Port Royale 4

A typical day for a barrel of rum usually isn’t very interesting, but then this is the 16th century. Taken from the distillery to the port, the barrel’s loaded onto a ship to head towards an unknown destination. The journey is far from smooth; storms batter the ship before pirates seal its fate, sending it to the bottom of the ocean. Floating on the surface, the barrel is eventually washed up on a Caribbean beach. Here it somehow becomes the catalyst for the development of a new town. Port Royale 4 players can recreate every bit of this introductory cinematic, although that may take a bit of t...

A good management game with superb visuals, offering enough freedom to let you build your own merchant empire in the Caribbean to your heart’s content.

Port Royale 4 is an economy management game set during the Caribbean age of piracy. It nails its trade but walks the plank in a few other areas.

Some might be confused into thinking Port Royale 4 is a naval-centric game. It’s not, though players do have to manage a large fleet of ships. It’s a trading management/town builder set in the late 16th century with the Caribbean as the backdrop. Players expecting a swashbuckling adventure will be disappointed by the lack of cannon fire and the preponderance of menus. This game is more “yo-ho-ho trade a bottle of rum” than many fans of the era would likely enjoy. However, for management sim aficionados, there’s some fun to be had.

If the events of 2020 have ruined your grand travel plans for the year, perhaps a trip to the sunny Caribbean is in the cards for you. Port Royale 4 offers a particularly unique opportunity to escape to paradise if, of course, your idea of vacation includes building plantations, poring over trade routes, and fighting pirates. Port Royale is a series of trading simulation and strategy games where you compete with other nations to dominate the Caribbean by establishing successful trade and maintaining profitable cities. The newest addition to this early-2000s series is beautiful and expansive, w...

Port Royale 4 has taught me something. It's taught me that things are always better when people listen to me. Now, I'm not saying that developers Gaming Minds Studios directly acted upon my preview, particularly my complaints about the tutorials being too slow and in desperate need of a skip button for the long monologues, but the tutorials now have a skip button. Success.

I’m still waiting for the definitive pirate experience on consoles. We haven’t had a memorable pirate gaming experience on consoles ever since the release of the masterpiece known as Sid Meier’s Pirates way back in 2004. Sea of Thieves tried (well, it’s still trying), but it just doesn’t have the same level of charm as that title from sixteen years ago. Assassin’s Creed IV is also a memorable contender, but it’s an Assassin’s Creed game first, pirate simulator second. Not to m...

Port Royale 4 is a big game that puts all of its eggs into one basket: trading. This leaves other parts such as building and sea combat very basic for such an involved title. If you are into min-maxing and being on top of a great many things to keep your trading empire the best version of itself, you will have a blast in PR4.  However, if you are someone who generally likes strategies and wants to have a good time conquering the 17th-century Caribbean, you might get bored due to the lack of...

Port Royale 4 might have quirks that are interesting at a glance such as automated trade routes and a vast map. Looking closer, you'll realize that its core mechanics are cumbersome and unintuitive, its naval battles are plainly uninteresting, and there's not a whole lot that would seem enticing. It lacks all the dynamism despite a time period known for swashbuckling excitement.

The complex systems at Port Royale 4’s core never flourish under the weight of its uninspired moment-to-moment gameplay and lack of structural balance.

Port Royale 4 starts off strong, but its solid trading and management gameplay just become repetitive over time, eventually turning into a waiting game as numbers slowly get bigger. Managing cities and trade routes also never really overcome the somewhat awkward controls on console, and combat never becomes interesting. Still, if you absolutely love trading and seeing your empire grow is all the reward you need, Port Royale 4 might be for you.

Port Royale 4 is a trading simulation game developed by Gaming Minds and published by Kalypso Media. It’s the latest entry in the Port Royale franchise and, similar to previous entries, takes place in the Caribbean. Port Royale 4 comes with a campaign mode and a free mode.