14 DAY TRIAL // East India Company seems to be a very promising real time strategy title which apparently got delayed until the first financial quarter of 2009 (the game was scheduled to be released by the end of the year). Unfortunately, I had never heard about this game, so I can't say I'm surprised by the delay. However, I must admit that I am completely under its spell: it looks great, it has a fantastic story and, hopefully, it will not fail in terms of gameplay.
The game is under development at Finland-based Nitro Games, a newly founded firm with big plans for the future. East India Company, described as a real time strategy war game will be a PC exclusive which will take players back to the 18th century to battle for power and build the world's most powerful trading empire.
"East India Company promises to take real-time strategy war games to new levels," said Raymond Snippe, Senior Development Manager of Lighthouse Interactive, the publisher. "Allowing more development time further ensures that Nitro Games will deliver the best gaming experience possible. We want to wow strategy fans with EIC's technically advanced proprietary game engine and incredible cinematic game environments. We are confident that gamers will agree it's worth the wait."
In the game, players will be able to choose from one of the eight competing nations (British, Dutch, French, Danish, Portuguese, Swedish, Italian or Spanish) and strive to bring spices and other goods from India to Europe. However, it won't be an easy job, since your rivals will do their best to stop you, and you will do the same. It will be quite some work, since no less than 40 different cities, towns and villages are implemented in the game.
Still, the warring aspect promises to be the most exciting part of East India Company: when two hostile fleets engage each other, the game will go into a tactical battle mode where you'll have full control, in real time, over your ships. And have in mind that all these will happen in a beautifully rendered world! Just check the screenshot in the upper left corner and you'll see what I mean.