Not being used to games of this genre on the Nintendo console, I recently played Port Royal 4. Having not played the previous three volumes at all, the game from our German neighbors Gaming Minds Studio will be for me an experience apart. Here is my preview on Nintendo Switch...
History
Well, we're here to rule an island on behalf of the king and to expand your... influence over the islands and grow your nation in the maritime realm to bring glory and stability. You will be able to choose your starting nation, but you will have to start with Spain, then you can play the campaign of England during the reign of Elizabeth I, followed by those of the Netherlands and Spain. Each campaign will have its share of surprises and will differ mainly on the needs of your people, and their basic assets.
Graphics & atmosphere
The maritime atmosphere is really present everywhere in the game. Whether it's at the level of the tutorial presented by a cliché pirate or during the game with its really unique and interesting style, we will enjoy getting into the game. carried by somewhat disappointing graphics all the same, as the details are sometimes a little too truncated. Many small freezes here and there are too present not to be disturbing. Even if, fortunately, it is not a nervous game (so it will pass), it is not pleasant for all that. The effort made on the soundtrack is on the other hand really interesting and really won me over from start to finish.
Gameplay
First of all, the first thing to say: the controls of this game are horribly complicated. Sometimes some games that are made for PC are really well suited for console, but here that's not the case in all aspects. Personally, I had a lot of trouble with the selection of cities and certain recurring actions which will require a lot of patience as the targeting is poor. This is all the more disabling when you know that the game will ask you to do it quite often.
The game offers us a tutorial to teach us how to play, but you have to have two hours (approximately) in front of you to fully understand all its mechanics as they are numerous and sometimes complex to take in hand if you want to master the subject. This almost obligatory passage will offer us a nice reward but could have been done directly, for example under the force of help along the campaign as many games do rather than creating a separate section. A bit of a shame, but I can understand that given the huge subject matter, maybe just focusing on the thing was a wise approach. After that, the campaign will ask us to choose a class between merchant, adventurer and pirate, each with advantages and disadvantages. Note: the game does not always offer the correct name/role/avatar, see below to better understand!
Once everything has been assimilated, you will really enjoy managing the trade between your island and the rest of the surroundings and you will put a lot of enthusiasm into becoming the master of these places. The management of the populace and its needs, of production, of the delivery of goods will require a lot of research to find or sell at the best price, etc... It will even come down to a titanic job that we will do with joy. so much this phase is successful and frankly pleasant. Until the dreaded moment: the maritime battles that I wrongly feared... because yes, here too, an effort is made to make it interesting for the player who will be able to intervene and take turn-based actions depending on of its acquired abilities or let the AI handle everything for us. A charming attention which will still require to provide some protection ships to escort our poor honest merchants!
Then will come the time to optimize our routes according to possible encounters, yields according to production costs and earnings, adversaries and our beloved pirates who will regularly come to annoy our fleet. Once cruising speed is reached, the hours pass tirelessly until we find the perfect balance to gradually increase our influence... and that's a real pleasure. A kind of reward for having persevered in this game, and for that alone, we are happy to have succeeded!
Summary
Port Royal 4 on Nintendo Switch is certainly not a bad game. It just suffers from the disease of ports executed a bit haphazardly. Between its gameplay which is really complete and interesting and its controls which are really problematic, this risks tempering many players who do not want to complicate their lives. Fortunately, patches may be able to correct this in the future, which is the joy of consoles these days. And as far as the graphics are concerned, I think that an optimization would also be good to plan to at least solve the freeze problems, even if we can't do anything about the technical limitations of the console. So do I recommend it on Nintendo Switch? if you have no other support, why not! Otherwise, go instead to the PC version which will surely be more playable.
available on...
- Nintendo eShop
- Playstation Store
- Microsoft Store
- Steam
