Patrician 3

by Encore

Product Features

• The 3rd installment of the classic real-time city-building simulation
• Destroy hidden pirate lairs, build new towns and establish new trade routes
• Astutely trade the surplus from one region to those in need
• Grow your small towne into a major trading center
• For 1-8 players over LAN or Internet

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000DBK2G
• Item Weight: 4 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: October 14, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,162 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The best selling old-world real-time city-building simulation is back! Build cities, manage economies and battle pirates in the only game of its kind based in the Middle Ages. Grow your small town into a major trading center wielding tremendous economic power.

Product Description

Based on the award winning Patrician IIProduct InformationPatrician III is a real-time trading simulation featuring elements ofconstruction and the historical background of maritime trade in Northern Europeduring the 1300's.  As a resident of a medieval town your goal is to risefrom the status of a simple insignificant trader to that of a Patrician andperhaps even become the head of the Hanseatic League. You can raise yourstanding through town improvement and diplomacy or fill your coffers throughpiracy and smuggling.Will you succeed in your career starting as a small trader and rising to aninfluential Patrician?  Will your fame help you rise to governor or leaderof the Hanse?Product Features Immersive trade economics sea battles diplomacy and intrigue Establish and build your own towns and production facilities Discover the dark side: weapons dealing piracy bribery and blackmail Obtain missions including hunting pirates smuggling collecting treasure maps Confront medieval plagues hunger storms and sieges Seasonal and enhanced weather effects: rain snow ice and trees and bushes in bloom - creating a real sense of time and with effects that also impact on production and transportation Extensive building options such as warehouses mints elementary schools barns churches Extend the city walls increase defenses form your own city guard Advanced Artificial Intelligence adjusts difficulty based on your experience and ability Game modes: Single player Campaign Multiplayer (up to 8 players via 1 PC LAN or Internet) Windows Requirements Windows 98 Me 2000 XP Pentium III 450 MHz processor or higher 64 MB of RAM 660 MB Hard Drive space 32 MB Direct 3D compatible 3D accelerated Graphics Card 8X CD-ROM drive DirectX compatible Sound Card DirectX 7.1 or higher (included on CD) Network card for LAN multiplayer mode Internet connection for online multiplayer mode 

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strange Topic, Fun Game, October 22, 2004

By 

Griswel (Rochester, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Patrician 3 (CD-ROM)

Who knew that being a member of the Hanseatic League would make for a fun game? Anyone who figured out that zoning can be fun (SimCity), or pretending to have a real life can be fun (The Sims) knows that the topic can be unusual if the gameplay is there. In fact, games that aren't clones of other games are a welcome sight. Patrician 3 is a fun game on a topic few would expect to see in a game.

This is a trading sim. You start in Luebeck in 1345, with one ship, and build an empire. You buy more ships, set up trade routes, build manufacturing facilities, and try to keep the people of your hometown supplied with all of their wants and needs. Patrician 3 is probably most like Machiavelli: the Prince (AKA Merchant Prince).

The graphics are fine, once you recognize that their purpose is to present information. There's a map of the North Sea, and a map for each town. The battle graphics are serviceable, but don't look for 3-D like Pirates of the Carribean, there is an overhead map with icons.

Gameplay is what Patrician 3 offers. As one reviewer said, this is an oddly compelling game. If you like the genre, this is a "one-more-turn" experience on the order of Civ 3, though Patrician 3 does not have the replayability that Civ does. You can shuffle what cities are good at, and there is a campaign game, but each successive Patrician 3 game tends to be too similar to be playing it week after week. Nonetheless, you'll have plenty of fun before you tire of it, and you'll come back to it months later unlike so many other games.

Beware, however, that Patrician 3 is not supported on many laptops. I installed and ran the game fine, but when I tried to play again I could not initialize the graphics. Ascaron is very clear that they do not support laptops because of the limited graphics "cards" these typically have.

There are not too many changes from Partician 2, but this is a fine game for any new player who likes trade-and-build games, and any Patrician 2 fan who doesn't need a major overhaul to justify upgrading.

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Patrician III is an oddly intense diamond in the rough., January 2, 2004

By 

"dpharr7" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Patrician 3 (CD-ROM)

Patrician III is highly detailed, and those of you who prefer games to have great depth will enjoy what this simulation has to offer. Similarly, those of you who set aside realism for increased action and speed of play may find this game slow or frustrating. I feel that given a chance, this game is worthwhile to anyone willing to explore outside the usual areas of profitable game development.

The place where Patrician III departs from other games is the setting. Many who consider themselves historically knowledgeable may find the Hanseatic League something they just don't know much about. Simply put, this is a period of time where privately run businesses formed alliances for the greater interest of everyone. At first play seems like it doesn't matter when this game takes place. If the designers set this fifty thousand years into the future, replaced the map of the Baltic with a star-field, and put a Star Wars label on it, it would sell like crazy. But that is not the point; the point is that this is a historical simulation, where obstacles of this period determine player concerns.

One feature of life in this period is that there isn't a lot of technology to rely on. Your mission is to make your mark on a world that is rapidly changing. Lords and Ladies are being replaced by Merchants and Councils. Access to boats is what determines if a place is deemed habitable. These are the workhorses of a map covered by water. But although boats and transporting goods is the key to the game, Sea Dogs and Homeworld fans will be disappointed to find out that there are only four types. These types are also only open to a few modifications. However, with these few options, the game presents an unexpected element of sail combat. Your captain, your crew, your weapons and your seamanship will all affect the outcome of battle. While small, these flares-at-sea are reminiscent of the madly fun battles in the old game Pirates!, by Microprose. They make every voyage a risk, without detracting from the real focus.

