Tropico 2: Pirate Cove

Captain Morgan is standing on his new frigate, because the "Pirate King" has ordered him to go on plunder in a heavy guarded Spanish region, the "caribbean islands". After the last man has fulfilled his gambling pleasure in the casino and the first mate finally came from the brothel , the sails could be set and the journey began. As Captain Morgan anticipated (not feared because what would a pirate be if he felt fear!) the journey was rather difficult and after 10 days on sea with only the never changing serration made of corn they Spanish armada took them by surprise and the newly made frigate joined the other wracks of former great ships on the bottom of the sea. Only Captain Morgan survived and swore to come back to the island where the new Rum Distillery was making the first bottles of rum and  the Pastries  were so delicious.

I often found myself supprised that I; was loudly singing to the soundtrack of tropico 2 which is phenomenal and is just a real great part of giving the caribbean, pirate, freedom, ANARCHY! feeling to the player. So lets dive into my review.

In " Tropico 2: Pirate Cove" the player  gets into the role of a "pirate king".  Only starting with a few pirates and some prisoners for the hard work, everything is in the hand of the player as the good interlink between different game mechanics gives grate variety of options and play style.
- Decide to let the prisoners be happy and satisfied their needs or let them bee unwelcome on the island and risk them running away and kill untrained pirates.
- Ask yourself the question if it is better to have happy pirates who survive a plunder and invest in their swordplay, canon, navigate ... Skills or use the pirates as disposable resource and let them go on a threatening plunder trip if they are to angry with you so they may "accidentally" die.
- Do you want to create a island where you produce what you use or do you want to live the "real" pirate life where you buy everything from the black market. And the gold? Yes the gold comes from many plunder trips
This many options and different style in gaming (with if chosen highly unorthodox methods) and the change in scene (being "pirate king" not El Comandante) helps greatly for the agony and sarcasm which is one of the main assets that connect all 5 games of the series.

Only one thing is a must if you don't want to end in a disasters chaos in tropico and that is separation of prisoners and pirates as these to group of people have different and some times opposite demands. A great challenge for the player who's managing and planning ahead skills are greatly tested by this mechanic. Also the mechanic that farms use their facility is a challenging one for the player but gives a great reality factor to the game

The plunder trips are a essential part of the game ass it is the only (real) way to get money to your island paradise. Given the fact that this part is very important to the game it is developed in a quiet plain an small dimension. Not being able to navigate your ship or the fact that no combat system is included in the ship trips is something greatly beneficial for the whole gaming experience in tropico 2 as the economy part of the game and the focus on your own island is not uninterrupted. But the addition of some other assets during the plunder voyages would have helped the game. For example a better co-up between ships where you can command the whole of your own armada, more strategic options on the map menu and also on the different voyage types would have been advisable.
Also very wexing is the 6 ship limit which prevents the player stretch out the separation need of the different groups and many other game mechanic. I mean it would just be interesting to see what happens if 250 pirates are covering the whole island and 15 galleons stand ready for departure.
Some assets of the game menus are also very frustrating. Especially assigning more than 10 pirates to a school, trying to clear an area from trees, gift more than 2 pirates with a present ... is very difficult because of bad mechanics in the menus. And for example makes the whole game object of school and educating pirates nearly useless as it is not fun but hard work.

What I also always wondered is why the rank of the pirate is shown differently in different statistics. And the mechanic of 3 changeable service qualities in the different pleasure houses never was understandable to me. Way so many difference in serving quality to choose when you also have 3 types of different building for different ranks of the pirate? And why does a low rank pirate not enjoy the higher ranked service?

In conclusion Tropic 2 is a game with great character (and has the requirement for a classic) because the positive aspects just stand out and are rememberablefor me as for example the great music, the good humor in the game and the (even improvable) plunder trips which give the player a great long time purpose. These positive parts let me overlook the difficulties in the menus and some rough edges of the game that could have been managed better. Even today I would recommend everyone who can put up with old graphics and difficult menu management to try this great strategy game where it is show that real content can make good games and music is a important part of the game