Port Royale 4 is a Caribbean trading simulation game from Kalypso Media that will be fully released on Sept. 25, 2020. It's the sequel to 2012's Port Royale 3: Pirates & Merchants. Port Royale 4 adds new features, new commodities to trade, and a revamped fame system that tasks players with delivering goods to treasure ships. The game is all about buying low and selling high, keeping towns supplied with vital goods. This title does get grindy very fast, but the enjoyment of Port Royale 4 comes from manipulating the economy and finding ways to fast-track income growth.
Port Royale 3 was a solid trading sim game but there were plenty of places it needed improvement. There was no nuance in city-building. Events handed out by the Viceroy were repetitive and plain. The real-time combat system was simultaneously hard to control and incredibly forgiving, leading to strung-out battles with very little action. Players could simply plop down enough production buildings and housing and watch citizen-slaves create products. On top of that, each town was hidden behind a loading screen, so going from the map screen to a city's screen took 30 seconds each time. The most important issue that plagued Port Royale 3 was the combat, though. It was too difficult to control in real time, and the fastest and weakest ships were strong enough to take down any pirates.
Port Royale 4 goes a long way to fix many of the issues. The graphics package in the beta version is already better than Port Royale 3, and it's suspected that graphics will be substantially improved when the full game launches. It's installed a seamless transition from the zoomed-in town view to the zoomed-out menu, which fixes the loading screen issue perfectly. The zoom level is also intertwined with the simulation speed. Zooming in slows the simulation speed down so players can micromanage trade routes, deals and manage events in city view. Scrolling the camera back increases the advance of in-game time, so in map view convoys travel across the water faster.
Port Royale 4's Biggest Changes From PR3
The biggest fix in Port Royale 4 is the overhaul of the combat system. It's moved from a real-time tactical battle to a turn based affair. That might sound like a step backwards, but it's the right decision for the pirate series. So far, the combat is much more dependent on having the strongest ships. It's vital to staff ships with enough sailors to man all the cannons effectively. Using different kinds of ammo and tactics to stop opponents, players have to navigate the hexagonal battlefield fending off pirates and opposing nations.
City building is similar to building cities in Civilization 6, with proximity to other buildings providing bonuses. Placing towns correctly speeds up builder productivity and keeps citizens happy. In Port Royale 3, it was easy to drop buildings anywhere. With new updates, Port Royale 4 makes city building much more important and rewarding.
The fixes this game made from the last edition in the series may bring the Port Royale franchise back into the spotlight. Gone are the frequent and long loading screens. The visuals were given a tune-up and city building was redesigned. The changes to combat, whether or not players liked the real-time strategy of Port Royale 3, are for the better. As long as this game gets a strong final graphic boost upon launch, Port Royal 4 is going to be one of the top games of fall 2020, well worth the $45 asking price on Steam.
