E3 2008 Preview
Firaxis is back in the Civilization
saddle with the third installment of the Civ IV series, but this time around the
company is tackling a defined objective with Colonization.
In Colonization players take on the
reigns of one of four colonies that have found their way to the New World. They
must take on the chores of growing a colony, luring in new immigrants, garnering
wealth and weapon and then launching a revolution against the king that torments
them from across the waves … and they must do all of this within 300 turns.
2k is the publisher behind Civ IV
Colonization, and showed it off at E3 in Los Angeles.
There have been a number of changes
to the Civ IV game with this stand-alone expansion. First of all is the player
interface, both in terms of management screens and in regards to the world UI.
In addition to the four colonies, there are two leaders per colony, each with
different ways of affecting the path to the revolution. As colonies grow,
players will fill a liberty bar. Once the bar gets to 50%, the revolution can be
launched. But there is a lot to do before that can happen.
In addition to the eight leaders,
there are 52 founding fathers who will join your cause depending on your
progress and how you play the game. These are iconic figures as well. You may
pick the English colony with John Adams as the leader and then pick up Betsy
Ross along the way. Of course, as in any Civ game, resource management is key
and turning those resources into marketable goods will help you gather what is
needed to purchase specialists. Specialists will improve production of items.
Additionally, you can create your own constitution and the elements you select
to implement in that document will determine the way the end game plays out.
Like any Civ game, you need to have
other cities established to help with the flow of resources. Throughout the
journey, you will have an aggressive king as the antagonist. But, don’t mistake
this, despite the iconic characters, as a true reflection of history.
As the dev team for Firaxis was quick to point out: “This is not a history
simulator; it’s a game.”
At its core, Colonization remains a turn-based strategy game with plenty of
options to tweak the game experience. The maps, whether you pick a recognizable
landscape or get a randomly generated map, are huge in size and the game grows
in a very nice visceral manner.
