Little Kitty, Big City
Little Kitty, Big City
Game
Game2020
Port Royale 4
Developer Gaming Minds
Set sail and join the colonial powers of Spain, England, France and the Netherlands in their fight for supremacy of the Caribbean in the 17th century. From the Steam store page
179 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 8, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
46
Mixed
81 positive · 95 negative
95% range 39–53%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 81 | 95 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
3 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mixed
1,232 of 2,151 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 179 · most liked firstI won't make this a long drawn out review. I loved the previous games in the series especially Port Royale's 1 and 2. This game, Port Royale 4 seems to be overly complicated, just to be complicated. The mechanics leave much to be desired and it appears that the AI opponents cheat. No matter how big or strong your fleet is, you can never win automatic battles and you must engage in boarding action after boarding action to have any chance of winning a naval engagement. I am going back to Port…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was a fan of PR2. So I regret to conclude: this game is a miss, and here’s why: 1. This is the biggest fault. At its core, this is a trading game, and so long as that element of the game works well, the rest is forgivable, right? Well, the trading simply doesn’t work. In short, your automated convoys inevitably end up stuffed to the gunwales with cargo, sailing from port to port unable to trade a great deal, as they are full. Admittedly, I didn't start playing with the fine tuning trade…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tldr: The main problem is balancing. Trade profits are fine, buildings basically dont make profits and profits from battles are way too high. Ok so for me these games from Kalypso are about building a trade empire by restructuring the production chains, step by step increasing its size. In this game this feels very unrewarding as all city management is a money sink. Let me give you an example: One of the most profitable and early available buildings is the coffee plantation. In the best case…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In my opinion, this game is much worse than its previous versions. Naval battles are turn-based, there is no longer such freedom in character and city development as for example in Port Royale 3. The game in general seems to be easier. I regret that I bought it and let myself be fooled. The game seems to have been left behind by the developers, I feel cheated. I do not recommend it!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Absolutely terrible game. The ships battles are simply awful, board ships to stop them fighting over and over again, also the AI cheats and seems to have unlimited tactics. Just won a battle against a larger convoy? Well almost immediately your taken into another one with a depleted convoy that stands no chance because you have hardly any sailors left to fight with and all your ships are damaged. You have now lost your entire convoy. Its almost as if the enemy is waiting for you to finish the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am going to make a long story short. At first, I wanted to cling to PR3 and convinced myself to uninstall PR4 after playing it for several hours. But when I went back to PR3 and played it for about the same length of time, I found that I missed things that I liked in PR4. So I did a 180. Here is a partial list why: You can Alt+Tab in and out of the PR4 game window. PR3 did not allow this. PR4 has keyboard assignments. PR3 does not. The dialog windows in PR4 are larger and easier to read.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don't believe negative reviews with only 3 hours played. It takes 3 hours just to go thru the tutorials. Initially, the first couple of campaigns are fairly easy but they are in regular difficulty. The free mode can be set to hard and very hard. The economy is about 4 times harder in very hard difficulty than in regular. The optional goals are fun and keep the player motivated. This is a great game if you play it in the right mind set. I just put on some good sailing music and relax. As the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is not very good. I really like trading simulators so I tried with this one until I understood that is game-breakingly flawed. The reward system forces you to manually fight each naval battle in order to board the enemy ships in order to receive sufficient profit to cover the costs of your sailors. The naval battles get horribly repetitive but cannot be automated because you will rapidly lose very expensive ships. The other nations get continuous streams of unlimited reinforcements…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Port Royale 4 is marketed as a grand strategy and trading simulation game set in the Caribbean during the Age of Sail. Unfortunately, it falls flat in delivering on both strategy and depth, feeling more like a simplistic sandbox aimed at beginners or, frankly, small children. Lack of Challenge One of the biggest disappointments is the near-total absence of challenge. The trading system, which should be the game’s core, is so basic and automated that it rarely requires much thought. Trade…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have played Port Royale 2 for hundreds of hours, so this series a special place in my mind. I am utterly disappointed after playing this game. I have to agree, so many game mechanics have been improved, like seamless town view, easy way of buying and selling things with a slider, better graphics, but after playing for several hours, it only felt like sliding the bar on the purchase screen. It gets tiring. I remember Port Royale 2 started with a little boat, with very limited cargo, and there…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →after 5 hours of playing, i uninstalled it and installed Port Royal 3, just to check if my memory serves me right... I can't name a single positive change (i don't want to list the winds and the speed of the convoy as a positive change.). Removing RTS from the game concept is a complete failure! I bought it on discount, and still regret the spent money...