Customer Reviews

Patrician 3

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Patrician III is not much different than PII, so if you have PII don't buy this game. I enjoy playing Patrician, but the only useful feature this "new" version offers is the ability to save and edit your trade routes. Now for those of you who are new to Patrician games, you should buy this version.

I enjoy the historically based games that merge city building, battles and a touch of RPG all in one. In the beginning you have one ship and no reputation...As the game develops you can easily become overwhelmed in the micro managing of 15-20 different cities,Numerous ships, politics, housing, industry, and just plain old buying and selling of goods.

Many of the other reviews go into the specific historic issues as related to the Hanseatic league, but all you really need to know is you need to make money. Buy low-sell high! That is all you need to know to start. You trade goods from town to town with your ship(s).

As you begin to gain money and status, you will start to learn which towns need certain goods(Which I won't go into here), and then to build industries, housing, more ships, etc. Eventually you become targeted by Pirates. The battle graphics are very basic and controls very low tech. I has hoping for an improvement from P2, but it is the same. Some battles take 15-20 minutes, esp. when you have to chase a badly damaged ship against the wind. Don't buy this game if you are into battles... I think they were an after thought.

My first P3 game is now 40 hours long, and I control 30 ships and have offices in 5 towns. I don't even turn the game on unless I have two hours to spend. I enjoy the game very much and try to automate as much as possible to allow me to keep an eye on the markets and fine tune trade routes for the most profit. My defenses are quite good to cover trading, and when a pirate attacks they are usually sunk or captured... but there goes another 20 minutes. You control the speed of the game, but as slow speed your trade routes will take so long you might look up and the sun is rising!!!

If you enjoy reading historical fiction and sim-city type games, then buy this game, but don't tell your wife... or husband.

Patrician 3 is nothing more than Patrician 2 with more the features flushed out. The initial stages of the game are exactly like Patrician 2. Further down the line you will find a few new features. Those expecting a completely new experience will be disappointed. This game is not a sequel but an updated version. Don't let the 3 confuse you, its just a marketing scheme.

Its worth the buy for new players and most old players will probably enjoy it just as much since its practically the same game. If you really liked Patrician 2 then get the this one too. If you are not too keen on Patrician 2 then you probably don't want to play enough to make Patrician 3 worth the money.

I actually bought Patrician 3 about a year after I looked it up on the internet. As a fan of strategy games I suppose I was looking for something new to add to my collection. I found it largely by accident while surfing Amazon, did a bit of research on the internet about it. Just reading about it though didn't really inspire me to buy it. The screenshots didn't look impressive; the graphics looked too similar to the endless slew of mediocre isometric strategy games of the late 1990s, and the subject....build a trade empire in late 14th century Northern Europe. Uh, didn't exactly sound riveting.

But about a year later I decided to get it anyway out of curiosity amid a large games buying spree. First impresssions were promising, it had a colourful paper map of Northern Europe included and the manual was attractively presented. Gameplay itself was a bit slow at start....buy some beer at London, sell to Cologne, buy wine at Cologne, sell to London...hey, I made a small profit! It became addictive. I used to play a game called space trading game Elite in the late 1980s, Patrician 3 started to awake those dormant feelings of satisfaction in seeing your profits increase.

Later I began to appreciate the attractive and atmospheric way the game was presented. The soundtrack is excellent (albeit probably more Rennaisance than late medieval soundtrack) and the graphics have touches here and there to invoke a 14th century atmosphere.

But this is more than simply a trading game. Piracy is a large part of the gameplay, whether equipping your ships to ward off attacks of pirates, joining or forming your own convoys, or even deciding on a clandestine career as a pirate yourself. As you increase in wealth, you'll find many more options are available to you- getting involved in politics, diplomacy and intrigue are all available once your trading empire expands. "Side missions" such as hunting pirates, treasure maps and smuggling are also available at points.

I honestly find it difficult to find fault with this game, except perhaps that once you have a large empire it can get quite difficult to keep track of everything! It can be hard to remember that you've told your brewery to stockpile in the warehouse Bremen, while you've forgotten that you're still selling meat in Edinburgh when you should be stockpiling for the upcoming festival. It is possible to automanage to an extent by hiring AI controlled employees, but nevertheless you sometimes feel that you're juggling too many plates. But that is all part of a good management game.

