoyed as a low ranking pirate will suddenly seem beneath them and they will demand that you place an inn on the island.  The higher class structures are more expensive, but they also tend to be far more profitable.  However, should you end up with too many chiefs and not enough Indians, you can always assassinate a high ranking pirate or two and replace them with a new conscript.  Keeping your pirates happy is very important as they won't just try to up and leave like captives, they'll openly revolt and try to kick you off of the island.

If so far it seems like Tropico 2 is principally a pirate economic simulator, that's because that's primarily what it is.  There is however another component to the game in that you can send your pirates off on raids or to plunder.  If you can build ships and supply them with rations and weapons, then you can send them on missions into the Caribbean.  Ships can explore the area looking for settlements and trade routes to prey upon, be sent to settlements to bring back more captives and skilled craftsmen, or be used to raid shipping for gold, wealthy captives, and pirate recruits.  The quality of your pirates in the crew has an effect on the amount of plunder gained, as does the relative wealth of the zone of the Caribbean to which you send your ship.  Raiding is risky business, though, and you could lose your ship or have your captain taken prisoner.

Page 2 »