Port Royale 3: Pirates and Merchants

 PC
User Score
6.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 73 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 73
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 73
  3. Negative: 20 out of 73
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  1. Hexteque
    May 7, 2012
    5
    This game has a lot of potential-- and for about 10 hours it's a lot of fun. However, you start to run into disheartening shortfalls (can't defend towns, clunky combat, tedious micromanagement to get around simple flaws) and you have to cut your losses and stop playing. I played for 15 hours before realizing my experience had peaked. There is a lot of potential if only the developersThis game has a lot of potential-- and for about 10 hours it's a lot of fun. However, you start to run into disheartening shortfalls (can't defend towns, clunky combat, tedious micromanagement to get around simple flaws) and you have to cut your losses and stop playing. I played for 15 hours before realizing my experience had peaked. There is a lot of potential if only the developers had been given a month or two to finish smoothing out the rough spots. Maybe an expansion pack will clear up these issues?… Expand
  2. mindmurderer
    May 5, 2012
    7
    Started a Adventure game, towns are in same spot from the second game, and newer graphics. Some towns do not produce same things as example San Juan used to produce wood and brick, not anymore. So far the only tricky thing is trading. There is this slider bar to buy or sell and it likes to go off as im still choosing, or when I click on a item it takes a couple of clicks for the slider barStarted a Adventure game, towns are in same spot from the second game, and newer graphics. Some towns do not produce same things as example San Juan used to produce wood and brick, not anymore. So far the only tricky thing is trading. There is this slider bar to buy or sell and it likes to go off as im still choosing, or when I click on a item it takes a couple of clicks for the slider bar to appear and stay open so I have made some accidental purchases. Another thing that kind of upsets me... Its nothing big, just the lack of flags to choose from. Combat does take getting used to since at the moment I can use 3 (instead of 5) warships on the map...AT THE SAME TIME. weird right? haven't seen that for a while. (Since Port Royale) I kind of liked the 1 VS 5 combat. take a sloop of war and run circles around galleons shooting chain shot at each one until they cant move then switch to grape shot, kill the crew board and voila i have 5 ships to sell/ give to viceroy.. and you could call in your ships when health got low. this combat is very different but soon i will adapt

    Another thing so far i miss, is TREASURE HUNTING. you still get map pieces, but no disembarking and wandering the countryside looking for the treasure.. THAT I MISS SO FAR. Why did they have to take that..... WAHHHHHH, oh well i guess i can get used to it. but the combat, lack of disembarking on land, and lack of flags is why I can't give it a 10. the thing though is i have battled a pirate town and.... it is pretty lame, nothing like PR2 in combat, you land and your troops fight kind of like boarding a ship... and i have yet to have a sword fight, i seriously doubt it is in the game.

    The Devs should really think about putting those things into the game. as it stands for me right now, I will continue to play PR2 for those certian aspects. This game will grow on me but it is not the classic of PR2. i am semi-dissapointed so far will update as i go along.    … Expand
  3. alexnode
    May 9, 2012
    7
    Nice game with quite a lot of depth, developers fixed a glitch I found... next day and I was very impressed! As usual it is a great trading game with a few annoyances like capturing a city is a cinematic sequence and the defence of towns are not depended on the player.
  4. Dudster
    May 10, 2012
    7
    First off as reply to the critic complaining that you can't defend your cities: There are two towers in each city that enemy ships will have to destroy. I have no idea how a "tiny fleet" killed those two towers.

    The critic: PR3 has a very solid trading system. It seems you influence everything with what you do. Towns have a certain prosperity depending on the wares that are available    First off as reply to the critic complaining that you can't defend your cities: There are two towers in each city that enemy ships will have to destroy. I have no idea how a "tiny fleet" killed those two towers.