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don't quite understand the negative reviews. Its Port Royale - similar to the prior games. A sophisticated economic system and this time with turn based combat. I always felt like the real time combat from the prior games was easily gamed and so the turn based approach seemed fine to me. The overall map seemed too large - it takes too long to get from one place to the next. Otherwise though, its a great game. If you like developing the economy of a nation in the caribbean and conducting turn…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Positive: 1. Gameplay is good, especially the ease for setting up trade routes which, calling back to my PR1 days, was much more difficult. 2. Campaign development is good. I appreciate having a more coherent storyline that in previous games, although the campaign does lack an element of depth. (Full Disclosure: I've only played the Spanish and English campaigns, starting the next now) 3. Tutorial is fantastic. Obviously, I didn't do all of the tutorials, but the ones I did do were very…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →for lots of reasons this edition of port royale seems just really really badly ballanced and to be honest... quite boring. I really tried to get into it, because I very much enjoyed the previous titles. It just didn't happen. a lot of vital trade and economy mechanics just seem to be missing, it is near to impossible to keep control over your production needs and consumption (like... why can't I find a "total consumed/produced across all towns" statistic for goods?) pretty sure there used to be…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is a very nice Game, if you just want to build up and trade. But if you want do be a Pirat and go into naval battles, this ist some of the worst. I am more the trading guy, so i like it, but i try to skip every military/pirate Part
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →1.9 hours.. that was all i could stomach. Waste of money, ruined the combat system, even ruined running the town. The "New" Graphics are a joke. I'm reinstalling Port Royale 2 atm, wish i could get a refund.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ok so..i decided to buy the game even after seeing the mixed ratings. Most of the negatives revolve around the: businesses dont make money, trade routes are plain dumb and not lucrative and turn based combat. So..business actually do make money, the trick is you need to ship from your region/nation to other nations, for example meat..from Spain to Holland makes a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of money. Trade routes are hard..but very good, you actually need to administer them now...not just click 10 cities and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unfortunately I would recommend to check out an older game in the series like port royale 2 or 3 if you are looking to get into the series. The series I feel is strongest with port royal 2. I can't recommend this 4th iteration at all honestly after going back and playing port royale 2 for the first time recently.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Terrible combat system
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Compared to previous Vers this game deeply disappointed me. I dont want to go into many details but the combat is terrible, the trade routes are much worse then older verions like port royale 3 and city personality seems to have been ripped out of it. If you think this game interests you, I would suggest PR3 instead.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Watching my carefully planned convoys snake across the Caribbean while my bank account slowly climbed into the millions was genuinely addictive in that 'just one more turn' way. The city-building layer adds a satisfying depth, and the turn-based combat, while a departure from the series, grew on me more than I expected. That said, the automated trade routes can be frustratingly unreliable, I'd set a convoy to sell goods at basically any price and watch it sail port to port doing nothing, which…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I just dont understand, why you guys remove the best features from previous series in PR4(?) "Naval Chart", "Town View", "Naval Battle", "Town Attack" is the best thing you have in all of your previous series. Idk why you put chess-turn-based in PR4 naval battle. You erase some cities with some new locations, its unnecessary. At this point, a preparation for future PR5, keep all the best and OG features and add more options. Like keep all the OG cities but add more new ones, keep all the OG…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hard to rate for these reasons. It has some things right, that seem to carry the things that are at times seriously lacking. It feels like a downgrade in play for sea battles from Port Royale 3. I could accept turn based. I love turn based RPGS, but Its just "meh" The micromanagement with the ui is terrible, but its mostly functional. Quality of life improvements are desperately lacking with setting up autotrades with warehouses. Its so easy to become rich either way cranking out ships. I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No issues with the revised naval battles. My issue is how obnoxiously coded this program is. The devs haven't a clue about engagement. Some gripes: - trade licenses with foreign countries. Each city needs a specific license, really? And why does it seem to multiply tied to your income? That's stupid beyond belief. Any semi smart person would just smash out as many licenses early on and trivialise the stupidity. Just odd and unrealistic mechanics - seems that's the game overall in some ways.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →PR4 isn't really a bad game. It's perfectly serviceable and mid. There are even some improvements on the Gaming Minds trader model, like each town having a short-term memory of its own stock that will also adjust prices instead of just how much they have immediately on-hand. It's also beautiful, and the seamless transition from open world Caribbean map to towns is neat. Unfortunately, I just don't think there's a reason to play this when you could just play Patrician 4 instead. It does…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The UI is absolutely terrible. Setting trade routes is a pain, 200 repetitive clicks.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →created for new audience and failed with the fans and supporters. such a bland experience
