S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat Review

Overview: The best S.T.A.L.K.E.R game to date - Stable, compelling and atmospheric like you wouldn’t believe!

The Good Stuff:

Very well done ambiance, new enemies, very very stable

The Bad Stuff:

Slow plot, exploration is more fun than the actual storyline

The Druid’s View:

In the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series’ third installment, you play as Ukrainian security agent Alexander Degtyarev. A number of military helicopters have crashed in the region devastated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster–known as The Zone–and you’re sent to investigate. Call of Pripyat tries a bit harder than its predecessors in the storytelling department; the camera pans around your character in cutscenes, the writing is more straightforward, and the climax ties back to Shadow of Chernobyl, the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game. The plot gets a bit interesting in the final few hours as you find out more about what’s going on in Pripyat, the abandoned city closest to the nuclear plant. Unfortunately, there’s little to get you invested before that, and the awkward scripted scenes don’t communicate a sense of drama as much as they highlight the aging visuals. A few characters, such as an alcoholic technician who will upgrade your weapons only after you give him enough vodka, are interesting or entertaining enough to make you care about their fates. But for the most part, you’ll care only about surviving–and thriving–in such bleak, lawless environment.

And what stunning environments they are! Shacks dot the grassy landscapes, cracks open in the earth’s crust, and the famed Pripyat Ferris wheel looms beyond a barbed-wire fence. Storms rage across the skies, and frightening radioactive emissions spread across The Zone, threatening the small pockets of human life that populate it. You encounter groups of bandits fending off mutant attacks or huddled around a fire, camped near a radioactive anomaly. This is a tense, unpredictable, and sometimes scary place where the next step could invite danger or bring respite. You get some forewarning of some attacks, such as the frenzied barking of mutated dogs before a pack of them descend upon you. But other times, the darkness hides a shocking surprise, like a new enemy to the series called the burer. These misshapen dwarves are like mutant poltergeists, flinging objects at you and even telekinetically yanking your weapon out of your hands. A sinister encounter with one of these creatures in the center of Pripyat near the end of the game is one of several nail-biting highlights.

Another highlight is a nighttime ambush of another newly introduced beast called the chimera. Night is wholly black in Call of Pripyat, not the dim facsimile that so many other games provide. Not knowing when this terrible beast might bear down upon you in this blackness makes this just one of many petrifying sequences, though even most mundane encounters will have you sweating bullets. Call of Pripyat is not an easy game, so you need to aim well, know your weapons’ strengths and weaknesses, and conserve ammo. Human opponents put up a tough fight, so running in guns blazing is a quick ticket to the afterlife. There are times when the AI’s ultraproficiency seems a little too obvious. Human enemies facing away from you have the uncanny ability to notice when you peek out a window behind them and are remarkably good shots in the dead of night, even without night vision scopes equipped. But despite a bit of cheating, Call of Pripyat rarely feels unfair. It features none of Clear Sky’s lame choke points and mission design issues, and the economy and weapon upgrade systems have been tweaked in sensible ways. So while you’ll still make use of the quicksave and quickload keys, you never feel like the game devolves into frustrating save-game attrition.

These aren’t the only improvements Call of Pripyat makes over its precursors. This is by far the most stable S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game out of the box; we not a single crash or corrupted save file, and the graphics engine performs better than ever (if not quite perfectly), even when you turn on the new DirectX 11-specific options. This update doesn’t thrust the game into the forefront of cutting-edge visuals, but while low-resolution textures and clumsy animations may betray the engine’s age, carefully crafted environments and all sorts of atmospheric touches make this a case in which art trumps technology. Other welcome improvements include flexible hotkeys,along with important gameplay additions, from preventative medications to the ability to roam The Zone freely once you’ve finished the story.

Outside of the main story, there are plenty of side quests to pursue. You’ll eliminate bloodsucker nests, search for a fabled corner of paradise, and, as before, hunt for incredibly valuable artifacts hidden in the midst of various anomalies. Gathering artifacts is as tense and exciting as it ever was, requiring you to venture into a deadly anomaly that may pick you up into the air and throw you around, burn your skin to a crisp, or zap you with jolts of electricity. All the while, you must follow your detector’s signal to pinpoint the artifact’s location. The search is frantic, and the risk is high, which makes success oh-so-sweet. All these tasks are wrapped into a free-form package, allowing you to explore The Zone under your own terms. In fact, the vague instructions you receive from some mission providers require you to thoroughly explore every nook and cranny, from abandoned schoolhouses to derelict fuel stations. Don’t expect a specific mission waypoint with every job you undertake. This is frustrating if you let it be, but it’s an authentic part of Call of Pripyat’s bleakness. The Zone does not allow you to tame it without a struggle.