But the game is mainly concerned with finely controlled economics. Population, local manufacturing preferences, the sentiment of the populace, as well as good old supply and demand wreak havoc on prices. It is dizzying to watch, as prices will change before your eyes and with each barrel of beer or spices you buy or sell. It is a necessary evil. Since money and fame are the name of the game, much of gameplay depends on how the player copes with change: Bring goods to one of 24 towns to earn money and make people happy; Use your money to build businesses, rental houses, and public facilities in order to make yourself popular; Gain status and station with your popularity and gain control over the town and more. Meanwhile, expect a number of competent competitors to be doing the same in their own hometowns. Alternately, the game includes the option to play up to 7 other human opponents over the internet. This option may give this game the stamina it needs. The previous two iterations were well received in the European market and now enjoy a small but dedicated following.

What is pleasing is that there is enough going on to begin with. Even the novice levels feels like there is too much going on at first. You want to revisit the gentle waters of the tutorials rather than the frozen north seas in winter. The immersion is another unmarketed but exclusive aspect Patrician III . A game like Half-Life makes you feel like you are actually in Freeman's suit. However, Patrician III's weakest aspect is probably creating a game world that seems real. In fact, at times it looks like a simply drawn façade for the impressive mechanicals behind the curtain. Where this game captures you is inside your head, not on the screen. You will soon be calculating your moves like Kasparov, planning the loads you must take, deducting taxes, and operating expenses and making sure you still have enough for the church extension you promised to your fellow citizens. It is maddening to see how few gold coins a week can bring in. At the same time, there is so much to do: purchase more cutlasses, build middle class houses, recalculate your minimum pickup cost on three different goods since your blasted competitor built that cattle farm.

Although these opportunities for excitement are worthwhile, it is important to remember that in Patrician III business is the heart of everything you do and money is the blood that pumps through it. As a guideline, if it is not profitable, don't do it. While the many illegal activities have consequences, the benefits are well balanced. The game even tracks your reputation with the seedier element of this society. If your are careless you will suffer punishment that hurts your wallet and your reputation.

This game should not be recommended to everyone. You need patience. Even though it is in real-time, you need to enjoy building something slowly. You also need an ability to enjoy while learning since the learning curve in this game can be devious. Anyone who will give this game a long look, will be rewarded. You may even see done here that nameless missing thing in so many other games collecting dust.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Plenty of new features make this worthwhile, August 21, 2004

By 

chefdevergue (Spokane, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Patrician 3 (CD-ROM)

The common criticism of this game is that it is merely Patrician II in some new packaging. Insofar as experienced P2 players will have no problem diving right into P3, I suppose that is true. However, there are more than enough new features in P3 that will challenge even an experienced P2 veteran's learning curve.

In particular, the new version guarantees that becoming Mayor or Alderman actually means something now. A mayor now has access to the town coffers, which means that if you are some sort of Hanseatic Boss Tweed, you can line your pockets with impunity --- that is, until the next election, when the citizens of your possibly bankrupt town may decide enough is enough and toss you out on your patrician behind. If on the other hand you are more civic-minded, the game now allows you (as both a Councillor & a Mayor) to contribute actively to the overall health & prosperity in the town. In P2, being a Councillor was largely symbolic --- you got to vote for Mayor once a year, and participate in the occasional Hanseatic vote, and that was it. As Alderman, strangely there was even less power to wield, so it never really represented a significant improvement of your fortunes. You are also given the opportunity to suck up to the local noble (or antagonize him, if you are so inclined). How you choose to deal with the local Prince can determine whether or not your town finds itself under siege. Sieges have also been tweaked to allow you a more active role rather than sitting by helplessly waiting to see if the attacking army will break through the gates.

Additions of civic buildings like a school & a mint allows you to have an influence on a town's growth, and the inclusion of Hanseatic missions providing for the contstruction of entirely new towns gives P3 an entirely new depth. The missions can sometimes be fairly straightforward, but they can also leave you struggling to provide the necessary resources --- a failed mission will leave you in extremely poor standing with the Hanse, so proceed with caution.

The ability now to save your shipping routes is a welcome time-saving addition. Less welcome (but accurate nonetheless) is the tendency of the northern ports to freeze solid during the winter months. Watch the ports freeze and then watch your finely tuned trading operation unravel all across the map --- what fun!

For those who find endless trading and management of municipal infrastructure to be a bit tedious, P3 now offers you more opportunities to duke it out with the pirates who seem to litter the north seas. Escorting fugitives and other travellers can find you in the midst of a battle with a pirate, and if you play it right, can provide you with a nice hulk for the low low price of a few sailors' lives. Hanseatic missions will also allow you to attack pirate hideouts which can sometimes involve fleets of ships blasting away at each other. The potential for violence and mayhem has vastly increased from P2, but strangely, the sea battle graphics still are rather primative. Anyone who has played Ascaron's "Port Royale II" knows that the sea battle graphics can be much better than what is found in P3.

Other inclusions such as raising a family may not actually improve gameplay, but it does personalize your game character a bit more, and that is a nice detail to be appreciated. All in all, Ascaron's tweaking has resulted in a game that is different enough from its predecessor to make it worth acquiring. Rest assured that the newest "Patrician" entry is still the all-consuming time-burner it has always been. Be prepared to devote a mininum of 2 hours each time you play it.