Geraldine
Re-discovering Amigas after a bit of an absence!
Better sit down with a cuppa for this one!
This game arrived on the Amiga in 1995 and was a follow up to the superlative Civilization which serves as the basis of its gameplay, only this time it not a whole planet your trying to wrestle under your control, but the Americas circa 1492 or a randomly created continent to give you replay value. It can run on either an ECS or AGA equipped Amiga as the game will auto adapt.
The game starts with giving you an option of a selection of European patron nations, namely England, Spain, France or the Netherlands. Each of these has their own advantages. For example, the Spanish can do better when plundering native settlements or the French have better relations with the native population.
Science research has been changed in Colonization. Instead of just picking a subject from a list you need specialists to teach raw colonists their knowledge. This is fine for general subjects like farming or mining as you can bribe these specialists to sail to the new world from your European home port. Other specialities though can only be taught at native settlements, which can be a problem if the natives dont like you very much. You can also try capturing another nation's specialists if your really stuck.
Patron nations are very helpful at the start of the game in giving you colonists and specialists who will assist you in building up settlements which you can use to produce goods that you can sell back to your nation. You can also buy goods in Europe which is useful if your running low on something.
Trading is not limited to just Europe though, you can also trade with other competing nation's settlements or even the native settlements.
Now for the twist. As the game progresses your patron starts to demand more and more tax on your trading with them until it reaches a point where profitable trading becomes harder and harder to achieve. The money the crown makes from this is put into building a Royal Expeditionary Force which ultimately you will have to face in the end game when you decide to have an Independance tea party. To make matters worse, your patron can declare war on a rival nation, which can make things difficult for your fledging settlements if they happen to be near that other nation's well equipped ones!
Also, the other nations can also employ pirate ships (as well as other vessels) to hijack your gallons loaded with your hard earned goodies. You of course can do the same to them or if your feeling very war like, just drive the other nation's settlements into the sea and claim all the land for yourself!
Graphics were never what Sid's games were about, but the ones in Colonization serve their purpose well enough. The music however is another matter. The Amiga version had the benefit of having Allister Brimble involved in it's creation and is far superior to the PC DOS version of the game.
Screen shots (shown below) cant really do justice to this game. Its all about how it plays and it plays very well. There is so much depth to its gameplay, its very difficult to cover everything in this short review. My advice is that if you loved Civilization your going to love this too. However if you never tried it, its still worth a go as its has enough features of its own to make it different to its illustrious forebear.
Also of note, there is a save game editor on the Aminet. Do a search for a file called Coloniz2HD.lha or click this link http://aminet.net/game/edit/Coloniz2HD.lha
Anyways have fun and remember there's gold in them thar hills!!
You Tube Vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz0FWO6STGQ&feature=related
This game arrived on the Amiga in 1995 and was a follow up to the superlative Civilization which serves as the basis of its gameplay, only this time it not a whole planet your trying to wrestle under your control, but the Americas circa 1492 or a randomly created continent to give you replay value. It can run on either an ECS or AGA equipped Amiga as the game will auto adapt.
The game starts with giving you an option of a selection of European patron nations, namely England, Spain, France or the Netherlands. Each of these has their own advantages. For example, the Spanish can do better when plundering native settlements or the French have better relations with the native population.
Science research has been changed in Colonization. Instead of just picking a subject from a list you need specialists to teach raw colonists their knowledge. This is fine for general subjects like farming or mining as you can bribe these specialists to sail to the new world from your European home port. Other specialities though can only be taught at native settlements, which can be a problem if the natives dont like you very much. You can also try capturing another nation's specialists if your really stuck.
Patron nations are very helpful at the start of the game in giving you colonists and specialists who will assist you in building up settlements which you can use to produce goods that you can sell back to your nation. You can also buy goods in Europe which is useful if your running low on something.
Trading is not limited to just Europe though, you can also trade with other competing nation's settlements or even the native settlements.
Now for the twist. As the game progresses your patron starts to demand more and more tax on your trading with them until it reaches a point where profitable trading becomes harder and harder to achieve. The money the crown makes from this is put into building a Royal Expeditionary Force which ultimately you will have to face in the end game when you decide to have an Independance tea party. To make matters worse, your patron can declare war on a rival nation, which can make things difficult for your fledging settlements if they happen to be near that other nation's well equipped ones!
Also, the other nations can also employ pirate ships (as well as other vessels) to hijack your gallons loaded with your hard earned goodies. You of course can do the same to them or if your feeling very war like, just drive the other nation's settlements into the sea and claim all the land for yourself!
Graphics were never what Sid's games were about, but the ones in Colonization serve their purpose well enough. The music however is another matter. The Amiga version had the benefit of having Allister Brimble involved in it's creation and is far superior to the PC DOS version of the game.
Screen shots (shown below) cant really do justice to this game. Its all about how it plays and it plays very well. There is so much depth to its gameplay, its very difficult to cover everything in this short review. My advice is that if you loved Civilization your going to love this too. However if you never tried it, its still worth a go as its has enough features of its own to make it different to its illustrious forebear.
Also of note, there is a save game editor on the Aminet. Do a search for a file called Coloniz2HD.lha or click this link http://aminet.net/game/edit/Coloniz2HD.lha
Anyways have fun and remember there's gold in them thar hills!!
You Tube Vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz0FWO6STGQ&feature=related