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If You Were Waiting For Simsville...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 54 / 55
Date: December 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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!

A nice addition to the sim genre

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 23 / 23
Date: June 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

Wow!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: May 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

Outstanding and Unique Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: April 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you like sims, this game is perfect for you. Especially if you are a space nut like me.

You get to build and also control the people. Besides building and keeping your people happy, you also have to protect the colony from aliens and meteors. As if that isn't enough, you need to make money all the while.

The game has lots of really unique little things about it that make you want to keep playing just to see them all. One of my favorites is the space golf cart.

If you like these types of games, DON'T pass this one up!!

Another bonus, you can download extra campaigns from the maker and other users...or you can create your own campaigns!!

Easy to learn fun to try to master

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: September 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have only played the demo but that was wonderful. Plenty of detail but not nearly so bad at micromanaging as most sims are. Also pleny of original thoughts, game mechanics, and story content. Well worth the buy, but if you are not sure download the demo like I did, but careful it will hook you.

Good Addition to "Sim Style" PC Collection

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: February 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This sim type game is very well thought out. It offers four forms of gameplay, all of which run smoothly. The campaign mode is excellent because it does a good job of allowing the user to become familiar with all of the features of the game. If you like the Sims, or any other tycoon style games, this is a must!

Space Colony Demo

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: October 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have only played the demo but I found it addicting and entertaining. I am going to go buy the game because I love it!! It is so much fun! I found the different personalities totally likeable and made for some interesting interactions between the characters. Venus was the most fun though because she is the best of them all, LOL. I hope they come out with expansion packs for this game, it was totally awesome! I loved the detail in the game! I can't wait to play the real game and not the demo!!

Easy to learn, enoyable trying to master, and a ton of fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: October 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have only played the demo, but totally enjoyed it and am buying the game. I am already addicted to it. If they had not offered the demo, I may have passed this by, since I have been burnt in the past buying PC games. Try the demo and I know you will be back buying this game.

One Major Problem

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Space Colony is a fun, highly addictive combination of resource management and people sim but there is one major problem. Although the manual is well-written and contains a lot of useful information, if you enjoy "roll your own" campaigns you will find yourself pretty much on your own. The manual contains basic information on how to link two maps to form a campaign, but there is no information on how to use the menus in the campaign creation area. This can lead to a fairly high level of frustration.

Space Colony

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 18
Date: July 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is great. I only have the demo but I plan to go buy it in just a few minutes.

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