The original Colonization, released way back in 1994, ate away many of my hours. In fact, I still have the 3.5” diskettes sitting at the ready in a nearby drawer, for whenever the little workhorses come back in favor (it’ll happen!). Jump fourteen years into the future, drop Microprose and DOS, add Firaxis and Windows, and here I am reviewing its wordy revision, Civilization IV: Colonization. Despite using a tweaked engine that I my productivity has come to dread, I have to say that, as of now, I prefer the original.

One does not need to have been navigating command lines back in the 1990s to get a hang of the new Colonization. In fact, aside from the basics, playing the original won’t be of much help. Instead, familiarity with the Civilization IV system is a great help, since it provides similar graphics and menu layout. The remake also uses the feature of national borders that was found in IV. After Beyond the Sword, I am a bit tired of seeing the engine in action. I can understand why the engine is being used so much and how it’s functional for the needs of the game, but after a million hours the same animations and basic unit designs have peaked. But what never gets old is the music.

The soundtrack is fantastic. The background music goes a long way in keeping the flavor of the time and really adds a bit of intimacy to the focused design. Unlike Civilization, Colonization isn’t broad and all encompassing, but is instead has a laser-like focus on a period of time (1492-1792) with a handful of nations (France, Netherlands, Spain, and England) and activity (trade, production, and trade). I found that this made the basics easier to grasp than Civilization, and it helped to get things off and going much quicker. As the game unfolds and the mechanics begin to become more daunting, and pressure mounts, the music acts as a perfect counterbalance, the melodic tunes keeping the mood just right as they skirt the line between whimsical and dramatic. In stark contrast is the breakneck pace of the game itself.

The narrow focus helps to rein things in, but it also makes things unwieldy. While the now familiar graphics, relaxing soundtrack, and period activities of farming and trading lend themselves towards a slower, more relaxing tone, the tying of turns to in-game years does not. Each turn counts as a year, so that means you have exactly 300 turns to declare and gain independence. That sounds like a long time, but considering turns are taken up simply finding a plot of land, then building an initial colony and the subsequent colonies, the game goes by way too quickly. The real problem comes in how the game ties together liberty bells, independence, and your relationship with the monarchy.

Independence is the goal, but to gain independence, the colonists must be willing to revolt. This is harder to do than it sounds, and I’ve found that there are only a very few avenues to successfully gain independence. Now, you can gain a European victory, or your King came to be more precise, but those don’t mean much. You want to be the master of your destiny, so the only true victory is the one in which the shackles of the mother country are cast aside for a future free of foreign rule. Liberty Bells increase the desire to rebel, but as your colonies increase in prestige, so does the King’s royal expeditionary force, an ever-expanding army that is ready and willing to squash you like a gnat. A problem arises whenever the King becomes suspicious, adds more forces, but you manage your colonies enough to where your people do not want to revolt; and why would they? They have a sweet setup. There are checks in the game against this, such as increased Liberty Bell production, but I always had to wait until producing the Bells until the end, when I would purposely anger the colonists after building up my arms, then rebel and try to fend off the King’s sea and land attacks. So while the Civilization design is funneled down to Civilization, the endgame is funneled even further to a handful of choices, each of which have to be planned for early on, making the game far more linear than I would have preferred. As it turns out, I am also playing Conquest of the New World via GOG.com and am enjoying myself much more, even though rebellion is left more up to me than my people.

I’m disappointed in how the design sharpens so, because I really do enjoy much of the game. There are all sorts of interesting challenges presented here not found elsewhere. One of the main responsibilities of your power is to increase the size of your colonies, and this requires Churches, which draws Europeans away from state-run religions, that will lead to immigrants eagerly awaiting a place onboard a ship bound for the New World. Those wanting to make the trip will be all kinds, from pioneers that travel and enhance the land to the veteran soldier that gives attached military units a boost to the practiced blacksmith; and if things are slow, you can always spend the cash to rush one of a handful of immigrants along, so you can ship them back to the colonies and put them to work. Units are allocated to a number of trades within the colony – fur trader, blacksmith, town hall (for Liberty Bells), carpenter, etc. – or to the surrounding lands to mine, fish, farm, or do whatever the environment lends itself to. The key here is that enticing units rather than producing can lead to manpower shortages, so it’s important to work in areas best suited for that colony and to trade for what’s needed.

Trade takes place between colonies, with native tribes, and with the mother country. I found the most profitable of these to be with the mother country as trading with my own colonies to prop them up. I found the handling of natives to be rather disappointing. I found little to no need to trade or go to war with any native: as long as I paid them to settle on nearby land and didn’t bother them, they constantly sent over presents and praise. There was little tension. Then again, I did favor the French, who enjoy a better relationship with the tribes. As each nation also gets two unique leaders to choose from, I stuck with a less aggressive personality. But even when I did set up shop in a tribe-dominated territory and didn’t pay, I only had to worry when I didn’t side with them in a war. Missions can be set up, and tossed out, for extra manpower and resources. Still, I can’t help but feel that they were fairly underutilized.

Trading with the mother country follows the simple laws of supply and demand, though things get a bit tricky if the King is insulted by either not being paid a gift or by paranoia, levying taxes on your exported goods. There is no real balancing act with the King, since it often boils down to whether you can afford to take a particular action or not, and accepting whatever consequences come as a result of your decision. To add insult to injury, the rulers are haughty and easily raised my ire as I had to fork out up to 85% of my savings to keep them from shooting up my taxes.

As your colonies grow and your stance improves, Founding Fathers will appear to give particular benefits to your settlements. This is another feature found in Civilization IV, accept there they are artists and other professions, enhancing a city or sacrificed for overall increased productivity. These fathers can also form a continental congress, aiding your venture with their particular attributes – seeing resource rich areas of the globe, faster movement of units, etc.

Keeping the colonies going and the colonists in line is easy, but also counterproductive. Being great at governing means satisfied people, which aren’t the kind of people who want to rebel. It’s best to keep the colonies to a small handful, which will make it easier to manipulate the population for when the time comes to break away. Luckily, this ends up better than not, as it will help newcomers from becoming overwhelmed. Judicious use of manpower – assigning skilled workers to their professions while unskilled to areas of need – and building proper industry – sugar to rum, and so on – is great fun, and keeping things contained makes it easier to grasp and maintain. It also keeps the city management more in line with the focus of the overall design. Despite the name, Civilization IV: Colonization ends up feeling far from Civilization. And that’s not always a bad thing.

Overall: 7/10