Colonization, by
Microprose, was a
computer game largely based on, and extremely similar to
Civilization, the great
turn-based strategy titan. Focusing on a single era in history (
1500-
1800), the player takes on the role of the discoverer of the
New World, playing as either
English,
French,
Dutch, or
Spanish.
This New World can be the historically accurate Americas (North and South) or a randomly generated world with varying resources and challenges. Overseeing economic, military and political growth, gamers strive to establish independence from the mother country while competing with other colonies for control of the New World.
Players of Colonization will find a lot that is familiar (to Civilization) - and therefore easy to learn - plus new and exciting challenges. In Colonization, gamers can assign colonists to any of 20 different professions including farming, fur trading, weaving, mining, soldiering and so on. With Training, colonists can achieve mastery of their chosen skills, which increases their efficiency. This diversity and efficiency help make each colony productive and self-sufficient. *
The overall goal of the game is to win independence from your country. Choosing forefathers (the equivalent of
scrolls of knowledge), and building your population and
military, half of the game is encopassed in
preparing your Revolution. After this has begun, you must fight off the massive
tory armies and verify your
liberty.
While this may seem difficult in itself, the
developers threw in another variable:
Native Americans. Made up of several tribes with
historically accurate traits and locations - I.E. the
Inca,
Aztec,
Arawak, and
Iroquois - they are easily be friended. You can make peace with them, attempting to make them allies against the
expeditionary force your monarch will send after you
declare independence, or you can simply
wipe them out and loot their villages. Either way, they will play a huge role in how your colonies turn out.
A game of the early 90s (running on
MS-Dos),
Colonization was surprsingly addictive. Heavy players of
Civilization easily
fell in love with it, as it provided hours of turn-based,
isometric fun. Unforunately,
Microprose never fixed its
difficulty levels, and there are still cases when significantly
low level units will
mysteriously destroy a higher level ones (I.E. a Spanish
Caravel annihilating a British
Man-O-War).
I guess some things never change.
* Microprose's official site - http://www.microprose.com