The game isn’t always so open ended, and some story missions funnel you through a few extended, linear sequences, though Call of Pripyat falters slightly here. The game spends a lot of time setting up Pripyat as home to unspeakable dangers, and a protracted journey through a long, dark series of tunnels is so nerve-racking that the reward for the effort–the city of Pripyat–is a bit of a letdown. There are fewer opportunities for boundless exploration here, fewer surprises to discover–and no typical vendors, which might lead to some unavoidable travel back to the game’s two other major regions. Thankfully, this is when the story missions start to get more interesting, moving from mundane to there’s-something-freaky-going-on-here territory.

Call of Pripyat’s multiplayer options, just like those of its predecessors, are routine and slightly clumsy, because the game’s shooting mechanics don’t work so beautifully when isolated from the context that makes them successful. But it’s the chilly ambience and lifelike ecology that should lure you to the newest S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, not the ordinary online play. Well-constructed environments and superb sound design make The Zone as cheerless and ominous as ever. But it’s also rich with resources, begging you to cultivate its secrets and withstand the hostilities. Series fans and newcomers alike should don their protective gear and journey forth.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – Ultimate Sith Edition Review - PC

Summary:
You’re obviously a PC gamer who’s reading this and you also realize how painful the wait has been since Star Wars: The Force Unleashed released last  year for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Now it makes its presence felt on the PC will all the DLCs - the Jedi Academy, Tatooine and Hoth levels. But now that’s it here, does it measure up?
Good:

• Amazing story line, the best of any Star Wars stories so far
• Awesome level design
• Super cool moves, you can actually FEEL the force
• Nice costumes, skins, saber options

Bad

• Frustrating targeting
• Loads of glitches
• Some game sequences are really ridiculous.

Ugly

• WTF system requirements!
• Poor game engine

The Story:
You play StarKiller, Darth Vader’s very handpicked secret apprentice.  In the years between Episodes III and IV, Darth Vader trains your and puts you to work. You mission:  mopping up the few remaining Jedi.

Graphics:
The graphics are nothing short of mind blowing. From the opening sequence where you play as Darth Vader and face off against the wookies to the stunning levels of Hoth, it’s a Star Wars visual treat! If you played it on the Xbox 360 or PS3, you’ll know just how awesome it was! However, since it’s in for the PC, you’d expect some sort of change, better graphics, better physics etc. but nope, you receive pretty much what you saw on the console…and trust me, it’s a bad port. We tested it on our lowly dual core machine with a 4850 and it ran like sucked nuts. Make sure you have a Core2Quad at least with a 9800gt+ card or better.

Controls:
The controls are… well, annoying at times. The Keyboard mouse combo is easier than playing with the game pad, but the overall experience wasn’t great. Blame it on poor camera angles and frustrating targeting mechanisms.

Gameplay:
I’m inclined to say such great things here, but I can’t. To be very honest, it does some things very well and bombs on a few others. For those of you who’ve played Star Wars: Jedi Academy, you’d think this was the same game on steroids, but it’s just a scaled down version of its game play. The biggest surprise and let down,  is that there are only four main force powers: Push, Grip, Repulse and Lightning - they’re upgradable though and can be used in devastating combination. But really…just 4 is a let down.

But whatever little they give you, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed doles out your powers at a leisurely pace over nine missions, from the gorgeous fungal terrain of Felucia to the vivid metallic graveyard of Raxus Prime, but the coolest are available right from the start. Using Force Grip and Force Push, you can pick up and throw or just knock around parts of the environment, from enemies who reach out in mid-air for a handhold to exploding barrels and scrap metal. Lobbing debris around is fun and deviously entertaining as  you send crowds of stormtroopers hurtling through glass and chuck exploding orbs into passing Tie Fighters, you can almost forgive the piss poor targeting system.
Then there is my favorite - Force Lightning and heaving your lightsaber around like a boomerang, but I found that Force Grip and Force Push made the most entertaining use of the clutter in the early missions. One fault I found with Grip and Push, however, was that larger objects like AT-ST laser turrets take a lot of force to lift. That makes sense logistically but standing still in the middle of a laser spray to mentally heft a huge piece of  debris leaves you like a sitting duck waiting ready to have its goose cooked!

