14 DAY TRIAL // 
Gaming Minds and Kalypso Media continue to bring fans of the genre some of the best seafaring trade games, or at least they’re trying. After releasing titles like Port Royale 3 and Partician IV, Kalypso is now back with another business simulation game, Rise of Venice.
The game takes players to Venice at the time of Renaissance and puts their trading skills to test. You are given the opportunity to progress through the ranks of the ruthless Venetian society and become the most powerful and wealthy family.
Unlike the previous title mentioned earlier, Rise of Venice offers a solid and satisfying tutorial, which thoroughly explains the most important aspects of the game.
As expected, you start as a simple merchant and have to advance through various ranks that will allow you to use more convoys, get access to all 22 goods, build various buildings in towns, and much more.
Your initial convoy is enough to get you through the first rank, but you need to pay attention to what you’re buying and what you’re selling. It may be confusing at first, but keep in mind that in order to make some profit trading, you need to buy those goods that are represented by at least two green bars.
Also, in order to cash in loads of gold, you need to sell the goods in cities with low stocks or total lack of those goods. What I really liked about Rise of Venice is the addition of the “Council of ten,” which basically acts like a ruling council.
Provided that you have enough approval from some of the most powerful Venetian families represented in this council, it will be easier to advance through the ranks and ultimately become Doge, the chief magistrate and leader of Venice.
Aside from having to reach a certain amount of wealth, players will be tasked with various missions by some members of the council.
If enough approval is raised with certain towns, you will be offered additional missions that usually consist of buying or selling a certain amount of goods from that city. If the mission is successful, you are rewarded with both gold and approval from that particular city.
Since you’ll be handling more than one convoy as you progress into the game and advance through ranks, you will start using the Trade Routes feature which allows you to set trade routes for your newly formed convoys.I’m not going to explain it because the game features a tutorial especially for that. The bad news is that sometimes your convoy may remain idle in the harbor instead of selling the good it carries. It only happened to me a few times, so I suggest keeping an eye out on these automated trade routes once you set them up.
Trading is not the only thing you will be able to do in Rise of Venice. Even though the trading system is still the core of the game, developers have included some city specific missions that I have already mentioned earlier, as well as the option to construct production buildings.
You can only construct buildings in a city if you have the required rank and level of approval. In order to be able to trade with a city that’s not allied with Venice, you will need to purchase a trading license which is usually very expensive.
Production buildings can be crucial later on in the game when you will need lots of money for bribe, sabotage and to progress further.
I should also mention that besides getting as much money as you can from trading, your objective is to discredit the three rivals that will probably try to backstab you at every turn. The political layer in Rise of Venice is simple, but efficient. It definitely lacks depth and fresh ideas, but it’s a useful tool that will make your life easier if you get it right.
You can sabotage a rival family by blocking its access to a harbor or by lowering its status with the Council, or you can even stole goods from their warehouses.
I should also mention that your family is there to help you as well. Your family members have various powers that might influence the outcome of Council’s decisions or they offer you bonuses for different actions, or they can serve you as captains on one or more of your ships. Although they may be seen as simple numbers, their contribution to the game’s flavor should not be missed.
Those who have previously played Pot Royale will find the combat system in Rise of Venice pretty familiar, as developers did not change much.
You can win almost any fight on sea by using Chain Shot to slow down the enemy and then attempt to board it if you have enough sailors. If not, keep using Canister Shot to reduce the number of enemy sailors.Graphics-wise, Rise of Venice is a major improvement in comparison with previous trading simulation games released by Kalypso. The world map and the environments in it are simply gorgeous. The game now supports DirectX 11, which is one of the reasons the visuals have improved so much.
The level of detail in every city is more than decent and the water reflection can keep you mesmerized for hours. What I really liked is that every city is different and, depending on the region (Italy, North Africa), you will see various buildings with different architecture.
What I didn’t like is that some of the background music does not match the game’s Renaissance theme. There are some songs that might be better suited for Total War: Shogun 2 than Rise of Venice.
Rise of Venice is a worthy successor of Patrician IV and Port Royale, but is far from being perfect. It will definitely entertain you for hours if you are into trading simulation games, or it can bore you to death through monotony and repetitive actions.
I definitely recommend Rise of Venice to those who have played Kalypso’s previous titles in the same genre and liked them, as the game brings some new fresh gameplay ideas.
I wished the political aspect of the game had been a bit more complex. Hopefully, a future DLC will bring more depth and will make it much more interesting and engaging.