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →im verry unhappy especially with the tunbased combat.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So far I think PR3 is more fun. This game does have, however, the most retarded tutorial that I've ever experienced. Makes me wonder if it was sourced from some mentally disabled DEI hire, or if indeed they themselves played through it 3 times, or not. Also the prices seem to be scaling, and even a couple bananas/whatnot seem to instantly collapse the market, so that you can very easily be making a negative from worker wages and boat crews to supply cargo to starving and deprived colonies.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't understand how this game is so much worse then the earlier iterations in the series. The trading between a port and a convoy by using a sliding mechanism is terrible. The economics in regards to the prices make no sense as it relates to commodities that a town needs. Then the battles and how they are played is not good. Very disappointing.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just buy PR3 instead.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →To be honest, I really liked the 3rd one, and I did not see much improvement. The only thing new I enjoyed was the naval batlles, but honestly after you do around 20 of them you get bored and if you do auto battle you loose many ships so you always loose 5 minutes of your time doing the battle to not loose your ships. And having a limit of how many ships can be in a fleet is just the lamest thing ever
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Used to play port royale 2 as a teen, basically port royale 4 is a dilluted version of PR2, can't believe 2 editions later it got worse. horrible ship fight system + removed tavern betting for some reason? Tavern interactions? Cool viceroy interactions / missions? / Ability to enter towns just super lackluster it's like a mobile game now
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wanted to like it, I dig the concept. I had three attempts, and each time, I gave up in frustration. - UX is beyond terrible (inconsistent controls, lack of information - especially during planning Trade Routes, awful Tutorial etc.). - lots of simple, but shallow systems. - poorly balanced and easy to cheese economy. I'm sad. :(
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Been a fan of the series for a while, but do not know what happened with this one. The turn based combat is poor to say the least. Your captains can capture ships, but the only real option is to use set them free or sink them. Everything else is just so repetitious that the game gets boring and quickly
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No, because: Nowhere near its predecessors – feels stripped down compared to both PR3 and PR2 Turn-based combat killed the dynamic naval battles, it doesn't make you sweat Trade system feels simpler and has less depth Gets repetitive so fast But: Still a solid game on its own – just not the peak of the Port Royale series
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →was not impressed with it at all. way to hard to move around and everything only worked sometimes. Having to zoom into the cities instead of just clicking on them was a pain. Not sure how well the battling works because I never got that far. a waste of money in my book.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Port Royale 4 is a detailed and ambitious entry in the long-running series of trading and naval simulation games set during the Caribbean’s golden age of piracy and colonial expansion. Developed by Gaming Minds Studios and published by Kalypso Media, the game blends economic strategy, city-building, and naval combat into a sprawling sandbox experience that caters to fans of historical management and open-world exploration. It offers a deep dive into the world of 17th-century trade empires,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It wasn’t at all what I expected when I got this game. It is very trade heavy with minimal combat or events. The gameplay is very Zen and hectic at the same time. It’s a mix of town-building and trading sim but is lacking slightly in both, and there’s way too many things to consider if you want to actively play it, I mean, this thing has about 10 tutorials for its mechanics. Overall if you like Zen games this is a good one otherwise skip it or buy on sale, I already don’t think I’ll be…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As a fan of the former Port Royale games I've been waiting for the 4th part and was happily buying it once it arrived. However after playing it for a bit more than 50h now I can't get myself to loving this game as much as the former parts. There are multiple reasons. I will lay them out here in a quite lengthy format - However be aware I am mostly comparing it to previous titles rather than objectively view this game as a title seperated from previous titles. I'll put my points in spoilers for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The age of Piracy in the Caribbean Trading simulator. If you don't want to create your own Empire the way YOU want, then get Tortuga - A Pirate's tale and personalize your ships. This game can be made super easy. Or this game can be very complicated and tedious, because you just don't do easy. **Create your own Goals!** Become the Beer Baron and the Ruler of Rum in the Caribbean by owning all of the breweries and distilleries. Force all prices to skyrocket by choking off supply to the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly this is not worth the money, the trading part of the game is awesome but the Spanish campaign is not a campaign it's a shopping list of task, no story or anything nothing, the tutorial was more fun
