Sid Meier

I am SO glad
I’m out of school now! When Civilization IV was released, I had just gone back
to college and was very busy with school, family and church. Civilization IV was
a distraction I didn’t need. And then came the expansions, which meant even more
reasons to not study or do homework. Or eat. Or bathe.

But thankfully,
now I have a little more free time to play.

I didn’t play
the original Colonization; that was the year our family purchased our very first
computer. I was busy playing adventure games from Sierra and The Lucas Company,
and didn’t get a taste of strategy games until Caesar III. Then I became hooked,
but I never encountered Colonization. So, my perspective on this game is based
on experiences with Civilization III and IV and their expansion packs.

Colonization is
not an expansion of Civ IV. It doesn’t offer major new content or enhancements
to Civ IV, other than improved graphics and a more streamlined and intuitive
interface. It uses the same engine as Civ IV, and the same overall gameplay, but
it is more of a magnified “cutout,” as it were, of Civ IV. It is a stand-alone
game and doesn’t require Civ IV to play. It doesn’t have the Tech Tree, as
technology isn’t a consideration.

The whole game
is focused on the colonial expansion period of Europe. Players can choose to
play as one of several major European powers, such as the Dutch, Spanish or
English, among others, and set up their colonies in the new world. Each game,
whether single- or multi-player, whether in scenario or play now mode, has but
one goal: Le Revolution! Plant a colony, then immediately plan on the optimum
route for instilling the requisite revolutionary spirit in the people and train
them to fight against the superior forces that will most assuredly come calling
when independence is declared. Power to the people!

This extremely
linear goal requires a lot of planning and forethought. Money is essential for
colonist growth, training, route building, and weapons. You name it, you will
need it. Balancing the production of each settlement against the need for
increased workers and services is quite a challenge, and is sure to keep
everyone busy. Players will have to stay on top of their game plan at all times;
it is not possible to put the game on autopilot and sit back to reap the
rewards.

In the
beginning, players will have a ship with a couple of passengers to start a
colony. There is no explanation on what to do with this ship. Experienced Civ
players will know they need to move the ship and make landfall, but new players
may be a little confused. Fortunately, the interface has been improved a bit and
is more streamlined and navigable. The pop-up tooltips of each menu button give
enough direction to get moving, and then a series of pop-up tutorial windows
kicks in.

Don’t be like
me, though, and accidently click on the buttons at the left of the bottom
screen. My first game foray, I inadvertently turned off the unit displays and
thought my graphics card was having issues, as my ship had disappeared and I
couldn’t see any units anywhere. The helpful Firaxis people kindly set me
straight and refrained from overt sarcasm, at least directly to me. Ah well,
these things are meant to keep us humble.

One thing that
is missing from Colonization is the tutorial design from the Civ IV games. There
are tutorials present, but they are tutorials in name only. In practicality,
they are actually more like “tips” for players. Players won’t even get the first
one until after they move the ship and place it on land. Then, windows will
pop-up from time to time and explain new possible actions such as having units
join settlements, sending units to live in villages for training, the new
Settlement Screen, and other moves. I sure missed Sid and his expert advice from
Civ IV. I wonder why he didn’t make animated tutorials for Colonization.

This lack of
detailed explanation, coupled with the extreme linear and fast pace of the game,
may present a steep learning curve for Civ beginners. However, the manual is
excellent in design and content, and the in-game Civilpedia has all the
necessary information and then some. I recommend that new players take the time
to read the manual and look up confusing issues in the Civilpedia. However, be
prepared to restart several times in the beginning until some of the necessary
beginning strategies are learned.

The interface
is basically designed the same as previously, but has been changed a little to
become more cohesive and user-friendly. The biggest change to the interface is
the Settlement Screen, which is the city information screen. When clicked, this
menu function displays a full screen of information about the city, presented as
a sort of “map” of the settlement. The buildings are represented by drawings,
with silhouettes of possible workers beside them. Assigned workers fill these
silhouettes and can be dragged from one worker slot to the other. How easy is
that?

Detailed
information will pop-up when the cursor is passed over the map item. And, each
possible commodity is listed in a row of icons at the bottom of this screen,
with numbers of plus and minus production and consumption rates.

It’s important
to hit the ground running. Building important structures will take a lot of
turns, so there is no time to waste. Unlike Civ games, only a few units are
built. The bulk of units will either be produced automatically by the
settlements, or will be immigrants that are periodically spawned from Europe.
These units are either basic types of farmers, fishermen or goods producers, or
are expert versions of these units. Experts will produce more material. A new
feature is the ability to “hurry” up building for a price, yeah!

These experts
can be either recruited from Europe, or be trained at home. Many of the native
villages offer different types of production expertise and are more than willing
to train anyone that comes to stay with them in the village. However, the
natives are only skilled in the production of raw goods. Manufacturing is beyond
their capabilities. Players can also build schools to train workers. This type
of training takes a while to implement broadly at first, though, so be prepared
to spend a lot of time traveling back and forth to Europe to fetch immigrants.

