Tropico 2 comes on two CDs. Pop in CD 1, run the installer, and insert CD 2 when prompted. CD 1 is required to be in the computer while playing the game.

At it's heart, Tropico 2 is a real time strategy game. Gather resources, build a pirate fleet, and try to out live your opponents. However, this game has so much more. Tacked on to the resource gathering objectives is a Sims-esque happiness management element that must not be ignored.

These two types of game play blend together requiring a very delicate balance to successfully play. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you play through the tutorial before getting totally engrossed in the game. The tutorial will show you many of the basics, but fails in that you are required to read what your first mate has to say (instead of a voiceover), and way too many clicks are required. Because of this, the tutorial doesn't offer much more than what the manual provides.

Once you have a grip on the basic game play, you can choose one of the three game types: Sandbox, Scenario, and Campaign. In sandbox mode, you choose various options, and play without a specific goal. This gives you the flexibility to play how you want. If you want a little more direction, the stand-alone scenarios (of which there are only 9), provides a short story to go along with your game.

Personally, I didn't make much use of the two aforementioned game types, as the campaign mode kept me occupied. The campaign mode offers a continued story, where each episode gets more involved (and has more difficult objectives). As you progress through the campaign, you will become a feared and respected pirate leader. But don't rest on your laurels too long, there are hundreds of young swashbucklers looking to take your place.

One of the aspects I really enjoyed while playing the campaign is the unique objectives that were presented to me. For example, in one episode, you are required to build an interrogation chamber, and interrogate captives on the island until you figure out when a pirate hunter is supposed to arrive. Another nice characteristic of the campaign mode is how some of the stuff from one mission, such as money in your gold hoard, carries over to the next mission. These things can really help or hinder your progress, depending on how well you completed the previous mission.

No matter which type of game you choose, you will be deeply engaged with balancing such things as resources, pirate happiness, captive resignation/health (you need workers that aren't escaping or dying), wealthy captive happiness (so you can ransom them for hefty sums), and even diplomacy with the powerful nations. It can get very tough to keep everyone happy, since pirates need things such as anarchy, while captives require order, which is the complete opposite of anarchy. Furthermore, your buildings have to be placed such that everyone can rest and eat when they need to, without walking clear across the island, wasting precious time.

Speaking of time, one of the most annoying facets of this game is how slow it can be. I never played it at normal speed, because that required simply too much waiting for resources to be gathered. In fact, even the fast speed was often too slow. It seems to me that the designers could have gotten rid of the two slowest speeds, and bumped everything up by at least one 'level.' With all this free time, you would think you would be given more control over such things as who gets hired where. No such luck, just keep firing workers until the roulette wheel finally spins your way.

The slow pace of the game does have some advantages. It gives you plenty of time to plan your next move (or next dozen moves), or you could explore the island, finding out what people think. In fact, if you're really bored, query the local wild life to see what wacky thoughts they are brewing up.

As long as you are taking time to read minds, you might as well enjoy the scenery as well. Overall, I found the graphics of Tropico 2 to be very pleasant. Even completely zoomed in, the game was mostly free of jaggies. The game grapchics blend nicely with the interface, which is built around a pirate ship theme (imagine that). These two aspects combine to provide a very good pirate ambience, which is really what this game is all about.

Unfortunately, not everything is so peachy. There are a couple annoyances to the game that really built up to decrease the quality of the game. For example, the interface movies are really irritating. I don't need to see the exact same three movies before starting each and every game. Luckily, I found that hitting the space bar will skip the movies, getting you back to the game faster.

Another small set back is how the game designers decided to implement the right click button. In most games, right clicks are reserved for querying buildings and/or people. However, in this game, the right click is used to deactivate the currently selected tool. In fact, it's the only way to do this, not even the escape key will accomplish this feat. To me, that's just silly (and not the good kind of silly seen throughout the rest of Tropico 2).

I did run into a couple issues with this game. Sometimes characters would simply disappear. They are still on the island, but they are invisible at times. This is likely caused by some rendering problems with buildings, that can extend to the roads as well.

A more serious nuisance is the game has a tendency to crash after playing for a little while. Luckily you can normally tell when it will crash, because all animation will start stuttering. To avoid losing too much progress, make sure to save often.

Tropico 2: Pirate Cove has a clever theme with fairly unique game play. The visuals are splendid, the background sounds/music is soothing, there is humor aplenty, and you can say "Arrggh" while playing it without looking like a doofus. Regrettably, the repetitive game play limits the longevity of this game. It's a good game for a while, but most people will tire with it after about a dozen scenarios.

Pros	Cons
Very good graphics Chocked full of pirate humor Good continuing story line for the campaign mode Actions in one episode of the campaign can carry over to the next Good mix of resource gathering and pirate/captive happiness Unique interface Low minimum system requirements opens up the game for those with slower machines	You will do a lot of waiting for resources to stock pile Sometimes more control over what happens would be nice A wider variety of available buildings would make for better re-playability Many small weaknesses add up to limit the overall fun
7/10 stars