| Many years ago, I struggled through the History of Western Civilization at a local community college and was introduced to the Hapsburgs and The Merchant of Venice. I did poorly in the class, but I kept the textbook, and I probably crack it open about once a year, usually trying to resolve some weird Hollywood factoid. Every time I fired up this game, I was reminded anew of the need to study harder even when outside your major.
Despite my weak background in historic European trading patterns, I liked Patrician II. For one thing, this game is gorgeous. The map detail is stunning, the cities are intricate and ornate, and the historical accuracy is tantalizing. The background music is interesting without being annoying, and the voice-overs are sufficiently continental to blend in nicely.
All in all, the game has a very elegant feel to it. This is not a Coors Light athletic event — this is a game to be savored over a hearty glass of Cabernet or Scotch on the rocks, with long, lingering looks at the map and manual and a lengthy introduction via the tutorial before you even dare plunge in. This is a game with time on its side; no furious mouse-clicking here. This is your father’s Oldsmobile.
Solid PC games now require absolute, unflinching accuracy. In these times when code size is really no object, painstaking detail is the gold standard. In recent war games, the different uniforms are now historically rendered and precisely reproduced, right down to the buttons. The terrain for any famous battle game must now be topographically correct. Elevations, structures, drainages and footpaths must all be meticulously captured.
Sims and real-time strategy games have become part entertainment, part training module. For example, in this year’s Zeus: Master of Olympus, the costumes, names, products, and buildings were all faithfully recreated from ancient Greece. In Waterloo: Napoleon’s Last Battle, the entire confrontation scrolled out with precision, and every historical facet was packed onto the CD-ROM. The list goes on and on.
Patrician II is in the same upper class of gaming. Buildings, uniforms, clothing, weapons and other details are pulled straight from the 1300s. In a sense, like the best this breed, Patrician II is a history lesson just waiting to unfold. Consider the game’s premise: You’re out to become… a patrician. It is a good thing to be a patrician; you are a worldly, usually elderly man who is rich, wise, and powerful. In this game, you win by trading goods widely throughout northern Europe, bringing beer to thirsty Norwegian seaports and hustling grain to the Danes, all the while watching your back and using your head.
Pirates, weather and labor strife may await you; or the AI may conjure up famine, pestilence and disease in the next port you enter. No matter. You will ply the trade routes endlessly, stocking your many warehouses with the finest materials you can gather. You will pile up gold and riches, enough to weather the inevitable setbacks, and you will plow your profits right back into goods and ships and the construction of a distribution network. To succeed, you must expand, and to expand you must set up trade relationships with every city you can reach. To become a patrician, you must build ship after ship until you command an entire fleet of ocean-going vessels, and you must use them wisely.
Some dedicated strategy gamers may know that Patrician II is a follow-on to the successful, if obscure, original, called The Patrician, which in turn was reminiscent of the classic Ports of Call. These trading games are all similar in many ways. A long list of commodities such as leather, fish, iron, wheat, meat and more are moved from market to market, with the ultimate goal that mantra of the MBA: buy low, sell high.
Politics and successful marriage were part of the plot in the old Patrician, according to my research. In Patrician II, the goal is to trade your way to fame, to eventually become the head of the northern European Hanseatic League. You’ll still want to favor the poor with charity and strive hard to be well liked and politically successful, but trading is the basis of the game.
To assist with running your commercial enterprise, the interface is well designed and easy to master with the help of excellent tutorials. The icons are intelligently designed, have useful rollovers, and the information screens are quite helpful. Feedback is via sound and text, and easy for newcomers to start picking up.
It’s the depth that keeps this game fresh. Consider the different play options: single player, multiplayer via network, or use a single computer in turn-based mode. Internet play can’t be too far behind. There are short, single missions for quick hits and "lifetime" campaigns for more open-ended play. Winning strategies abound; you can hire pirates or become one yourself if you want to experiment. You can even try bribing local officials if you want to chance the damage to your reputation.
Patrician II mixes a little military muscle, some political shenanigans and pure economics in a delicate balance, so you won’t stray too far in any one direction. At its heart it’s still a trading game, simulating commerce in medieval Europe. But there’s a lot more to it than that, with additional details including banking, raising money through stock sales, and the need for defensive strength with walls, weaponry and training. Finally, the creators throw in rendered videos of historic events to make you even more familiar with the times.
Drawbacks are few. It’s a bit intimidating at first, with a sinking feeling that there is a lot to learn and incredible complexity. But the tutorials, documentation and interface design will get you through your first, halting attempts. It quickly becomes a game you want to learn more about. Most players are probably up and running pretty soon.
One minor drawback is the quality of the screen text. The game was created in Germany, and doesn’t suffer too badly in the translation from German to Queen’s English. However, the punctuation on the tutorial screens is not correct in many places, and there are other startling grammar breaks. But then, the script doesn’t follow the voice talent, either, in some places. It’s a minor nit.
Since my preview copy of Patrician II was in German, including the beautiful map, I was a bit stymied in curling up for a good read. Oh, sure, everyone knows a little Deutsche. I could have tried harder. I have a favorite uncle who has only one annoying habit — when he’s had too much beer around the campfire, he lapses into a curious pig-German that is a cross between the Sergeant Schultz of Hogan’s Heroes and the babbling harangues of Adolph Hitler heard at odd hours on The History Channel. Everything is "haben" this and "gruben" that. It’s entertaining for about five minutes, and then you want to march him out of camp at bayonet-point. Somewhere there’s a high-school German teacher out there who is no doubt shaking his head in disgust that I wasn’t able to do more with my three years of high-school German in completing this assignment. Sorry, Herr Tlustek. Guess I spent too much time with those racy German magazines you brought in… | 