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is just annoyingly addictive: +: 1. Amazing and improved graphics. Taken screen-caps. These were not there in previous 2 versions of PR. PR2 & PR3 2. Very easy to navigate from the global map all the way down to the city. No need to 'double click' to go inside the city/town. (Talk about upgrading..lol) 3. Trading has definitely been jacked up. Talk about economic sims and here you are enjoying it from 16th Century 4. More variety of ships. (Thank you for considering the request from…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →High production value, solid opening game, incredibly dead lategame.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am playing it currently yes... but I don't recommend you play it! The navel combat sucks so much and the cost of your combat vessels being lost is too high for the enemy to just "Autocalc Sink them" I apparently have 37 hours at the time of writing this but I don't think that includes the time playing the EA. Turn based combat is SO bad that it everytime a war breaks out the slog of the endless enemy navies I have to manually fight one by one just to preserve my ships JUST barely which sends…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ive tried to like the game, and i do...but compared to PR3 this is just s shell of what it could be. battles are no longer fun. building cities in PR3 is way better and less tedious than whatever they tried to do here. ship variety could be better and combat needs a lot of overhaul to make it a core part of the game. Ill stick with PR3 on the good ol PS3. this game left me wanting so bad i broke out the old ps3 and sunk about 30 hrs into PR3 instead of aboring through this unfinished title.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The previous version was way better.... I bought it for 3.99 so I will keep it, but compared to Port Royale 3, this is awful!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played this game so much I got seasick, reminded me of my time in the Navy sailing through the Carib.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game - I came to it straight from Port Royale 2, never played 3, so it's quite removed from the concepts of PR2. However, if you take it on it's own merit, it is very polished in many areas and certain things (trading notably) is SO much more enjoyable. The automation aspects are so very welcome. It lacks a little bit of realism in some aspects, particularly the tactics in the turn based battles, however they add a fun side function to the battles.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wanted to like this game, but it just isn't that fun. Namely nothing draws me in, you can immediately make infinite money by just rotating trade routes, the development and play loop immediately feels pointless. Unlike a game where you can conquer land i'm not sure what the dopamine hit is supposed to come from.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm really not sure why this game got so many mixed and negative reviews. I played PR-3 a lot and this game is a noticeable improvement over the last title. The new combat system is better IMHO, and allows for much more strategy. The trading system is still largely intact, albeit with a few QOL improvements. The new Colonial Commodities add a nice reliable market element for early game ECO development. If you like logi, trade, tactical turn based combat, and civ management this is a SOLID game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I dont know who came up with this game, but having three succesful Port Royale games, and then going "you know what, ♥♥♥♥ it, we will change the entire battle system and trade system", this dev team must have been hired by a competitive studio. Dear god this game sucks.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is broken. It has been for a long time, so don't expect fixes.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game. Enjoy the mix of trading economics and naval combat. Playing through the 4 campaigns allowed me to figure out most of the game mechanics, still not got my head around the warehouse, but there are some fantastic guides made available on that. Overall really good, not sure why I did not play it sooner... have been wanting to play for years and only got it recently as it was on sale. I would have bought it for more had I known how awesome it is.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The gameplay feels uncomfortably, and forcefully slow. There were some nice new features, but they do not outweigh the restrictions on the player. As a huge fan of Port Royale 3, I think the turn based combat is too painfully slow for the empire I was hoping to build.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While the general game play and economy/build system are really nice, unfortunately the way they have done the sea battles are a complete disaster! A turn based model for sea battles stinks beyond belief if you are a fan of the previous installments and even the very original Sid Meiers Pirates. Don't waste your time/money with this game. Also no multiplayer is a let-down.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Looking at my play time, I think you could say I enjoy this game. The ship battles are turn based which I love. And all the other aspects are very enjoyable to me. You have a nice map to work with. You do have to complete the initial campaign chapter to open all options. Each chapter is challenging but not impossible. Each faction has nicely interesting perks. The Fame tree is interesting and probably 80% the same for everyone. Just that last 20% is the faction perks. Playing "Free Games"…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sorry, but ship combat looks ridiculous. And why can't you buy cannons for your vessels? Sure, not all ships had cannons, but many could be equipped with cannons. This was correctly included in Port Royale 1 und 2.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Port Royale 4 has a good idea behind it, but the game does not fully deliver. The economic mechanics are solid and building trade routes can be fun, especially if you like management games. However, the graphics are poor and the management interface feels weak and clumsy. The combat system is the worst part: it is boring, repetitive, and always feels the same. After a while, battles become tedious instead of exciting. There is a good game concept here, but it needed much better…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unfortunately Port Royale 2 was the peak of thee series, PR4 comes close but somehow Kalypso manages to build game mechanics and scenario "tutorials" that don't explain, don't hand hold, and are needlessly pedantic on the correct way of completing them. Locking the Campaigns behind the Spanish one is pointless. Having the Spanish one deamnd that you build businesses in specific towns, with a time limit, is daft. To the point that one popped up with "If you can't build the industry you want,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
Posts are quoted from public profiles with links to the original. Want yours removed? Contact us.