While Frog City's Tropico 2 bears more than a passing resemblance to its hugely popular predecessor, this piratical empire-building game is by no means a 'tarted-up' carbon copy of Tropico. Set in the 17th century Caribbean, your mission as King o' the Pirates is to build and maintain a thriving island community, plus a fleet of ships that provide a steady flow of plunder to fatten your coffers; all this whilst keeping your subjects happy or under your thumb, and the nautical might of France, Spain and England off your back. 'Tis enough to make most lily-livered landlubbers want to walk the plank! Fortunately ye scurvy dogs be made of sterner stuff…

Allow at least an hour for the learning curve, as there is a lot to take in. The tutorial is helpful and recommended, and the campaigns gradually introduce you to the finer points of running a pirate empire. The manual is nice and thin, containing everything you need to get started… plus several pages' worth of fascinating piratical facts and humour. Additional help is available in the form of Smitty, who sits unobtrusively in one corner of the screen, providing hints and prompts when required (which, to begin with, will be often). The 'sandbox' option allows you to set up and run a custom game, with no script or plot. The interface is mouse-driven, with keystrokes and hot keys… very user-friendly.

As with all games of this genre, you begin with the basics - concentrating on infrastructure and resource acquisition before branching out into the manufacture of products to supply your pirates with entertainment and weapons, and later tuition and accoutrements. A major difference between Tropico 2 and its predecessor is that your island operates on a kind of 'reverse economy'. Most of your revenue comes from pirate raids instead of the island itself; the goods produced by the island are not sold for profit.

Captives, who are acquired through shipwrecks and raids, carry out most of the work on the island. You can order a vessel to kidnap a worker with specific skills (needed to construct some of the more advanced buildings), or simply raid a settlement to round up a group of unskilled workers or wealthy captives - who can be ransomed for a few pieces of eight. Unskilled captives can carry out most jobs; however there are some positions that are gender specific. For example, only a female can become a wench or cook. 'Equal Rights' was an alien concept back in those days, when men were men, and women knew they were!

Pirates are acquired through raids or by using the 'press gang' edict (more on edicts later), and while they won't demean themselves to do manual labour, any pirate not assigned to a vessel will take a guard position or oversee a group of captives, thus increasing their productivity.

To keep your pirates happy enough that they won't murder someone or stage a coup you'll need to provide them with entertainment in the form of drinking and feasting, gambling, wenching, and ensuring they feel well defended. Oh, and a little anarchic décor wouldn't hurt either. Captives, on the other hand, must be constantly kept in a fearful - though orderly - state of mind, and feel resigned to their fate or they'll get it into their heads to attempt an escape. If enough captives are in a similar frame of mind you could have a rebellion on your hands.

Of course, you can't please everyone all of the time. Pirates' needs are, for the most part, diametrically opposed to those of the captives', and if you haven't put some careful forethought into your zoning it'll all end in tears - or more accurately, cast adrift in shark-infested waters on a rickety raft, with nought but your parrot for company. Learning how to strike a balance between keeping your captives oppressed and your pirates satisfied is the trickiest aspect of the game, but a challenge any dedicated strategist should relish.

Edicts are the orders you issue as leader of the island. Some are relatively minor and 'one-off' whilst others have deeper repercussions and are ongoing. To name a few, you can press-gang individuals if you are short of crewmen, order ships to explore uncharted waters, issue a policy to randomly execute captives to maintain fear levels, or declare peace with a major power.

Speaking of which, there are three major powers in the game - France, Spain and England, and the edicts you issue (or not) regarding these countries affects their stance towards your illegal doings. Having a major power as your patron means you can conduct your business without fear of invasion if you are discovered, but it also means you cannot attack ships flying your patron country's flag.

A mission's success depends on the seamanship and weapon skill levels of the crew and captain, and these may be improved through completed missions and tuition at pirate school. Pirates will only join a vessel if there is a captain assigned to it, and you cannot convert a pirate into a captain; they must be recruited via an edict. Captains are important and unique individuals, with each one possessing different levels of skills and traits.

Another nice feature of the game is the map editor, which allows you to create your own scenarios or edit existing campaigns.

Graphics are pretty slick, with plenty of attention to detail. With A P4 2.0+ GHz and 256MB RAM you can run the game in higher resolution and enable the high quality effects, but it's still plenty decent on a minimum spec machine. Groovy Calypso melodies and toe-tapping sea shanties set the tone and serve to enhance the gaming experience.

Tropico 2 has much to offer for both novice and experienced strategic simulation players, and provided you don't ponder too deeply over the morals of piracy, kidnapping, and fear-driven forced labour you'll have a whale of a time. Arr…ye won't be disappointed, mates!