In terms of the additional content, what you’re getting here is an extension of the base game, something that simply adds more content to the experience but doesn’t actually change (or even fix) anything. At very start you’ll notice that the three additional levels are standalone options, so you don’t need to play through the game in order to get to them.  The downside to this is that none of your powers or anything else carries over, nor does anything that you earn carry back into the main game. However, that largely doesn’t matter as you start almost fully powered-up for each of these levels anyway. What the DLCs are like, I’ll leave it to you to discover, but I’ll talk a little about the Hoth level, which again is the only exclusive bit to the Ultimate Sith Edition. Now it isn’t quite as exciting as either the Jedi Academy or Tatooine levels as the Hoth base is essentially just a series of square rooms and corridors connecting them. It looks great, mind you, and is pretty much dead-on with what you see in Empire, but it doesn’t really make for the most interesting level to fight through.

After slicing and dicing for a while, you’ll face off with Luke Skywalker. The battle with him is much tougher than the fight against either Boba Fett or Obi-Wan, but that’s because he can be pretty cheap. He has attacks that are very frustrating, and there can be guys out of the area that you’re in that constantly shoot at you. It’s not a terrible fight, but it’s not nearly as fun as I had hoped it could be…or it should have been.

Sound/Music/Score:
Its Star Wars god damn it!! What more do you need?? But yea, I had a lot of sound issues, it might be just me, it seems soft and almost lifeless.  I really needed to crank up the volume during the game and turn it down during the FMVs.

Overall:
Now whether you should pick up this game or not, I’ll leave it to you. But if you’ve never played this game, yes, pick it up. If you are not a Star Wars fan, you’ll still find it enjoyable, but might be a little frustrating. If you already own the game on one of the consoles, this is not worth picking up. Just download the DLCs and you’re not missing anything. Overall a good game with a flawed experience, but an awesome story line which will keep you engaged right through out. I would easily rate this one of the better Star Wars games…but not enough to make it the best.If you wondered why I’ve not reviewed this on other consoles. To be honest. Its the same. So you’re not reading anything entirely different that’s gonna happen on the Xbox 360 and the PS3

Release Info:
Available on:  Xbox 360, PS3, Mac and PC
Genre: Action
Release date: November 3rd 2009.
Published by: Aspyr
Developed by: LucasArts

System Requirements for PC
Our recommendation for the full experience:

• Core2Duo Extreme or Core2Quad
• 4870 or better
• 4gigs of ram
• Creative X-Fi series sound card

For the casual gamer:

• Core2Duo 2.8 GHz or better
• 4 gigs of ram
• 9600gt or better

Torchlight Review

Torchlight is an awesome dungeon based RPG with a fun, familiar and enjoyable combat system. Plus the plethora of items that you receive in the game are just magnificent!!

What’s hot:

• Very well done action-RPG formula
• Engaging and atmospheric dungeons
• Great bunch of monsters to bash up
• Great Soundtrack and musical score
• Rewarding loot drops

What’s Warm:

• No multiplayer
• Does nothing new

What’s Cold:

• Nothing!

The first thing you’ll notice about this game is how close it is to Diablo 1 and 2. Infact most of the keys are still mapped from Diablo 1 and 2. And after a few hours of playing…you’ll realize that you don’t need to wait for Diablo III! (but we still are)… Fans of action-oriented role-playing can get a first-rate fix of hacking and slashing right now in Torchlight, a great dungeon crawl from the designers of the first two Diablo games and the cult hit Fate. Runic Games has forged a letter-perfect copy of the action role-playing formula with fast-paced combat and cartoonish graphics that will keep you clicking away!!

Also once it begins you’ll realize  how light, fast and undemanding this game is on your system. It even has a netbook mode!!  Although we’ve never tried it…it seems like it will run on low powered systems just fine. If you have been  a fan of the Fate games, then  don’t expect any surprises. Torchlight is an evident  successor, boasting the same attitude, art style, and lighthearted personality that make that series a breezier play than the gothic Diablo games.  The story lets you chose between 3 classes, a dual-wielding Destroyer, the fast ranged action Vanquisher and  the Ember-channeling Alchemist, you’ll soon be clicking and bashing away at stuff.  The story starts off telling you about your quest in Torchlight, a mining town built alongside a mountain loaded with deposits of the magic-enabling Ember mineral. A formerly good-guy adventurer named Alric has gone over to the dark side due to the corrupting influence of tainted Ember, so you sign on to help his former companion track him into the many dungeons that cut through the underworld beneath the town. The fun part is the technological mixing - Battleaxes coexist with rifles, and a robot bard who sends you on assassination runs. The art is centered on a more cartoonish look. Heroes have square Disney jaws and great big eyes. Monsters are more outlandish than creepy, with comic-book proportions and exaggerated attack movements. But the plot and quests revolve around familiar dungeon expeditions to kill monsters, fetch various items, and score lots of loot. So even if the game looks and feels a bit different, it remains a stock-standard action role-playing game at heart.

