Anyone have any experience with this release? Was thinking of buying on the gamefly sale but wanted to be sure it wasnt a MoO3 type debacle.

On word in advance...I have never played it, so I'm just jugding from what I have read on the offcial forums.

Probably worth a look if you are into eye-candy and a more "accessible" game.

Stay away if you like realism (for example the developers are somehow married to the "improvement" that any ressources you need to build soemthign are taken from the city market - you can't provide them via ship or from an existing storehouse) or if you already found PR2 too easy.

But even if I don't think it is an real improvement, it is far less devastating then unfinished MoO3 for sure. Just unnecessary, IMO.

I've played Port Royale 3 and I can reccommend it.

There are two campaigns and a Free Game mode. The campaigns serve more like tutorials. Besides, each of them has a story. The first campaign will guide you in a path of a trader, in the second you will take a role of an adventurer. After you complete them, they will transform to a free game, so you can continue playing them if you wish.

The principle of trading remains the same. Buy cheap, sell as expensive as you can. After some time, you can build your factories, hire workers and build residences for them. The products will go in your warehouse. In Port Royale 3, you can hire a steward for your warehouse. This will automate the warehouse and make your life easier. You can tell him to sell goods, buy raw materials for your factories, keep raw materials so he won't sell them or specify which products should stay in the warehouse(and the amount of it too). Trade routes are now easier to manage. You just choose a convoy, select towns which will the convoy trade with and choose a script. Then activate the route and watch how your wealth grows. But if you wish, you can still create your own script and tell your captain where, what and how much to buy/sell or transfer between convoy and warehouse. In my opinion, this is not necessary, as the scripts are well made. There is even script for supplying your factories and selling the goods they produce. This makes life of a merchant in PR3 much easier.

The path of an adventurer includes many naval fights, attacking towns and pirates hideout. Frankly, the combat system from the first Port Royale is still unbeaten, as there you could use all your ships in a naval fight. Here, you can select a maximum of three ships from your convoy that can fight. But at least you can use them simultaneously, unlike in Port Royale 2, where you can only use one ship at the same time. Convoys will have the basic crew available automatically. But it's vital to hire more sailors if you want to fight other convoys. There are three types of ammunition. In Port Royale 3, you don't have to buy the basic cannon balls, as they are always available. The other ammunition types are chain-shots and grape-shots, which you have to buy in towns, along with sabers and muskets. The rest of combat is very similiar to the games predecessors. You can sink, plunder or take ships from enemies convoys.

You can also marry a viceroys daughter, as you can in the previous games. But first, you must have your own manor in a town which you rule. You can obtain your own town either from a viceroy, or by force. A viceroy will give you a town if you are popular there, if the status of the town is Prosperity(the satisfaction of citizens is 75% or higher), if you have enough workers there. In addition, your popularity in the nation of which town you want to rule must be also quite high. A viceroy will not give you command of a town when the nation have 5 or less towns in possession. I don't know if you are able to have your own hideout, like you was in the first Port Royale. I think yes, since I believe you can become a pirate in PR3.

Another novelty lies in acquiring higher ranks. In the previous games, you only had to increase your wealth. Now, you also have to hire more workers and enlarge the storage in your convoys(which you can do simply by buying more ships to the convoys). The rest of the game is the same as the previous ones. You can buy pieces of maps, save castaways on sea, etc.

In general, I find Port Royale 3 a good game. In my opinion, it's better than Port Royale 2, but the first Port Royale is still the best from the franchise because of the combat system. Port Royale 3 is the easiest game from the franchise. The campaigns won't last long. I finished the trading campaign in 3 days(cca 9 hours) and the adventure campaign in one day(cca 3 hours). The only problem I have with this game is the flickering when I turned on anisotropic filtering. That I think is problem related do AMD graphics cards.