East India Company Collection

by Paradox

Product Features

• Spectacular cinematic and epic naval battles
• Two Command Modes - Give orders to all your ships in RTS mode or take the helm of a single ship in Direct Command-mode
• Unique combination of war and trading
• State of the art diplomacy AI
• Eight playable nations - England, France, Holland, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B003FH3P0W
• Item Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: September 21, 2010
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,573 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform:  WINDOWS XP/VISTA/WINDOWS 7 Publisher:  PARADOX INTERACTIVE Packaging:  RETAIL BOX Rating:  TEEN In East India Company you assume the role of Governor Director and seek to ship precious cargo to Europe in order to amass vast wealth. Build your fleets establish connections to distant countries and dominate the other rival empires.East India Company Collection bounds together this trade oriented strategy game and its add-ons. This is the definitive collection of 17th century trade and naval battles! Features: East India Company:Spectacularly cinematic and epic naval battlesTwo Command Modes: Give orders to all your ships in Real-Time Strategy Mode or take the helm of a single ship in Direct Command ModeChoose from over 10 realistic ship types from small sloops and cutters to warships and East IndiamenTake over ports and protect your shipping routes to create the largest trading empire East India Company: Pirate Bay:Play as a pirate captainAttack trade ships to loot their cargo or mandeer whole shipsAdd more and larger ships to your fleetChoose new skills for your captain as he levels upHoard as much money as you can in 30 years timeUpload your campaign result to your gamer profile and pete for the title of the best pirate ever East India Company: Privateer:Two Privateer campaigns set in different time periodsTwo new multi-player modes: Breakthrough and BeehiveNew goal-oriented gameplay with several new mission types: locate and either sink or capture enemy ships blockade enemy ports or escort friendly fleetsNew mander skills to fit the life of a privateer such as False Colors which allows the player to get close enough to ambush the victim and Critical Hit which gives the player a chance to hit an enemy ship s magazine causing the vessel to explodeNew specialists such as the surgeon cook constable and marine officer who can be used to boost the abilities of your fleets East India Company:

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun game in spite of itself, July 25, 2011

By 

Aaron Blood "Excel Jedi" (West Palm Beach, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: East India Company Collection (DVD-ROM)

There really is a great game buried (or maybe half sunk?) in here somewhere, just takes awhile to find it.

Game Camera: (con)
You don't have to play the game long before you become "camera aware". Not only does it take you out of the game to some extent, you find yourself having to work around it. They almost got it right; so maybe not a total disaster. The scrolling movement is bound to A,S,D,W keys and you can pan with the mouse, that parts fine. Where they "missed the boat" was on the scrollwheel zoom. It always starts zoomed in too close and you always feel like you can't zoom out far enough to efficiently manage the action; and that holds true for both the strategic and tactical level. In tactical engagements, the camera starts zooming in while rotating around your fleet. I feel like I'm being spun around blindfolded before trying to whack a party pinata. Every battle is the same, start by zooming out camera (it's in too close) and then pan around to get your camera oriented on the approaching enemy. It would be nice to have it orient itself such that the enemy is in camera focus when the battle starts. They also added a number of first person view camera positions to the boats that seems to serve no purpose whatsoever and at least half of the views are completely blocked by sails anyway.

Interface: (con)
The interface feels clunky. Tactical level movement orders dont seem to register for longer distances (even though the distances don't seem to be too far away) must have something to do with the viewing angle? Clicking on buttons, icons, ports, ships, etc. doesn't clearly register. Lagged or no response to clicking on icons can be frustrating at times. The menu system is tedious at best, takes a ton of button clicks to perform what should be really simple drag-drop transfers. I think the menu windows are too small and don't show enough information requiring you to drill down or click-click-click to scroll thru fleets and goods.

Economic Reports: (con)
The game pauses for a long time at the end of the year, apparently to do it's annual budget calculations. The economic report does not exclude capital expenditure from your annual income, so it's hard to tell if you're operations are cash positive; that's probably the result of programmers knowing nothing about business. As a result you can find yourself in financial ruin very quickly because you're operations are negative cashflow and you don't realize it because it's lumped in with your ship investment cash outflows. The menu driven system of fleet management is tedious at best.

Trade Routes: (con)
I'd like to be able to pick the basis port that I'm comparing with another ports prices instead of the default that always shows gain/loss compared to home port only. I'd really like a more efficient way to see trade differentials between the ports and be able to profit from them. Also, it only seems to allow trade routes to be established to the home port only. I can't for instance establish a trade route from one foreign port to another.

Formations: (con)
The only formation offered is "in-line" and the ships do a really crappy job of organizing themeselves. You're always better off managing them individually. When the ships are in-line they also seem to have no problem marching like lemmings into islands (and promptly sinking!) so make sure your lead ship navigates cautiously around islands when in formation.

Battle: (pro)
The ships move as you might expect lumbering sailboats should move, and it's a lot of fun watching your 40 gun frigate pound away at merchant and pirate vessels. The cannonballs fly all over the place with a certain controlled randomness that I think adds to the fun. Three different cannon shots are available (four if you count the special ability powerup available for your captain).

Tactical Exploits: (con)
I don't like that you can surrender a ship during hostilities just to defend it against sinking. I have saved my flagship (and veteran captain) on a couple occasions by surrendering the ship to take it out of the fight and then winning with the remaining vessels. Since all surrendered ships go to the victor, I get my captain back safe and sound. I have no problem firing over islands, but the AI vessels don't seem to try shooting around them. The AI doesn't sail very well around islands, I've seen situations where 2 of 5 enemy vessels run themselves aground and either severly damage or destroy themselves.

Missions: (pro)
I really like the challenge of trying to meet the trade quotas within a certain time period. Also forces you into negotiations with foreign nations if they happen to own all ports related to certain trade items you need to fulfill your quota.

Overall:
It's a fun game in spite of itself. There just aren't any other games out there involving merchant fleets in the 1600-1700s. It manages to draw you in and before you know it, 4 hours have passed! You do literally get angry at the other AI nations who break alliances or declare war, or worse yet, take over one of your ports! A revenge theme comes into play along with a general hatred for certain nations. You become attached to some of your captains and are sad to see some retire or die. If you're a fan of trade games and naval warfare of the 1600's, then you'll get a kick out of this game.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Game, July 24, 2011

By 

Bond Age - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: East India Company Collection (DVD-ROM)

This is a great game if you're into anything naval related from the age of sail. Combat system is a bit rough, and the decay of worth in trade items makes it hard to keep a positive income when you're required to have x amount of a certain trade item within x amount of years, but it is still fun to play. I wasn't able to get into one of the combat styles, but the naval RTS style provided some enjoyment. Conquering ports was another flaw, as there was no way to stack ships to conquer, and if you failed had to wait awhile. Overall a great game with some rough edges that could have been worked out better.