Posted December 26, 2008
Anyone who likes tycoon games should try Patrician 3. You can start with a single ship and a pitiful few coins in your purse, and in a few (game) months can have trade offices and warehouses in several cities, ships running 24/7 on automatic routes just to supply your industries (and deliver the products you make), and heavily armed convoys hunting for pirate ships. Everything you do matters - the goods you supply to a town will help it survive the harsh winter and help it grow. Speaking of winter - in the winter months you can really feel the pain of expensive food and scarcity. Or abuse them, of course, by selling the stuff in your warehouses for very high prices.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The more influence you gain in cities, the more political power you will have - if you become Lord Mayor you get to decide over extending the city walls and organizing the defenses. On the other hand, you could also become a pirate. Just load up a few ships with powerful hardware, hire a ruthless crew and attack those helpless merchant ships. Or you can send convoys to the Mediterranean to explore it to find cities where you can buy wine and pottery.
You can take out loans or grant them to other merchants, send goods over the land bridge between Hamburg and Lübeck, perform less than legal transactions in the side room of a tavern, help fight the black plague, help extend the local cathedral, marry, bribe officials in the bath house, organize huge celebrations, and more... And everything you do has an effect on your reputation, availability and prices of goods, etc.
The game has the same addictive "just-one-more-turn" feel as many other games, even though it isn't turn-based. The game speed is easily adjustable, and the pause button will slow it down to an almost-but-not-entirely-paused pace that gives you more than enough time for what you want to do without completely stopping the game.
All of this is packaged quite nicely. The cities each have a different look and feel to them, and the snow coverage in winter even depends on the local climate. The people walking around in the cities is a nice touch. The user interface is quite user friendly, with a few clickable icons and a main menu. Many city functions are activated by visiting (clicking) the right building: city hall, tavern, ship yard, etc. There may be a few things you'll spend some time looking for while playing for the first time, but the tutorials are quite good.
There are a few campaigns, one of which is a kind of "first" campaign (giving a few hints and pointers now and then), each of which will keep you playing for many hours. Beside the campaigns there is also a sandbox mode, in which you can choose your own goals (and other options). And there is a multiplayer mode, but I haven't tried that yet.
The game runs stable and smooth in the highest resolution (1280x1024) on my XP machine, without any hiccups or glitches, even when alt-Tabbing.
The only gripe I have is that the music gets a bit repetitive after some time. Thankfully, you can turn it down without disabling the other sounds, and have your hi-fi player provide your own.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The more influence you gain in cities, the more political power you will have - if you become Lord Mayor you get to decide over extending the city walls and organizing the defenses. On the other hand, you could also become a pirate. Just load up a few ships with powerful hardware, hire a ruthless crew and attack those helpless merchant ships. Or you can send convoys to the Mediterranean to explore it to find cities where you can buy wine and pottery.
You can take out loans or grant them to other merchants, send goods over the land bridge between Hamburg and Lübeck, perform less than legal transactions in the side room of a tavern, help fight the black plague, help extend the local cathedral, marry, bribe officials in the bath house, organize huge celebrations, and more... And everything you do has an effect on your reputation, availability and prices of goods, etc.
The game has the same addictive "just-one-more-turn" feel as many other games, even though it isn't turn-based. The game speed is easily adjustable, and the pause button will slow it down to an almost-but-not-entirely-paused pace that gives you more than enough time for what you want to do without completely stopping the game.
All of this is packaged quite nicely. The cities each have a different look and feel to them, and the snow coverage in winter even depends on the local climate. The people walking around in the cities is a nice touch. The user interface is quite user friendly, with a few clickable icons and a main menu. Many city functions are activated by visiting (clicking) the right building: city hall, tavern, ship yard, etc. There may be a few things you'll spend some time looking for while playing for the first time, but the tutorials are quite good.
There are a few campaigns, one of which is a kind of "first" campaign (giving a few hints and pointers now and then), each of which will keep you playing for many hours. Beside the campaigns there is also a sandbox mode, in which you can choose your own goals (and other options). And there is a multiplayer mode, but I haven't tried that yet.
The game runs stable and smooth in the highest resolution (1280x1024) on my XP machine, without any hiccups or glitches, even when alt-Tabbing.
The only gripe I have is that the music gets a bit repetitive after some time. Thankfully, you can turn it down without disabling the other sounds, and have your hi-fi player provide your own.