If you enjoy management/ empire building games of the Ceasar 3 variety then this is a title I can recommend with no hesitation, although it's probably more biased towards trading than city building. One of the most pleasant gaming surprises I've had in years.

Of course, the empire is one financial in nature but the results are the same. I started with Patrician II then went to Patrician III.

The Patrician World is circa 1400 and you start out as a poor trader with little wealth. You begin trading and work to build a business Empire Spanning the 20 towns the game starts with and ending up building two more.

I like the trade, the accumulation of wealth. Once you get going you are able to build your own businesses which enable you to make more of a profit.

There's a couple things that make this superior over P-II and that is:

1. You get to save your trade routes. For those of us who like to replay the game, you still have your money making routes from the game before.

2. Auto repair. Captains will automatically put into dock and repair your convoys. And let me tell you, when you are several game years into the game and you have dozens of various convoys, this feature is invaluabe.

3. Pirate hideouts. YOu get to find and desroy pirate hideouts and capturing ships to add to your fleet.

There are several more but those are the best.

This game takes an unbelievable amount of time, you can't just sit down and be done in an hour, day or week. This sucker takes months to finish. In fact, you probably could play indefinitely.

You can turn pirate. My favorite ploy is to capture every other ship in the world and make them mine. Of course if you are caught there are hefty fines you must pay, but bribery in the right places will take care of most of it.

Ship battles, trade, pirates, storms, and lots of gold make this a great game.

For those of you who are looking for a game with depth this is it. It does take awhile to learn how to play the game but once you do you will enjoy it. You start out with a single ship and trade or fight your way to riches. You build up towns that you build offices in by suppling the town with various goods that you can buy in other cities or produce yourself. This is not a process you complete in a few hours. It's like a project that you work on for several nights. Set goals before you begin, such as how many people will be in the cities. I like to start in different towns and see how far I progress in say 10 years. Trying to do better than before. Each city is different and looks great. This game really makes you think and stratigize how to best build up your fortune.

I was a little disappointed to discover that Patrician III is hardly a new game but an old one with a few enhancements. While I still enjoy it (since I enjoyed Patrician II) its not worth purchasing if you already own Patrician II.

I really did enjoy the game. This game is addictive, you will be drawn in and forget about the world around you. Picking which cargoes to carry and what price to buy and sell at keeps you engaged constantly. This reminded me of Railroad Tycoon mixed with SimCity or one of the Roman citybuilder games like Caesar. If you enjoy slowing building empires, you will enjoy P3 as well.

The economic model is simple, but is realistic in function. The basic principal is supply and demand. The city produces commodities and consumes commodities. You job is bring items from where they are plentiful to where they are needed. You can build industries to harvest / produce commodities if you can't get them reliably or at the right price. Reputation is also important in the game. You must build your reputation so you can build in other cities, become town mayor, or leader of the Hanseatic League.

The game does have its weaknesses. One of the main gripes is there is no pause button. I literally had to save and exit the game to do anything else. My girlfriend nearly killed me several times for ignoring her while I was trying complete some task or the other. Even in the slowest mode the game still moved too fast to do anything other than step away to go to the bathroom. Another irritation was limitation on automating ship trades only to vessels with captains (captains are rare). I liked the use of the captains as they had special abilities, but thought this should not be linked automation. The sea battles are overly simplistic. You can sail your ship and fire the guns, but boarding is done by calculation and you have no input. You are also not notified when your ships see pirates and they take no evasive action without your direction. There were many times that I wanted to speed the game up, but this prevented me from doing so. The battles also happened in real time so while you were in the battle you could not control the rest of the game. There are other complaints I won't go into here, but needless to say these detracted from game enjoyment.

Despite the weaknesses, if you like the genre, you will enjoy the game. Replayability is limited (only one map; cities make / need the same things each game) but not nonexistent. You can try to improve on past attempts by making more money, encouraging more grow, or simply completing the mission in less game time. There are several campaign games which shake things up and present interesting challenges too.