This oceanic
traveling is quite fun. It’s neat to keep getting messages about people who want
to come to America, and it doesn’t take much effort to send the ship back and
forth. Just click a menu button to send her on! The immigrants that generate the
messages are available for free; they just want to come to America. There are
also possible immigrants who can be “hurried” by paying in gold to become
available for transport. These early transport ships can only hold a few cargo
items at a time, either immigrants or goods. Players need to consolidate trips
and always have a full ship.

Money is vital.
In order to advance, big bucks are required fast. Money is easy to earn, though,
with the use of transport ships and wagon trains to carry goods between
settlements and countries. It’s not hard to set up trade routes, but keeping up
with them is more difficult once they are in place. A more detailed and
graphically oriented trade screen would be helpful. Also, getting to the trade
options is not as streamlined as other aspects of the game. The manual does a
good job of trade explanation, though.

The goal is
to declare independence from the Motherland. All this time, the ruling power has
been making more and more outrageous demands for money and other goods. Finally,
it is time to set the revolutionary wheels in motion. This will result in the
immediate arrival of armies from Europe to teach the Americans a lesson.

The
revolutionary spirit is essential for this event. Players will earn Liberty
Bells for their settlements during gameplay by designating workers as Statesmen,
constructing certain types of buildings and recruiting certain Founding Fathers.
A Rebel Sentiment of 50% is required for declaring independence. Getting in the
real spirit of revolution is made easy by the extreme antics of the monarch.
Give me money, kiss my ring! Grrr….

In order to
win the game, players will have to fight the European forces that will be
landing soon. Combat is accomplished in a similar fashion to other Civ IV games,
where units will duke it out one tile at a time. Units can earn combat
experience points by fighting the natives and other competing colonies, but this
can be counterproductive. The natives are very helpful and most players are not
going to want to go to war with them, but rather live in peace and reap the
benefits of training and gifts. Likewise with the other powers on the continent.
Winning the game will require some fine-tuning to the general game strategy, and
probably necessitate at least one restart to the game to have a final successful
outcome. Colonization isn’t forgiving in this respect.

When
declaring independence, players can design their constitution and reap different
bonuses for the given choices. Slavery, or not? Monarchy or republic?

Colonization
is a more focused and smaller approach to the world of Civ IV. By no means is it
an easier or dumbed-down version, it is more “contained,” if you will. I prefer
this approach, as it helps me to have specific set goals to achieve in strategy
games, rather than have several choices of winning criteria. All the desired
strategy is present, and it is actually rather difficult to achieve victory in
the end, as a few little miscalculations can totally derail any chance for
success.

The goal is
always the same for each game session, but don’t think that the game is the same
every time. Different approaches to victory can be applied, and players will
want to keep fine-tuning their strategy. Economics play a huge part to
Colonization, much more so than previous Civ IV games. It is more similar to
Caesar III in that respect. I prefer this type of focus, as I would much rather
build and earn money than fight constantly.

This is an
excellent strategy game that is deep and challenging. I’m enjoying it
tremendously, and would recommend it to any strategy fan and especially to Civ
IV fans. There many aspects I enjoy better than Civ IV, mainly the more focused
gameplay and goals, the improved interface, and the greater economic focus. If
it was closer to Christmas, I would suggest it as a wonderful Christmas present
for the strategy player in the family, and one that won’t break the bank at $30.

Review Scoring Details for Colonization

Gameplay: 8.5
This is a fun
puzzle game that is easy to learn, but challenging to play. The interface is
logical and intuitive, and the puzzle modes offer a good variety of choices.
Deep, intense and satisfying play.

Graphics:
8.5
The game looks
great! The graphics were pretty before, and now are even better. The oceans and
landscapes are more detailed and crisper, and there is just more detail
everywhere.

Sound: 8.0
The music is
stirring and inspirational. It is wonderful to hear and adds to the game
experience. The sound effects are just right, and convey all the ambience
needed.

Difficulty:
Hard
The level of
difficulty can be set from easy to difficult, but even the easy settings are
hard. Colonization is not very forgiving of mistakes that may be made early on
in the game. Recovering is hard, and time is ticking. Learning the game isn’t
too difficult, even with the lack of detailed tutorials. However, the time
constraint placed by the revolutionary goal is challenging. Everything has to be
accomplished in a small amount of time.

Concept: 7.0
Well, this game
is a remake of an old game, and as such, isn’t a “new” concept. However, there
are many improvements and everything is executed well.

Multiplayer:
8.0
There are multiple
options for multiplayer mode. Players can play over a network, over the Internet
via GameSpy, directly over the Internet without GameSpy, at the same computer at
home, or by email.

Overall: 8.5
Colonization is
exactly my type of turn-based strategy. I don’t miss the tech trees, and love
the focus on economics and trade. Waiting for combat issues until the end of the
game suits me fine. The challenge to win is extreme, but I don’t mind starting
over, as long as the goal is ultimately achievable. This reminds me strongly of
Caesar III, which had many scenarios that required multiple attempts.
Colonization won’t be every one’s cup of tea, though; all the things I love
others may not. It’s definitely not as free in spirit as previous Civilization
games. Despite the same goal for every game, the replay factor is high as
players will have tons of choices in refining their game plan. A great game!