Torchlight PC screen

But it’s a formula that is used very, very well. Torchlight hits all the highs of the action RPG genre and avoids virtually all of the lows. The only serious issue that some will have with the gameplay is the absence of a multiplayer mode. Being able to kill monsters with a pal or three is a core part of the Diablo experience, so some players will find this omission hard to live with. Still, the solo campaign is reasonably lengthy (and is boosted by some bonuses after its conclusion) and well designed. Levels move along smartly, so you get into a perfect clicking groove. On normal difficulty, only the biggest beasties take more than a few clicks to kill if you’re collecting loot and upgrading weapons regularly. This helps the game’s pace, because nothing slows down a hackfest RPG faster than monsters that take forever to kill. Killing causes creatures to explode in fountains of blood, too. Level corridors tend to look like slaughterhouses after you’ve passed by, adding a sick sense of satisfaction to your exploits. Many monsters have weird names, like varkolyn or shambler, and some look strange, perhaps most notably some of the pygmy variations. Bigger boss-type foes scattered throughout levels even come with ludicrous names, like Ghoulrider the Merciless and Foolfighter the Reviled. But they all still attack like traditional fantasy orcs, zombies, giant spiders, and the like.

Great graphics, spells, loots and more!

All of the randomly generated dungeons come in many themes and with dramatically different art. Bleak stony mines coexist with mossy labyrinths and roaring waterfalls. You’re unlikely to get bored with what you’re looking at. Quests never involve assignments that could be considered innovative, although they are mixed up enough in length and objective that you don’t feel like you’re constantly grinding. Some of the side quests, such as grabbing samples of the various types of Ember for a mage and collecting magical doodads for a cowardly researcher, serve as quick breaks from the more involved main story missions. Loot drops are extremely well handled. You get loads of generic stuff, but just the right amount of killer hardware and item sets to keep you picking everything up. And the whole adventure is further pulled together with one of the best soundtracks to ever grace an action RPG. Diablo composer Matt Uelman has put together haunting, hummable themes that flow along behind the ceaseless combat, keeping you engaged while not blowing up into an annoying clash of horns, which so often mars RPGs. The tunes range from Pink Floyd airiness to Renaissance fair string-plucking to a sparse, spooky piano.

Stunning combat environment

Well if you ask me, this is one of the best RPGs to hit the PC in many years…and for just $20…or Rs. 1000…you can’t go wrong with this!

Ashes Cricket 2009 PC review

Those who were a fan of Brian Lara Cricket 2007, will definately take to this like duck to water - but yes, there are a few changes that make it well, a little more interesting and sort of a pain in the ass. I’ll get to more of the game a little later - what I’d really like to call out though is the graphics. They’ve done a decent job, but could have been a lot better, considering the pervious installment was over 3 years old. Also noticed that the logos are not entirely accurate and they’ve yet again not given access to full player names except in the world cup. But there’s a much better T20 format now with the music et al. Although I didn’t notice the cheerleaders and the dug out.

Anyway, back to more about the gameplay - Ashes 2009 is split into three disciplines: battling, bowling, and fielding. Most people will gravitate towards batting as it’s the most instantly satisfying, so we’ll deal with how well it’s been recreated first. When stood at the crease with a ball bearing down at you you’ve got a few shot options at your disposal. At the most basic level you press a button to either attack, defend or loft the ball - well that’s the theory anyway. A successful shot is all about good timing, with an on-screen meter showing you if you swung your bat too early, too late or just perfect.

Good bowling is essential if you’re going to stop your opponent scoring runs easily, but in Ashes 2009 it’s definitely the hardest of the three disciplines. It’s not tough to bowl the ball, with a button corresponding to a delivering type (swing, cut, spin, etc) being pressed once to begin with and again to set the delivery quality (via an on-screen meter), but consistently bowling high quality deliveries is very tricky. It’s essential you do though, as building up your confidence opens up more devastating bowling options that will really test the batsman.