    The critic:

    PR3 has a very solid trading system. It seems you influence everything with what you do. Towns have a certain prosperity depending on the wares that are available there - they grow if they have abundant goods, and they have bad times if you keep buying everything up completely. Towns will dislike you if you buy goods they need for themselves (like all food), and they will like you if you sell goods they require. So if you don't want to be disliked everywhere (towns which really dislike you don't let you enter peacefully), you will have to buy and sell carefully. You can even starve out towns by buying all food over a few weeks.

    Every town produces five things and requires ressources (from other towns) for some. You can transport those ressources for them, and even build own businesses on different islands, transporting the raw materials for yourself only. You can also buy houses and rent them out, as well as a few buildings beneficial to the towns themselves (like a hospital)

    Trading between towns can be fully automatized. You set up a route, then you can select a behaviour from profit, transporting material for your own businesses, doing trade beneficial to the towns (providing what they need most) and a few others - and the convoys will decide for themselves what exactly to buy and sell.

    You can also set up a merchant at your storehouses, who automatically sells wares, keeps raw materials back and more.

    Convoys can have up to 3 fighting ships, which you can manually control or automatize. In combat you can either shoot cannonballs to destroy enemy ships, or projectiles to destroy their sails (slow down), or even decimate their crew so you can board them and take over the ships. It's easier said than done, since you need to reef sails in the right moment and stay long enough in the enemy ships vicinity for the boarding to take place.

    Further you can take over cities by force, or by peaceful manners. You can also get a "letter of marque" from one of the four nations and attack their convoys during times of war, without consequences from the other nations.

    The two campaigns you can play are more like tutorials, and the games turn into "free play" ones once you're done. There's not much there, and the whole game is more of the Sandbox concept.

    There is also a multiplayer, but there aren't any additional trading or coop options. Also the game has basically no diplomacy at all.

    Could've done better, but so far if you enjoy a beautiful trading game, this one certainly has a beautiful oeconomy. Ship combat isn't really somethnig that sucked me in, but it's fun once a while.    … Expand
  5. Rygar
    May 13, 2012
    5
    Port Royale 3 is a copy of Port Royale 2, with fewer features, and an incredibly obtuse UI. Immigrants, spices, trade goods from Europe? All gone. Trying to buy or sell with the new UI is, at best, frustrating. Trying to navigate the map is ridiculous, it took me 20 minutes and 3 google queries to figure out how to get a ship to sail out of town.

    If you want a great game in    Port Royale 3 is a copy of Port Royale 2, with fewer features, and an incredibly obtuse UI. Immigrants, spices, trade goods from Europe? All gone. Trying to buy or sell with the new UI is, at best, frustrating. Trying to navigate the map is ridiculous, it took me 20 minutes and 3 google queries to figure out how to get a ship to sail out of town.

    If you want a great game in this genre, buy Port Royale 2. If you're a fan of Port Royale 2, and you have a very high tolerance for frustration, and can handle fewer features, then buy Port Royale 3.    … Expand
  6. Estus
    Jun 26, 2014
    7
    Nunca joguei os jogos anteriores, mas Port Royale 3 foi uma excelente escolha para entrar nesse estilo de jogo da série. Possui um ótimo tutorial narrado, gráficos agradáveis, e um sistema de gerenciamento simples. O jogo pode te proporcionar muitas horas de diversão!

Awards & Rankings

55
#55 Most Shared PC Game of 2012

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
54

Mixed or average reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 17
  3. Negative: 5 out of 17
  1. GameWatcher
    Oct 25, 2012
    65
    Port Royale 3 is not a bad game, not by any means, and I'd say on the whole it does a better job of things than Patrician IV did – it's still not fantastic though. Definitely one to pick up cheap if you can find it, but still worth picking up all the same.
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  2. SpazioGames
    Oct 12, 2012
    65
    Port Royale 3 has a major flaw to bring everything at once, leaving after 7-8 hours of gaming on a repetitive scale and marked with a pattern of gameplay that's no longer able to offer real surprises.
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  3. Eurogamer Italy
    Oct 3, 2012
    70
    With the goal of approaching the console market, Port Royale 3 has simplified too many of its mechanics, resulting in a step back in the strategy genre.
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