Thank you GamersGate for giving us this game to review.

East India Company: Battle of Trafalgar is an expansion pack that re-enacts a historic battle between the British Royal Navy and the combined French and Spanish Fleets. This battle took place at the height of the Napoleonic war in 1805. In this game you can play as either side and change history in this epic naval battle.

When you launch the game you are taken to a new menu that allows you to start the battle. You can play in an arcade mode, simulation mode or normal mode. These are the same modes available in the regular game. Once you have chosen your style, you have to choose the side you want to play.

When you start the battle you’ll have three fleets under your command. Some of the Admirals names are true to the history books. (Admiral Lord Nelson, Admiral Pierre Villeneuve, Admiral Federico Gravina). With a battle size starting at thirty ships this is by far the biggest battle of the East India Company series. You’ll even get some re-enforcements half way through.

The battle concepts are all the same as you can have the ships auto target the nearest enemy, have them choose their own ammo or you can specify who and what areas of the ship you want them to attack. You can adjust the battle speed up to 4X to get things moving or slow down the battle to issue orders. This expansion boasts about the ability to use real world strategy for that era. I have yet to win a battle.

Nothing has changed when it comes to the audio and visuals. The voice acting and back ground music is still the same. The graphics have not changed and the water effects and ships look just as good as they did in the full game.

I didn’t run into any problems installing or playing this expansion. I guess I took care of all the issues trying to get Pirate Bay up and running. Make sure your game is fully patched before installing this expansion.

Battle of Trafalgar is pretty challenging and it offers some variety by allowing you to play either side. Other than that I don’t believe that this expansion offers a whole lot other than a glorified battle scene. I personally wasn’t a big fan of the battle scenes and often had the AI resolve them for me. If you like history or the 3D naval battles, I suggest picking up this expansion. The price tag is $9.95 which seems a bit steep for simply one battle. The best deal is getting the complete East India Company set that has all of the expansions bundled in for $29.95.