East India Company Collection

Hubbie loves it

This game coud be so much.You want ship combat? This game is perhaps slightly better than ship combat in Empire Total War (which isn't saying a great deal) but the AI is far less intelligent, and it is nothing compared to such wonders as Pirates of the Burning Sea.You want economics? Let me give you just one example; you are running one of the largest private companies in the world, yet you only pay dividends when a random event takes a percentage of your cash in hand every 10 years or so. Cash in hand, I ask you!How about sailing the world's trade routes? Following the winds in their season, avoiding the storms? Nope, none of that. Sailing to India in the eighteenth century is no different from driving to the shops in the 21st.Surely they have got the trade right, though? Well, prices do vary over time, but I am pretty sure this is entirely random. There is no increase in price as a new commodity is introduced to a market and becomes fashionable; no decrease as the market becomes saturated.Warfare? Finding your nation has declared war whilst you have been at sea, now making you vulnerable to attack from foreign navies? Nope - what navies? Although you can wage war (and have war waged upon you) with other trade companies, they are incredibly stupid and weak.Fortunately there are eight different nations to play. Unfortunately they are all the same.Ok, so that is EIC, what about the other three games on the disk?Well, Pirate Bay and Privateer are just inferior takes on the main game. And in all honesty, I cannot bring myself to play Battle of Trafalgar. Not with this game engine.Paradox Interactive is the master publisher of grand strategy games. This is not one of them.

"East India Company" was a game that appeared briefly in the noughties before quickly disappearing. The game, which seems to combine elements of "Empire Earth" and "Monopoly", is a trading game set between the years 1600 and 1750, and players must choose an East India Company to play, and must capture ports, set up trade, and make diplomatic negotiations along the way.I enjoyed the game more for its historical setting than its play, as the missions are rather limited and become tiresome after a time. However, the game's main calling is that it portrays the East India Companies of the time in a much more positive light than any film or book has in recent years. It gives insight into the struggles and hardships the companies underwent on all levels, from the deckhand to the marine to the company directors. So, even if the game is not everyone's cup of tea, it will certainly broaden everyone's minds.

It's a nice idea for a game, and I like the large scope of it, but not one aspect is complex enough to hold my interest. Once you have set up a couple of trade routes to bring in a steady cashflow (which is totally out of proportion to the expenditures in the game - you can quickly run up more money than you are able to spend) the main interest lies in building a private navy and army to conquer new ports, and the trade aspect of the game becomes secondary. All in all, not a challenge for players of business sims, nowhere near strategically complicated enough for players of war sims...not sure who is meant to buy this game and get anything from it.

Doesn't live up to expectations.This is presented as a strategy game but is more about battle than anything else. I suspect that the developers ran out of time and settled for what they had. For example, it mentions that there are 3 tutorials, but in fact there are only 2.

I find this game hard to get into and understand, maybe after a few months of playing, I might be able to grasp the way the game plays, I found Sid Meier's Pirates very easy to get into and enjoy it very much also you have more control over your ship, with east india company it's point and click, and hope you hit your enemies ship.