Reviewed: May 30, 2006
Reviewed by: Tyler Whitney
Publisher
Cinemaware Marquee
Developer
Ascaron Entertainment
Released: March 27, 2006
Genre: Simulation
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone
8
8
6
8
7.5
System Requirements
Recommended System
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Editors Note: Buccaneer's Bounty contains three previously released pirate-themed titles. Since GCM did not have the opportunity to review those titles when they original shipped we are reviewing them separately here. Simply average the three scores together if you need to calculate a score for the Buccanner's Bounty compilation compilation.
Originally released in November of 2003, Patrician III: Rise of the Hanse is one of three classic pirate games included in the new compilation from Cinemaware Marquee called Buccaneer’s Bounty. Become a free trader of the high seas; trading goods, growing your reputation along with your cities prosperity.
Patrician III: Rise of the Hanse is a real time trading simulation that puts you in the drivers’ seat, well, behind the ships wheel of your own 1300’s trading ship buying and selling goods to increase your wealth. Along the way you will help the cities you live in gain prosperity and wealth as well as defend them and your ships against pirates of the high seas.
Patrician III: Rise of the Hanse is next in the line of the Patrician trading simulation games. The main objective of the game is to try to achieve the noble status of Patrician in cities you are working out of. Trading and watching your costs and surpluses of your cities is the name of this game. All kinds of different things come into play like hiring crew, using pirates or building up your cities.
You have a very easy to use screen with the main windows being either your high seas view or the view of the town you’re trading in plus a battle view when you get into combat. Whether in campaign, single game or multiplayer mode you are the master of ships and you have to send them out to trade goods in several cities across the world of Northern Europe in the 1300’s.
When in the sea view you have the different cities you can visit and any ships on the ocean. Your ships are always visible along with any ships that yours can see. You can choose any cities you set up a trading office in to visit them or you have to send a ship to any city without your offices in to visit it. You gain wealth by trading in different cities and set up offices there to gain an advantage over your competition.
In the city views you can visit different businesses to trade and hire employees. Your office is where you do business from but you also are in charge of sending out your ships to trade as well as building up the towns you have offices in. The town view has menu bars with important information like population and your money. You can click on your ships to find out about the complement of crew and arms on board as well as the cargo you have.
Patrician III takes into account things like plague, crew fatigue, town prosperity and pirates actions while you play. You have to trade by sending ships out to different towns and buy low while selling high. The games tutorials are an essential for how to play the game and how to trade at a profit. The game comes with several different modes to play; Campaign, single game, and multiplayer.
In single player you can change things before starting the game and play according to those settings to an end of your choosing. You have many things you can change as settings; date, level of game play, level of leader you start as, number of towns and the end game requirements. The game plays out to an end according to how you set up the end game requirements for things like your ranking as a leader of the world, the date or none at all.
In Campaign mode you use one of several game setups and try to accomplish the goals of that campaign. One of the campaigns is a training type while the others are for you to try to gain wealth and prosperity by trading towards the goals of the campaign. Some of these start you off with plenty of goods and ships while others have you a bit behind or even in the middle of the plague.
In multiplayer mode you can either play on one computer, on the Internet or over a LAN. You can play with up to eight players in multiplayer with each either taking turns on the one computer or each playing at the same time on the internet or LAN. The game plays the same with the goals being to gain the title of Patrician, a noble title.
During game play in Patrician III you have to watch not only the cost of goods but what cities need where you plan on going. You can create trade routes for ships and leave instructions with captains about how to trade and send him off with you to worry less about individual ships. You can also create convoys with your ships or other traders to safeguard your ships as pirates can attack you on the high seas. This does not happen often but it can and then you get into the fun part.
Sea battles happen when pirates attack you or you attack them using your ships cannons and other weapons. You can automatically order you ship to attack another one or you can steer your ship yourself and order the cannons pointing toward your enemy vessel to fire by clicking on the fire button. You then have to wait to reload before getting to fire again. You can also have land attacks on cities where marauders or a rival prince attacks a city. You can help defend the city using your ships or you can help to supply the city during their siege.
Most of Patrician III: Rise of the Hanse is more about the trading and gaining wealth, building your city and your own political standing. There are parts for combat using your ships or ground troops but you don’t control any ground troops, only your ships. You can help in the attacks against a town by supplying the city or better preparing the city before any such battles can occur. You can also be a part of any sieges by using your ships against those attacking the city if you have any in harbor. Building better defenses and supplying any towns you have offices in with better goods is the best way to protect the cities of the world.
With such low system requirements you might expect Patricians III: Rise of the Hanse to be a pretty bad looking game but you’d be wrong. The game has basically three types of views; your town view, high seas view and battles. All three views are from a third person God perspective and look good with the menus and different parts of the views easy to figure out.
The graphics are pretty good in the views with little things in it to make it a little more interesting. Whales are surfacing and birds are flying around the ocean view while people are going about their daily lives and even animals mind their own business away from the city. The battles take place again from a third person view and you can handle everything very well.
Patrician III has lots of background sounds going on while you play. The game has sounds for each different business you visit or view your on during gameplay. The first cut scene that explains the game plays out just fine and sounds good.
You get to hear seagulls cawing or whatever it is called that they do when in sea view and other things in the other views according to what is going on. Ships bells and the creak of the wooden ship are there when you’re checking out the wharf and you have the sounds appropriate to each area you will visit in any city. The battles do have the booming shots of the cannons and the swordplay sounds good when you board another ship or get boarded.
Patrician III: Rise of the Hanse is the kind of game that you could play for a long time and never end some of the games. You have several different types of games and the different objectives of each to play toward. You can also play against others using the multiplayer as long as you get an IP address to join a game. If you go to the forum of the Ascaron website you can find others who play on a regular basis over the Internet. Just popping in on a game and seeing how it works is not a thing that you could do easily but I did find others who play regularly on the Internet there.
I played several hours and the years go slowly during gameplay even when you can fast forward things to get your ship to the next port. The seas are vast and actually meeting up with other vessels does happen often especially near ports. Meeting up with pirates does not happen as often but you can adjust settings to add more into games and hunting them down could be another part of the game. You can dispatch better-equipped and manned ships to do just that.
Considering you are getting three complete games that are still relatively new for the low price of $20 (or less if you shop around), Buccaneer's Bounty is a fantastic value, even if you only end up playing one of them.
Patrician III: Rise of the Hanse is a pretty good real time trading simulation. You are head of a trading family and must make all the right decisions to increase your wealth and prosperity. You need to make the right decisions in trading, building the cities your offices are in and your ships management. The game plays very well and is easy to understand but you should play the tutorial to understand how to trade and make a profit. You can also go rogue and hire pirates to do your dirty work for you and hopefully not get caught at it, but be warned the game can find out.