East India Company Updated Impressions - Trading, Combat, and Gameplay

By Andrew Park, GameSpotPosted Jun 4, 2009 12:42 am PT

We take an updated look at this trading-and-combat ship strategy game at E3 2009.

Among all the games at E3 2009, only one stands apart as the single most promising PC strategy game that involves both naval trade and tactical tall-ships combat during the age of the infamous East India Company. That game: East India Company.

Who's Making This Game: Finnish developer Nitro Games is developing this game for publisher Paradox Interactive.

What the Game Looks Like: East India Company has bits and pieces of all the better Age of Sail games we've seen before, such as Sid Meier's Pirates!, Port Royale, and Empire: Total War. Half of the game is trading interface screens and trade route maps; the other half of the game will be 3D real-time battles on the open seas.

What There Is to Do: There are two primary things to do in East India Company: Trade commodities, such as tea, spices, silks, and gold by buying them low and selling them high; and wage war on the open seas in real-time strategy battles that can be switched to direct control of an individual ship at any time.

How the Game Is Played: Throughout the game, you'll choose to play as one nationality's East India Company and chart out the best trade routes to bring in the most in-demand commodities to the neediest ports. Flooding certain ports with low-demand, high-supply commodities will drive the price of that commodity down, while restricting the flow of rare commodities to needy ports will drive the prices up, though market prices will constantly fluctuate. Having better trade routes, as well as access to the most precious commodities and largest naval fleets, will increase your nationality's overall power rating. Having a high power rating will also grant you diplomatic options you might not otherwise have, such as demanding commodity shipments from lower-ranked nationalities under threat of war. Should you find yourself going to war, you'll do so in fully 3D real-time battles where you control your fleet like a squadron of real-time strategy units, drag-selecting them with your mouse and giving general orders. However, as mentioned, you can choose to take direct control of any one of your ships to direct your ship's sail direction, ammo type, and firing.

What They Say: This will be a distinctive strategy game that directly combines economy and military action.

What We Say: We've seen many of this game's elements in other, previous games that did a great job with them, so hopefully, East India Company has learned from its predecessors and will offer an improved experience. We'll find out when the game ships later this year.

39 Comments

  • desi_jatt_12

    Posted Sep 17, 2009 12:11 pm PT

    jetlee the fact that u have to say O go to china shows your argument is bs. On top of that worldwide if you look at the countries that are for example in the g8, the richest most powerful ppl etc. Are all white males. And you cannot be blamed for their actions but, stuff hasnt stopped and you benefit from their actions. If your ancestors stole land from someone else and murdered them do u not benefit from it? Is debt not passed on to descendants? Nuff said and sin said the truth too wtf prove colonization was bad? Lay off the pipe jet

  • sinreallybad

    Posted Aug 5, 2009 3:17 am PT

    Jetlee, firstly, I never heard of Norman Borlag but upon searching for him on wikipedia I've found out he was born in America in 1914! So what are you talking about?? I never said everything that came out of colonies was bad anyway, just that by and large it was a very bad thing for the people off those lands - unless you believe that enslavement, mass slaughter and induced famines were a good thing.

  • jetlee11

    Posted Aug 5, 2009 1:27 am PT

    oh, and desi_jatt_12. Your argument is equally facetious. Racism does happen to white people. If you don't believe me, go to China. I am white, I didn't enslave any black people, so I am hardly to be blamed for the actions of white people in another country 20 years ago can I?

  • jetlee11

    Posted Aug 5, 2009 1:23 am PT

    hundreds of thousands of people would have died with out Norman Borlag's discovery of dwarf wheat, he came from a colony, and using your logic, colonies are bad, so what he did is also bad. The bottom line is those people would have died anyway, in a million other interesting ways.

  • jetlee11

    Posted Aug 5, 2009 1:21 am PT

    SINREALLYBAD....Please prove your argument that colonization was bad for the other countries. This is a computer game site, spurious comments with absolutely no basis in reality just waste column length.

  • sinreallybad

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 9:30 am PT

    Here's the difference between this game and other games that portray violence or historical events: In this game you can only play as one side (as far as I'm aware at least). Most games either give the opportunity to play as both sides during historical events or as the right side, ie the allies. In this game its entirely about recreating the exploitation and colonisation of foreign lands by European powers, which therefore portrays that whole episode as a good and desirable thing. It wouldn't be much different if there was a game to come out about being a slave trader or the commandant of a concentration camp. People forget that hundreds of thousands of people were killed or allowed to starve to death by the British East India company and others, it definitely was a very bad thing for the people of those lands.

