At a glance...

East India Company review

The East India Company was created in 1600 and... I already did the history lesson in the preview. Nitro Games' East India Company is a strategy game set in the era of Empires with the European powers conquering Africa and the Indian subcontinent, with companies being set up to manage the new trade routes and fend off pirates. However, this isn't just about economic management; the waters are dangerous so there are political strategies to form, and naval combat to engage in.

The main action of East India Company takes place on the world map, which features Europe, Africa and southern Asia (or the "Old World"). The top-down view allows you to survey the landscape, assess your empire, and track your ships. It allows you to monitor trade routes and see who owns what ports. There are various levels of magnification, but unfortunately you can't zoom all the way out to see both your home port in Europe and your Indian ports at the same time. Clicking on a port provides you with some details, but entering the port is how you gain the key information. Once in the port you'll be able to manage any visiting fleets, including changing fleet commanders, and loading and unloading cargo. You need to manage your imports and exports at the trading post, and you can also invest money in construction at the port. With the right buildings in place you'll be able to build more ships in the colonies as well as at your home port. It's also important to defend your ports; rival companies (especially on orders from their superiors) will sometimes attempt to invade and take over the port, especially if they're in need of a vital trade item.

It's those important items which are the focus of East India Company. The game describes items such as tea, spices, and gold as Main Trade Items. Orders from the colonies back home to import certain quantities of these will often feature in your objectives. You'll also need to export items from your home port to your other territories in order to raise the revenue required to both keep your company afloat, and purchase new ships and goods. Trading can be managed manually by heading to the port screen and moving over goods to and from docked ships, before sending them to their next destination. Originally the ports were displayed nicely using 3D visuals, but at the cost of a time-consuming loading screen between every transition from the world map to the port screen. Thankfully the launch day patch addressed this by providing an option to replace those visuals with a static image for each port, removing the loading screen altogether. It may not be as pretty, but keeping the game flowing makes it a worthwhile option. The alternative to managing each transaction is set up automatic trade routes between two ports which will load up ships for you, send them on their way, and empty them at the other end. While this avoids too much micro-management of trading, you do have to watch out for goods flooding a market from your constant importation, and thus decreasing their value significantly. East India Company is a strategy game that not only wants you to trade, but to manage where and what you're trading to generate the maximum profit.

A successful trader will also have to make good use of diplomacy. Particularly in the later years when all the ports are under the control of different companies, the alliances you make and break will affect where and what you can trade. When no company controls a port anyone is free to enter it and conduct trade, but when a country takes it over then only that country and its allies can use it. Thus it is important to make concessions to other nations to gain vital access and avoid getting into unnecessary conflicts unless you control the ports you need. Certain goods are only available at certain ports, and you'll also have to consider that your ships need to make multiple stops for supplies on a journey between the homeland and the colonies, and these can only be conducted at friendly ports. If you decide to go to war with one of the eight nations (England/Britain, Spain, Portugal, France, Denmark, Sweden, Holy Roman Empire and the Netherlands) then you can expect battles on the seas as opposing fleets meet. The action moves away from the world map and to a 3D battle mode. Here there are two options; to play the game in RTS mode and select ships and issue orders, or to take direct control of the ships in your fleet, using the keyboard to navigate, and choosing when to fire. Your success will be determined not only by your actions, but by the abilities of the ships in your fleet, as well as those of your commander. The fleet commander will have a certain skill level, and a range of abilities which can be added to by winning conflicts. The 3D battles can, however, become a bit tedious after a while, due to the slow pace. There's an auto-resolve option which skips the battles altogether when rival fleets meet, but it's not always wise to choose this as it does tend to favour the AI a bit too much in this mode.

East India Company will take you through the period from 1600 to 1750 in its Grand Campaign, the main single player mode in the game. To win this you'll either need to complete all the missions set by the company stockholders, gain all 12 Indian ports, or force the other seven East India Companies to resign. This is the mode you'll want to you want to experience a range of ships, diplomatic options, and trade routes, with time-restricted challenges thrown in to keep you on your toes. Alternatively you can try out the entire period without any of those pesky stockholders issuing you orders, instead focussing on claiming the ports or taking out the other companies. There's also two shortened versiondecide whethers of the campaign, concentrating on the periods 1650-1700 and 1700-1750.

Nitro Games are clearly proud of the 3D naval battles as they've given you the opportunity to get involved in them away from the campaign with a skirmish "Battle" mode, while "Quick Battle" puts you straight into the action. If you're not into them, then unfortunately you're going to be annoyed again, as the multiplayer action is entirely focussed on naval conflict, and disappointingly there's no option to play out the campaign with 7 human, instead of AI, opponents. If you do like the feature, however, then you're well catered for in LAN or online options. Up to 12 of you can take part in matches across multiple gametypes; there's a "last ship floating" mode for all-out action, some team action, and dominion, where you compete to capture buoys. There's also a Commander versus Commander mode featuring just two players going head to head with 5 ships apiece. Online players may also register an account on the official site to gain access to users' statistics and see who is doing the best on the ladder.

The lack of a multiplayer campaign doesn't help to alleviate the biggest concern of East India Company; that there isn't enough here to keep you sustained in the long run. The Grand Campaign will keep occupied for a good length of time, but after all the effort put in to succeed it may be hard to start over again from the beginning, at least in the short term. The only alternative then would be multiplayer, but the competitive battles won't suit all players of the game. Also, it's unfortunate that the pirates aren't a playable option in the game; instead they have been saved for an already-released piece of downloadable content, Pirate Bay, which needs to be purchased separately if you want to go pillaging the European powers.

Ratings

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