Space Colony

by Jack Of All Games

Product Features

• This unusual space-sim challenges you to manage an unruly bunch as they build space dwelling on every type of alien world
• Learn your people's strengths and weaknesses, and train them -- bring them together or keep them apart, to make them effective colonists
• Explore each new world, set up industries, and turn your simple collection of life-support pods into a thriving human city
• Watch out for the aliens -- there are always a few around causing trouble, and you've got enough problems on your hands!

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000CDHP1
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: October 14, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,992 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

From the Manufacturer

A people sim with real personality! In a groundbreaking combination of ‘people sim’ and ‘world builder’, Space Colony challenges players to manage and nurture an unruly bunch of dysfunctional space dwellers.

Over 20 unique personalities. They brawl, argue, get depressed, go crazy and fall in love. Aliens hunt, socialise, and get on with their weird and varied daily lives. But be ready to allocate power to your force fields when they turn their many eyes on you.

Use the many robots and androids at your disposal to establish profitable extraction industries and hi-tech factories.

Product Description

Space Colony gives you the chance to explore the galaxy's most unfriendly planets -- and try to set up colonies on them!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You Were Waiting For Simsville..., December 1, 2003

By 

aralissia "~aralissia" (North Norway) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Space Colony (CD-ROM)

Space Colony will probably satisfy your unquenched thirst for that abandoned game. It's at least quite similar to what I imagined Simsville would be and it's described as a "blend between the sims and sim city, in space" in game and "a cross between a classic builder such as Stronghold™ or Caesar3™ and a people sim such as The Sims" on the firefly studios website. I find it a mix of all three (and more) - which leads to incredible awesomeness and fun galore!
There are 4 modes of play:

1) The excellent (but too short!) campaign (in game its under the button "play space colony"
2) Galaxy Mode - which allows you to play scenarios in easy, normal or hard mode (depending) on different planets. Lot's of things to do here! Some very challenging scenarios.
3) Sandbox Mode - you choose the planet and what you want to do. Part of the beauty of Space Colony is that there are so many choices of what to focus on such as creating a tourism empire, taking control of bug infested planets, or a titanium scavenging empire (just to name a few).
4) User Created Scenarios - The gane comes with the ability to make your own scenarios, and to download ones made by others. Way cool!
There are several areas where space colony really shines. One of them is the characters - their personalities, voices, wants, abilities - in general their uniqueness. Each character has a very distinct look, accompanied by great graphics, great voices, and a DISTINCT personality. The psychiatrist's report and other crew members opinions can give you an idea. Some are suited for slow moving high intellect jobs while others are energy bunnies. Some love to drink while others just want to gaze at the stars. Lots of fun buildings are availible in order to satisfy these needs - jacuzzis, observatories, restaurants, bars etc. But the best way to learn your characters is by watching & listening to them - like Tammy the white trash alcoholic, Candy the bubbly air head shopaholic or Nikolas the mentally unstable russian subatomic weapon lover. Much like the sims, you can develop relationships between them (friendship and love) and some colonists naturally dislike others. This causes disharmony in the base though, so a nice chat in one of the seating areas is a good idea from time to time.
The walking path system of the characters is highly intelligent and i have yet to see a person get stuck or take the long way around when the shortest route is right in front of them. The music is GROOVY with some seriously diggy tunes and the possibility to import your own mp3s into the game. The graphics are colorful and cute - although I wish an ability to zoom in and out had been added, since sometimes I would love to see close ups of my characters.
But how can you gripe when a game is this good? Not only have they successfully managed to balance micromanagement, tycoon, sims, action (you can attack and defend depending on the mission) and sim city aspects of the game but they've done it with style, humour and personality. Lot's of fun!

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice addition to the sim genre, June 13, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Space Colony (CD-ROM)

If you're a fan of "god games," Space Colony is a must-have. It's a great combination of building, resource management, defense, and, well, for lack of a better word, let's call it HR. People management. Social experimentation. You'll find other games that are more sophisticated in one of those areas (like The Sims, for the latter category), but overall Space Colony has a great mix. The building options are varied, though some more options for bio-dome decor would be nice and I'd really like to be able to rotate items. Resources include both raw materials and industrial products that have to be created by trained colonists. Threats to the colony's health come in various forms, large and small. Some are easily overcome (such as illness). Others, like the protoraptors, can be more difficult to defeat. Space Colony probably won't appeal to gamers looking for a really challenging military sim, but for my taste there's just enough to worry about in the defense sphere to add interest to the game.

The characters are one of the best parts of the game. There are twenty characters to get to know -- most important, the protagonist Venus Jones, who's probably the only truly sane character in the colony. Each character has a unique set of skills and liabilities. Tami, for example, is a social pariah and a drinker, but she can sweep floors like nobody's business. Vasilios has either brain damage or a deep-seated psychological problem that gives him a sort of catatonic, shell-shocked quality, but this character will work like a machine at whatever task you set him to. There's a lot to balance in the social management department, especially when you consider that, as in The Sims, relationships can degenerate over time. In other words, your colonists will fight. They'll shove each other, trash talk, and generally give you a real good reason to send them to the counseling robot for some stress management. Overall, the most wonderful part of the social side of this game is how varied the "talk" is. The colonists speak in English, not gibberish. You can overhear their comments on the decor (add some plants and you'll never hear the end of it), their small talk with each other, and even some longer dialogues during their "time outs" to resolve arguments. A lot of the comments are just plain funny, which really ads to the personality of the characters and the game as a whole.

Space Colony compares very favorably with other sim games I've played. I'd put it up there with Tropico 1 & 2 (also a Gathering title), Pharoah/Cleopatra, Civ III, with elements of The Sims thrown in. Actually, the game it's probably most like is the excruciatingly buggy StarTopia, only with more individuality and more social interaction. And many fewer bugs. In fact, I've been pleasantly surprised by how seemingly bug-free the game is so far, especially since I actually installed it on a machine that's slightly less than the recommended system requirements (P3 450 instead of P3 800).

Overall, this is a great addition to the sim genre, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys sim games.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, May 19, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Space Colony (CD-ROM)

What a great, entertaining game. If you like The Sims and you like strategy games, you'll like Space Colony. The voice acting is really good, and the characters are funny even after hours of play. Even the manual is funny (read the character profiles, and the corporation mottos at the top of each section, such as "Blackwater Industries. Principles waste money.") The game is challenging without being overly difficult. And I have only encountered one minor bug (a character disappeared after I clicked on a building she couldn't enter), which was easy to deal with (I restarted that level).

One note, it's got some bad language and so I wouldn't give it to young kids. The Teen rating is there for a reason. But if you're a teen or adult, you won't find it offensive. It's a very good game.

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