Dark Colony

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Dark Colony
Developer(s)	Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Publisher(s)	GameTek
Release date(s)	August 31 1997
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer (1-8 players)
Rating(s)	8.4/10
Platform(s)	PC (Windows)
Media	CD-ROM
System requirements	90 MHz Pentium processor or equivalent, 16 MB RAM, 1 MB video memory, 5 MB hard drive space
Input	Keyboard, Mouse

Dark Colony is a 1997 real-time strategy computer game developed by Strategic Simulations, Inc. and published by GameTek

1 Overview
2 Gameplay
3 Balance
4 Graphics
5 Trivia
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Overview

The game is set on a fictional Mars colony in the year 2137. Humans have discovered a "remarkable energy source" by the name of Petra-7 on the red planet. Figuring they'd rather not choke on the atmosphere of Mars whilst mining this precious stuff, the Humans begin terraforming the planet and by the time the game starts the project has produced jungles and deserts habitable by people. All seems to be going well, until the Taar show up. The Taar are aliens (the ones from the Roswell incident no less) from a scattered and dying race looking for a new homeworld, and Mars seems to fit the bill. Before they can move in though, they have to get rid of those pesky Humans.

The game consists of two campaigns where you can either play as the Humans, commanding a colonization force from Pan Luma Industries (one of the Earth corporations along with Aerogen and Stratus who are in charge of the Mars project) whose goal is defend against and defeat the alien threat, or as the Grays, where you have to defeat the Human presence on Mars and claim it for your own.

[edit] Gameplay

There is little resource management and base building in Dark Colony. Every player has a base - a pylon on which buildings appear once you decide to buy them. There are 5-6 buildings per race. You can't decide to build somewhere else, and you can't expand (create a new base), so the units of a particular player always get produced at one and the same spot.

There is one resource, which is a gas in the form of holes in the ground disperesed around the map. When the holes/geysers are active, they glow in yellow and you can mine them. Mining is done by placing an extractor unit on top, which generates money until the geyser is depleted. Geysers differ in the total amount of money they contain and on the flow of money (harvesting speed).

The focus in Dark Colony is on battles and battle tactics. This area is relatively simplified as well. There is no training period for the units that you buy, they just start coming out of the buildings once you order them (which you can do for many units at once). This distinguishes Dark Colony from traditional RTS games where a player who lags beihind in unit production usually ends up at a disadvantage. For example, when a player is "rushed" in Dark Colony, he can easily counter by ordering as many units as he likes (provided money is available).

There are very few unit types in the game and the two "races" practically mirror each other. For both races there is a basic trooper unit that can fire at land and air targets, but has weak firepower and armor. There is a more advanced infantry unit with heavier armour and better offense, but able to attack only land units at short range. There is a defensive turret which is very sturdy but very slow and once deployed can not be moved. There is an artillery unit with a great range of attack, but slow and relatively vulnerable. There is an air unit which is fast but has weak armor and attack, a healer unit, and an expensive long-range infantry unit with special abilities. The resulting gameplay is very basic and easy to pick up, yet effective since tactics abound and micromanaging battles can make a difference.

The greatest weapons in the game are artifacts, which are harvested the same way gas is - there are limited caches around the map. They vary in usefulness, but they generally help by destroying large numbers of amassed enemy units.

[edit] Balance

Some may argue that Dark Colony lacks whatsoever difference between human and alien armies. But others see it as advantage for mastering the strategy and the ways to wage war. Indeed, both armies have absolutely mirrored units that differ only in appearance. Yet there are two aspects to the gameplay that can sway the tide of battle: effective use of artifacts and day/night cycle.

[edit] Graphics

Simple yet crisp 2D sprites deliver solid 3D feel to the look of units. Highly detailed (for the time it was released) Dark Colony is nice looking and pleasant to play, if you're a screaming-at-the-monitor maniac of bloody carnage, that is.

[edit] Trivia

Dark Colony is one of the first RTS to add day/night cycle as a tactical consideration, as the Grays see much better during night time and Humans see much better during day time.