Tropico 2: Pirate Cove announced

Gathering of Developers, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, has announced Tropico 2: Pirate Cove, its upcoming island management game. The game is a sequel to Tropico, a game developed by PopTop Software that lets players assume the role of a dictator in control of a small Caribbean island nation. The new game will feature the same style of real-time management gameplay as the original game, but with a number of changes and a very different theme.

"We're taking Tropico in a new direction," said Rachel Bernstein, president of Frog City Software, the San Francisco-based studio that is developing Tropico 2. "It's still the Caribbean, but now the player rules an island teeming with pirates, complete with the management of captives, rum supply, and parrot aviaries."

Players will assume the role of a pirate king in the 17th century, and they must oversee a group of pirates and their tropical island hideaway. The game features a campaign that spans 100 years and is filled with fictional characters and pirates based on historical figures, such as Blackbeard.

In order to build a successful pirate colony, players must keep their pirate visitors happy with plenty of drinking, gambling, feasting, and other activities. In addition, they must keep a number of pirate supplies on hand, such as muskets, cutlasses, cannons, parrots, and scary black hats. The game's economic model is also different from that of the original game. Rather than producing materials, players must plunder merchants for goods and captives that can be brought back to the island and put to use. As the pirate colony grows, the more-successful pirates will build themselves decadent mansions filled with booty.

Tropico 2: Pirate Cove is scheduled for release this fall. We'll post more information about the game as it becomes available.