1. DennisS.

   9

   I have been playing Colonization for coming up on 14 years. I have enjoyed the game tremendously, and even went through the effort of finding, and playing the shareware version, FreeCol. This game is a faithful representation of the original. The learning curve is made much easier by the Civilization interface...it all seems very familiar. The gameplay is excellent, with an excellent balance between resource management and military/exploration. What makes this version better is the dramatically enhanced Founding Fathers system, where religion, political, exploration, and trade points can be built, saved, then used to purchase a variety of increasingly more expensive and capable founding fathers. So, you want Ben Franklin? Better start saving, 'cause his cost, and benefits, are both quite high! Graphically, this game is excellent. The music is what I would call light classical, and fits in perfectly with the game setting. Just enough to set the mood and tone, and light and breezy enough to escape your attention for long periods. Terrifically done! Another difference from the original that I REALLY appreciated is that you no longer lose production if your warehouse is above 200...they are automatically sold in Europe, albeit for half the going rate. Much better than just losing them. There are a ton of interactions with the natives, and the other colonizations. I also like that there will always be a minimum of one "hammer" for the settlement, which means that you will always be able to work on a project for your towns, even if you don't have the manpower or resources set-up optimally. I am really horrible at this game...and I find myself retiring and restarting. Before, there was no tracking your games...no "Hall of Fame" to chart your relative successes. There is now, and it is enough for me to know that I have done the best I have EVER done, when I retire a game halfway through. I am making good progress, and have done better than I have expected, even though I got the game four hours ago!!! Installation was easy, 800 mb install. My machine is 5 years old, although I did add one additional gig of ram, and a better video card. Windows XP Home, 2.4GHZ, 1.5 GB ram, 256MB video card, and it runs butter-smooth, even on the largest maps.… Expand

   • Helpful?

     0 of 0 users said yes
2. Bob

   6

   I am a fun of the original colonization. One of the greatest game by its time (more than 10 years ago). This version has improved the graphics and that all. It sticks with the original with no improvements in the game except better graphics. It is not worth money, I seriously expected much more than that. Technicallly the interface is awful, buttons respond too slow or not respond. The AI simply doees not exist and just make random and stupid decisions. The trade system is terribly bad conceived with some serious problems and bugs. The automatization of units make too stupid decisions. So, it is a great mod of Civ IV, but it is not the kind of game that you expected to pay off.… Expand

   • Helpful?

     0 of 0 users said yes
3. JonoD.

   4

   I wasn't particularly impressed. Some of the best features from the original game such as trade have been made far more difficult to use (for instance, when you want to set up a trade route you must scroll through an unorganisable list of all the routes you've created and select the ones you want. Routes between each of my 20 or so cities, each with about 4 goods = (20*4)! = a lot of scrolling). There are also significant balance issues at the end of the game. I played through the game trying to declare independence quickly so the kings forces wouldn't be too strong (i managed mid 1600's which i was happy with) and was still confronted with 330, yes, three hundred and thirty royal man o war's (the most powerful ship in the game). To put it in context i had 5 military ships, which may have been enough to bring the enemy down to 328 if i was lucky. It's a bit of fun but i wouldn't recommend this game until a patch comes out.… Expand

   • Helpful?

     0 of 1 users said yes

See all 18 User Reviews