  • dNam3b

    Posted Jul 25, 2009 4:17 pm PT

    history cannot be erased or only be shown the good side of it. its with the mistakes of the past that we, humankind, can grow, develop and try to be better.
    if you say that this game has that and its wrong to be shown or whatever, probably any games that include killing should be banned since its wrong to kill, enslave, etc...
    and we would all start to play only pet care games, thats way funnier than any other games (not)

  • kokonut1971

    Posted Jul 23, 2009 8:20 am PT

    to carry on with useless pointless discussions:

    I could care less about, nazis, slaves, imperialists, are any other human affiliation of any shapes or form...

    All i want to know and make sure off is that there is raats on those ships!!!

    If there is no rats i won't be buying this game!

    Nuff said.

    _ this comment sponsored by: here we go! another useless comment about this game! company

  • Zeussa

    Posted Jul 21, 2009 4:25 am PT

    What the???... you strategists are ??>

  • desi_jatt_12

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 12:14 am PT

    Iron Zealot the problem with your statement about WW2 is that today Germans are not stigmatized or opressed any more or any less than any other white ppl and blend in and are a part of the white power structure. Germany is also a 1st world country on the other hand.... Only 1 or 2 ppl actually understood why ppl (and not white ppl lol but everbody else) would have a problem with stuff like this.

    For all the talk people give about not being racist, tolerant, etc the thumbs up and down should tell you everything you need to know. Any of the comments agreeing with the point I made or pointing out that yes the POV you would subscribe to as a white american, european etc is not the same one that the rest of the world has for many reasons. The truth gets a thumbs down while the comments with lies that feel nice and fluffy get thumbs up. Are yall the same people who eat comfort food?

  • desi_jatt_12

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 12:13 am PT

    This whole get over it thing really irks me because most of the ppl who commented on here (with a few exceptions yall know who you are) seem to think that this stuff has no effect whatsoever today or they even seem to think that colonialism and slavery stopped today. Iraq and Afganistan war? CIA destabilizing and toppling governments in the 3rd world? Africom? Economic Imperialism? Yall governments admit to this stuff you just dont want to believe that the "Land of the free, home of the brave = Indigineous holocaust and the home of the slaves". The one fact that you can choose when race matters and when it doesnt should speak volumes to you.

  • desi_jatt_12

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 12:12 am PT

    the problem is a lot of ppl seem to have a problem realizing that the stuff in this game is wrong they seem to think otherwise. but Ozbej racist towards white people? ROFL 1st of all every singe white person alive benefits from the stuff in the past as well as the racism that occurs towards POC today becuase it puts POC at a disadvantage while at the same time it puts white people at an advantage. Saying something is racist towards white people is like saying something is sexist towards men it doesnt happen.

  • grokh

    Posted Jul 18, 2009 1:54 pm PT

    Its a historical game those crimes and bad things like colonialism and slavery actually happened, so i dont see why anyone should feel guilty over playing a game that brings those issues that actually happened up, if people ignore the truth and reality then history could repeat itself.

    so its ok to play a game and enslave people, because at the same time a person is seeing how wrong it is. it can realise how wrong it actually was and learn from the bad things humans done in the past.

    and people should learn from the past and move on, there are alot of people nowadays suffering from slavery and sex traffic no matter their color or ethnicity why not focus on that .

    cant wait to play it sounds really fun , i enjoyed sid meyers pirates altho a bit too simple and not completely exploited for its potential, so if a game pics that up and adds more to it its bound to be nice

  • Mystoksor

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 6:00 pm PT

    It would be nice if we could play as the Maratha Empire and try to stave off destruction by the East India Company (plus you might not feel as guilty playing)

  • sinreallybad

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 6:48 am PT

    I'm a white European but I think people complaining that this game makes colonialism seem ok have a point. In this game, unlike in other Paradox games like Europa Universalis, you can only play as a European power off to conquer and enslave black and Asian nations and people. So there is no pretense that this is a game of all nations competing against each other, the only part Africa and Asia will play in this game is as territory to be conquered and exploited, as if it were the natural thing to do.

  • iron_zealot7531

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 4:40 am PT

    SempiternalTrut: This game is nothing like Empire: total war, it just shares the same setting. This will focus on economic management and not empire building.

    To all the people crying about the crimes of the real life EIC: It's a freaking game, get over yourself. There are strategy games in which you can play as the germans in WWII, should these game be boycotted because of the crimes of the nazis?

    There's no sense in denying history, nor in ascribing the values of modern times to the people of history. The EIC is simply as interesting historical entity that would make for a good game, it's really no more sinister than that.

  • SempiternalTrut

    Posted Jul 11, 2009 8:06 am PT

    looks like empire total war but nerfed

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