Genre: City building sim

Format: CD

Developer: Frog City Software

Publisher: Pop Top Software

Mac Port: Westlake Interactive

Mac Publisher: MacSoft

Minimum System Requirements: 800MHz Power Macintosh, Mac OS X 10.2.8, 256MB RAM, 32MB video card, CD ROM drive, 1.8GB free hard disk space

Review Computer: 800 MHz iMac, 256MB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce2 MX video card; and Powerbook 17" 1.5GHz, 512MB RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (AGP 4X) graphics processor with 64 MB of DDR SDRAM

Network Feature: No

Price: $29.99

ESRB Rating: T (suggestive themes, violence)

Availability: Now

Official Website: www.tropico2.com

Whenever I think that there are no constants in my life, no North Star upon which I can affix my hopes and dreams, I remember this: There are no bad video games about pirates. Now, granted, most video games about Pirates came from Sid Meiers, so the odds are slightly weighted in their favor. But now, we have Tropico 2: Pirates Cove, which continues the truism.

First off, Tropico 2: Pirates Cove (T2PC) has no Nazis in it. So it's got that going for it.

You may recall that in the original Tropico, you were the dictator of a Banana Republic. Your job was to keep the population happy while negotiating diplomatic relations with the Communists or the Americans, all the while stuffing your ill-gotten gains into a suitcase, in preparation for the day you'd have to sneak off on your private jet. You could be an industrialist, or you could encourage an agrarian society. You could be a ruthless dictator and kill off the opposition, or you could be benevolent, and hope that you'd ride out any waves of dissent by allowing a free discussion of ideas.

Yeah, well forget all that. You're a Pirate King. Yarrr!

T2PC takes the basic mechanic of Tropico and puts a new spin on it. You no longer have to worry about keeping the workforce happy: your workforce is composed of slaves taken during raids. You don't need their cooperation: you need to keep them terrified! The group you're really beholden to is your mutinous crew. You've got to keep them happy with rum and brothels until you send them off to see to plunder and bring back a fair ("fair" being a relative term) share of the loot to you.

But let's take a step back. For all its trappings, T2PC is not a game about villainy on the bounding main. It's a game about town building. Every scenario has a set of goals (raise X amount of gold, build such-and-such a building), and while pursuing that goal, you have two basic things you have to do: keep the slaves scared, and keep the pirates happy.

The slaves are kept in line with buildings and events that enforce Order and Fear (a City Guard, for example, and a large public Gallows). Conversely, Pirates want Chaos and Pleasure (Gambling Halls and Bars). Now, since the slaves have to work in the piratical areas, this becomes a bit of a problem. You have to make sure that the dens of iniquity are close enough to the slave quarters that the workers will be able to make it to work on time, but far enough away that the don't start feeling that a jail break is possible.

But as happy as you make your pirates, they're never truly happy unless they're out at sea, taking plunder. For this you need ships, along with weapons to take the merchants down. Guess who has to build the facilities for that? Right, your slaves. And once your swarthy crew is out to sea, there's no guarantee they'll run into a ripe trade route, which means you'll have to do some scouting. Suddenly, building a pirate haven in the tropics doesn't seem so simple, does it?

Like the first game, T2PC is really a game about plate spinning. The biggest change is that you don't really have a choice about what kind of ruler you're going to be: you're a pirate, dammit, and your job is to keep the peasants down. But still, it's a balancing act: how to keep the slaves terrified while letting the pirates debauch all they want. Fortunately, T2PC is set up to give you all the information you need at the stroke of a few keys.

A series of political maps will let you see pretty much every relevant attitude on the map. You can chart pirate happiness and slave fear to let you know if you know where trouble areas are going to spring up. You can select from a wide variety of buildings to enforce whatever attitude you want: provided you have the gold to build it and the people to staff it.

The other challenge is that you don't have direct control over your population. You can lead a pirate to a saloon, but you can't make him drink—especially if it's in an area that's hard to get to. If you need more miners to dig ore to turn into cannons, you can set the priority of the Iron Mine higher...but it'll still take a while for the workers to leave their cushy jobs. Not to mention the fact that you have to keep everyone—everyone—fed during your reign. Corn fields eat up space and time, but you'll need them unless you want dead slaves and buccaneers (hint: you don't).

For those looking for a city-building game with a difference, Pirate Cove is a great new addition. It's got a genuinely new take on the genre, but the strategy (i.e. keep everyone "satisfied") isn't all that different. You'll enjoy the new perspective, the new buildings, and learning the strategies. But for those who want a game with the thrill of swashing your buckles against the Spanish Silver fleet, the game may leave you high and dry. You create, arm and man your fleet, but once you send them off to plunder, you lose control over them (other than selecting their mission type and offensive stance). Like the rest of the game, you plan as well as you can, and react to the results. Still, I loved the game's elegant interface that still allowed me access to lots of complex information. And like the original Tropico, T2PC was a lot of fun, with it's bouncy island music and whimsical attitude.

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