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PC Game Reviews: Colonization
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Posted by: Aramatheus on May 09, 2006
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ColonizationSince the first time I started playing Civilization: Call To Power I became a fan of the Civilization series. I reached my enthusiastic hands over Civilization 2 (Multiplayer Gold version), Civilization III and a few others.. I really liked Civ2 and CivCTP. I thought that when it comes to turn-based strategy, I would never find any other game so addictive and fun to play (except ofcourse M.A.X, my dear beloved).
I was wrong. I had once played a game derived from another game called Colonization. The one I played was a multiplayer edition and I really didn't get the hang of it, for there was no help-file at the time and I really didn't know what to do. Then, one day I got myself a copy of Colonization, the real thing. Boy, were my socks blown off!
The thing is, where the Civilization games seem to have a strong emphasis on warmongering (even though it is possible to play as a peaceful country etc.), Colonization seems to have a stronger emphasis on trading and - no pun intended - Colonizing. To me, this was a very nice surprise.
--Gameplay Intro--
The gameplay resembles the CIV-games a lot. You can move your units / check towns and units with the mouse - you can also do it with the keyboard. And please note that the keyboard offers you a vast array of commands to use. For example, when you start the basic map in the game you have one ship, a caravel, with which you can search for land and build your first city. As soon as you have found some land and constructed a city, you'll be able to use the G -key for a nifty shortcut: You can assign a destination to your ships and they will go there, moving as many turns as needed. Your destination has to be a town or your home city (for the English it is London, for the French it is La Rochelle...). This brings us to an interesting aspect of the game.
--Trading & Seafaring & Colonial Affairs--
As I said before, each nation has its own home city, where you can send your ships to. When your ship reaches the ports of that city, you can buy/sell products, train/hire workmen/soldiers, buy more ships or artillery and so on. The really is much to do, especially after you have gained some more gold. And yes, as in Civilization, gold is used in Colonization to buy stuff, what else? For your convinience, I'll list only a half of the trading commodities here: Food, Sugar, Tobacco, Cotton, Furs and Lumber. By producing these commodities in your colonies, you can either trade with them in your home city, try to trade with the indian natives or use them for your own production or refine them into their next stage (Tobacco can be made into Cigars, Cotton into Cloth and Furs into Coats). The prices of trade goods always vary. If you sell loads of cloth almost every turn in your home city, the price they are willing to pay will start to decrease and in the end you'll get very little profit, if none.
You can have different types of ship in the game, as in Caravel, Galleon and Merchantman (there are a couple more also). All of them can hold different amounts of cargo in their holds, and they have different types of defense/attack capabilities. A very interesting ship is the Privateer. If you know what the english word Privateer means, you'll probably understand how it works - but nevertheless, I'll try to explain: A Privateer is a ship not bound by international codes of law. It is a ship that works under your government but it has no flags, nor other insignia to show its nationality. This actually means, that you can, for example, be at peace with another nation and you can still attack their Galleons with your Privateer without breaking the peace. If you're lucky, you'll even get to steal their cargo.
Enemy ships with a number over them tell you how many cargo holds they are currently using. If your ship has three empty cargo holds and the ship you attack has four full cargo holds, you'll get to choose what goods you want to steal from them after defeating them. You will be able to choose three goods and the fourth type will be thrown into the sea. I think this is very well done. But be sure to remember this: your enemies can also have Privateers!
Later in the game you'll have to deal with taxing. The tax works so that whenever you go to your homeland to sell something, a tax % will be taken off your profits - this can get really annoying when the tax begins to be outrageous but you can always hold parties!
This means you will enact - for example - a Boston Fur Party, meaning your colonists will throw some (if not all) of your furs in a certain colony into the sea, refusing to pay taxes anymore. To tell the truth I haven't found the profit in this one but I guess there must be something you can gain out of this...? If you want to start selling furs again you'll have to go to your home city and pay the unpaid taxes you have (If I remember correctly a gold penalty is also added).
At some point you might start to get sick of your home country and the unfair taxation, so you might consider declaring independece for your colonies - establish your own, new country! For this to be achieved you'll have to produce Liberty Bells in your colonies by placing people in the Town Halls. Over 50% of your ENTIRE colonists must support independence for you to be able to enact it. Sadly, I don't have much information about this aspect of the game but feel free to do some research - it really IS worth it!
(Click on images to view fullsize) 
 
![Click to view fullsize image for Colonization]() ![Click to view fullsize image for Colonization]()
For more info on Colonization go to The Unofficial Microprose Colonization Home Page The views expressed on GameSlander.com are in no way associated with the creator of Colonization, its publisher or any of its subsidiaries.
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