Going hand in hand with bowling is field placement. If you’re trying to encourage the batsman to play some strokes by teasing him with deliveries outside his off-stump, in the hope that he’s going to edge one to slip, you better have some fielders in that position. Fielding is more or less handled automatically, but you can decide which end to return the ball to and catches are caught or dropped depending on if you press a button when the ball is surrounded by green (it cycles through red, orange and green) as it moves through the air. It’s quite basic, but full control of the fielders would have likely caused a fair few control and gameplay issues.

what’s dissapointing?

Although the batting and bowling is solid enough, the on-field presentation is lacking slightly. Player models and stadiums are decent, but the animations are clunky and don’t blend into one another well at all. There’s also a strange delay when a wicket is taken, meaning you’ll know you’re out but the fielders won’t react. Then a second later they’ll all leap into the air to celebrate. For a fairly average looking game the frame rate isn’t too hot either, frequently appearing a fraction too slow. Commentary is decent and the voice work by Beefy and Warne is solid, if a little sterile, but on the whole it’s not a game to show off to your mates.

Ashes Cricket 2009 is a solid recreation of the sport and this summer’s big sporting event, but it’s lacking spark and feels a little slight in terms of depth. Play with a friend as opposed to the AI and you’ll likely be able to have fun up to and beyond the end of the Ashes series, but as a next-gen sports sim it doesn’t feel as though Codemasters has done enough to push the series forward.

Here’s a sample game play video:

Test machine:

AMD Athlon X2 4800+, 2GB DDR2 800, Ati 4850 512, Windows vista ultimate 32 bit

East India Company Review

East India Company is a mercantilist RTS  game set at the dawn of the global trade age. As governor of one of the great European East India companies, you get to compete against others for dominance of the oh so very lucrative markets of Africa, the Middle East, and especially India. As the commander of a private navy that includes both merchant and military vessels, you’ll stop at nothing to secure a profit, which includes seizing port cities from the natives, sinking the fleets of rival companies, and forming alliances to wage all-out war. Success in East India Company derives primarily from sound financial planning, measured growth, and innumerable boatloads of exotic luxuries. In addition, you’ll find it necessary to personally direct every naval battle using the “tactical” mode for resolving ship-to-ship combat, which is sadly the weakest and most tedious element of EIC’s gameplay. And unfortunately, multiplayer action is limited to these lackluster battles. While not without flaws, the trading gameplay is solid and should entertain many fans of the genre; however, those lacking in patience may find the laborious early tactical battles less fun than a watery grave.

East India Company comes with four single-player campaigns, which cover the years from 1600 to 1750. During every campaign, you’ll play the East India Company of one of eight Western European nations, all of which historically chartered such companies. This excludes the Holy Roman Empire, which was presumably included to represent the short-lived Austrian Ostend company. However, there is no real difference among the factions aside from the geographical locations of their home ports. Those locations may give England and Portugal a slight advantage over the others because they are in good positions to box in their rivals. Every campaign uses the same strategic map that covers Europe, Africa, and Asia, through India. The exclusion of China is somewhat disappointing because it could have been fun to play through the Opium War time frame. However, controversial trade goods, such as opium and slaves, are left out of the game altogether.

The bulk of your single-player experience will be spent at the strategic and port views. Here, you’ll build ships and organize them into fleets, buy and sell trade goods for profit, conquer ports with marines, and negotiate with foreign companies. Such missions as sinking a pirate fleet, delivering a special commodity order, or upgrading a port facility provide some variety, but nevertheless, buying and selling goods gets repetitive. Despite the availability of detailed reports about the price of tea throughout your empire, the trading game seems incomplete because you can sell your exotic goods in only one European city–your home port. When you get inevitably tired of manually managing trade, you can set up automatic trade routes, but unfortunately, these take away any satisfaction you might have derived from maximizing profits by buying, hording, and selling at the right times. As it turns out, the real key to a successful company is not micromanaging trade deals, but rather balancing how much you spend on ships, munitions, and upgrades while leaving enough free capital to buy massive quantities of spices, silk, and the like. Be careful: A few careless expenditures could wind up ruining your company. Another necessary consideration is diplomacy. If you offend enough of the other companies, your fortune will end up at the bottom of the ocean.

