Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization
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Video Game Reviews of Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization
Customer Review: Fun for a while, but no staying power.
Summary: 3 Stars
Fun enough as a scenario, but hardly enough to warrant a standalone game. There is only one goal and one way to play, and a massively simplified military model belies its Civ roots.
This is an economic micromamagement optimisation game, and can't really do much more than that.
I'd suggest waiting for it to hit the bargain bin.
Customer Review: The glow fades fast
Summary: 2 Stars
I was a huge fan of the original Colonization, playing it up to the point that it wouldn't run on the latest version of Windows, and so I was quite excited to give Civ IV: Colonization a spin.
The first game through was a lot of fun, bringing back old memories and a few new twists. A few. I didn't feel most of them enhanced the game. I guess I was expecting more.
To touch on a few examples: For those who played the old version, you'll find don't get Founding Fathers automatically; you have to earn them. That was cool. You can train your Native American converts to become professionals by "living with the natives." Odd, but okay, that one is cool, too. Your monarch can raise your tax rate or request you pay a lump sum to support his personal projects. You have limited diplomatic options between yourself, other European nations and the Native Americans. All good.
On the flip side, there are the not so good things. Whereas before you could protest the king's tax hike by dumping a particular trade good in the ocean, resulting in an inablity to trade that item; you could always "buy back" forgiveness and resume trading that item. That feature is gone. In the old version, if you left a colonist working at a particular profession for long enough he/she would eventually become a professional. It made sense, but it's not an option anymore. (You can still send them to school). Your pioneers no longer spend tools, rather money, to make improvements. Your calvary no longer gets a "second chance" when they are defeated by downgrading to infantry.
These are minor things, to be sure, but you stack a bunch of minor qualms together and they become a major beef.
Other reviewers have complained about the imbalance between yourself and your home country during the end game after you declare independence. Many legitimate concerns: not impossible to win, but you better have stockpiles of weapons and horses if you have any hope. Forget any kind of naval advantage; the best ship you can build is completely inferior to the warships your monarch can put to sea.
By the fourth time I played, I was over it. Unlike Civilization, you just seem to run out of new things to try/do. Once you get your raw materials/refined good production down (which is fairly simple), there's no real economic challenge. In the original Colonization, there used to be a sneaky strategy where you could provide a native village with guns and rum and they'd eventually go on the warpath against your rival Europeans. Perhaps this was deemed too un-PC, but such proxy wars don't seem possible anymore. The diplomatic options are very narrow. There's no hobnobbing with other European monarchs to attempt to curry favor (where is LaFayette when you need him?).
I don't know what sort of effort is going to be put into refining/improving this game. I hope there is some commitment to making it better.
Get this one from your bargin bin.
Customer Review: Ring Ring...Yes who is it? Hi I'm Sid and I'd like to phone in a game
Summary: 1 Stars
Like many other reviewer on this game I have been playing Civ games since the first one. I, like many, thank Sid for his innovation and leadership in this category of games. That said, Sid Meiers Civilization IV Colonization is a piece of junk.
1. You can't win. You must defeat the REF to win. As mentioned in several other threads the `math' that creates the size of the REF is ridiculous. In marathon games on the easiest setting, where I have cheated using the world builder creating perfect squares all the way around my cities I am unable to create a fleet even half the size of the REF...and the European ships are 50% stronger.
2. You can't win. The REF forces have combat bonuses out of balance. They will land and will trade losses with your entrenched troops at about a 1-1 ratio. I have played on the easiest level, had every single military founding father, World Builder created my city on top of a hill in a forest surrounded by a river with a fortress. And even with all this advantage I traded at about a 1-1 loss ratio with the REF. Which might be ok except the REF will typically outnumber your land forces at about 6-1
3. Trading stinks. It is incredibly tedious to operate you trade wagons and trade ships manually. So you turn them over to automatic. To load balance all the automatic trade routes I have needed to create import and export of all key resources (wood, ore, tools, guns, horses) and a quantity cap for each city. This allows the automated wagons to spread everything everywhere. The problem is that this method creates a zillion trade routes. If you ever want to establish a specific trade route (i.e. a ship to only transport rum from this city to Europe) you are given all the trade routes in random order. Managing trade routes is zero fun because of lousy UI screens
Sorry Sid the original was better. check out the original at bestoldgames for the original
Customer Review: Found a show stopper bug
Summary: 1 Stars
I regret buying this game from amazon.com. The king's warships got stuck near my costal city. After that, the king didn't send any more troops. I had about 100 turns left but I wasn't able to finish that game because of that bug. Also, I think the review by William Kerney is dead on. Once you figured out how to keep the REF size small and buy/produce a lot of cannons, the end game becomes way too easy and every game feels the same. On the positive side, the user interface is pretty good. The graphics and background music is great. Trading to make money and managing "who does what" in my settlements is kind of fun for a while. This game has a lot of potential but I just don't see myself playing this game again until the programmers really patch this game.Customer Review: Not your grandmother's civilization
Summary: 2 Stars
This version of the engine has a whole new level of complexity, with war not the goal. It is about civilizing a nation, not about conquering civilizations. In that regard, this game is as much like the old Civ series as Go is like checkers.
The mechanics of the game are a bit arcane, much like civ is, but I get the feeling of the Tycoon games from the trading with your competing colonists. The competition is really with the mother country, not your neighbors, and with the Indians, making friends pays off in the long run, while making enemies provides hellish paybacks.
A truly remarkable game, but do not expect Civ V!