Several embellishments in the city screen are evident and your colonists are no longer limited to occupations of farming, tax collection, research or entertainment. To some players, playing a make-believe primitive stock market to get the most out of the game might not sound like fun but it obviously seemed so to Sid Meier.Īnother similarity focuses on having your colonists do some menial labor around their city, while encouraging as much immigration as is humanly possible and dealing with your rivals through treaties or annihilation. If you load your ship with the finest rum Portugal has to offer (paying ten monetary units each) and the price suddenly drops to five as soon as you leave harbor, odds are that your competitors might have a sudden edge in the trade department. Established powers in Europe already have their own interconnected alliances and economies that have profound effects on the success of your new colony.įor example, to properly deal with the natives, you often need to barter for their goods and trust.

Differences in concept are noticeable from the start, though. And you just started playing!Ĭomparisons between the two games are nearly unavoidable, particularly considering the quite similar VGA graphics (though definitely upgraded) and overall atmosphere.

Complications set in quickly, as interaction with not only the native peoples of the land but also other colonizing countries threaten to undermine and disrupt your colony. To this end, you begin with a little schooner full of soldiers and settlers ready to explore and start a potential new metropolis on foreign shores. Much like Civilization, the ultimate goal is to build a thriving empire in a strange new world and outdo the competing nations. However, not quite so forgivable is the use of almost the exact same introductory statement: 'You must forge a new world! A civilization! Oops, we mean, a colony.ization.' The opening theme from Sid Meier's Civilization is re-used almost note for note in the introduction, though the comedic value of its abrupt shift once the cartoon boat reaches the new world and home-spun mountain music begins playing is worth the blatant recycle.

As a result, Sid Meier's Colonization has a far more focused sense of gameplay, which can be good or bad depending on personal preference.

Despite MicroProse's naming conventions (did we really need another game with 'ization' in the title?), this successor to Sid Meier's Civilization empire-builder attempts to embody the spirit of 'Exploration and Conquest of the New World' rather than focus on the entire span of recorded history.

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