East India Company’s interface functions capably on the strategic level, providing easy access to the location and cargo of your ships, the main trade goods supplied by various ports, detailed price histories for everything you have sold, and more. The strategic map is not very detailed–it mostly comprises empty expanses of land and ocean–but it is clear and easy to use. The port view interface, which you use to buy and sell goods, build and organize ships, and upgrade buildings works effectively as well, but only after you switch to 2D ports in the game options. 3D ports look great and function without a hitch, but the load times are absolutely intolerable. The music in port view is a nice touch because it rotates Indian, African, Arab, and European themes depending on the port’s location.

The most beautiful part of the game is also the one you’ll tire of the quickest: tactical mode. The gorgeous waves, sunsets, and thunderstorms are remarkably picturesque, while the ships–cannons, sails, and crews–are splendidly detailed. Sadly, you’ll find yourself staring at those waves until you’re seasick as you wait for the real-time tactical battles to progress. The ability to take direct control of individual ships with the WASD keys is promising, but it doesn’t make up for the slow pace of combat. So, while there are some tactics involved, patience is probably more essential for victory, and whether you are using finesse to carefully guide your ships in direct control mode or just sloppily throwing every ship at the enemy, your biggest foe will be your own boredom. First, wait as you close in on the enemy vessel. Once you’ve engaged it, wait while your crew reloads the cannons and fires until your enemy is riddled with holes. All this would be perfectly tolerable if not for what happens next. Just as you think you’re about to win, the enemy vessel begins to flee and catching up with it makes the minutes feel like hours, even with wind and speed in your favor.

The most beautiful part of the game is also the one you’ll tire of the quickest: tactical mode. The gorgeous waves, sunsets, and thunderstorms are remarkably picturesque, while the ships–cannons, sails, and crews–are splendidly detailed. Sadly, you’ll find yourself staring at those waves until you’re seasick as you wait for the real-time tactical battles to progress. The ability to take direct control of individual ships with the WASD keys is promising, but it doesn’t make up for the slow pace of combat. So, while there are some tactics involved, patience is probably more essential for victory, and whether you are using finesse to carefully guide your ships in direct control mode or just sloppily throwing every ship at the enemy, your biggest foe will be your own boredom. First, wait as you close in on the enemy vessel. Once you’ve engaged it, wait while your crew reloads the cannons and fires until your enemy is riddled with holes. All this would be perfectly tolerable if not for what happens next. Just as you think you’re about to win, the enemy vessel begins to flee and catching up with it makes the minutes feel like hours, even with wind and speed in your favor.

If you get impatient and attack as soon as you’re in range, you’ll get even further behind, and the enemy vessel will ultimately escape after an excruciatingly dull chase. If you decide that tactical combat is not for you, auto-resolve is your only other option, but you’ll quickly become reluctant to use it because it always results in heavy losses. However, on the bright side, tactical combat becomes much more fun once you start fielding superior ships with long range and lots of cannons. In the Grand Campaign, for instance, if you can make it past the first 30 years or so, you can rule the seas with fleets of frigates and ships-of-the-line that make battles fly by in comparison to the sloops you had at the start.

Tactical battles and uninterrupted trade runs reward your fleet commanders with experience that enables them to level up and buy numerous useful abilities. These range from faster movement speeds to extra cargo capacity on the strategic level. On the tactical level, you can accomplish tasks like hurting enemy morale and making emergency hull repairs. In addition to helping you improve and specialize your fleets, the commanders add a bit of character to EIC. Although their comments are relatively generic, their knowing sea-weary faces, ample girth, and flowing beards are surprisingly endearing.

East India Company is at its best when you can triumph over the other companies and build a powerful and flourishing trade empire. Thus, it is all the more disappointing that there is no multiplayer campaign, only tactical battles. The various online/local network modes primarily consist of variations on the same “sink all enemy ships in the time allotted” theme, and they suffer from the same issues as single-player. The Last Ship Floating mode puts you in command of a single ship and is well suited for direct control, but the matches often end in a draw after time runs out. The Dominion mode apparently involves capturing buoys to earn points, but we couldn’t play through it thanks to a reoccurring crash-to-desktop issue. Although we had no other problems playing EIC over a local area network, we also never had any luck finding an online game.

East India Company doesn’t live up to its potential. While the strategic aspect of the game may keep you engaged for a time, it’s not ultimately strong enough to carry the tactical aspect. When you’re ferrying goods back and forth across the map, you want something exciting to break up the routine, and the tactical battles should have filled that role. Their weakness, however, brings the entire experience down. If the combat at sea played as well as it looks, East India Company could have pleased a wider audience. Throw in the lack of a multiplayer campaign and other nagging issues, and you have a game recommendable only to trade enthusiasts and boat watchers.