Dark Colony

Dark Colony
Developer(s)	Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Publisher(s)	GameTek
Platform(s)	PC (Windows), Mac OS
Release	August 31, 1997
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer (1-8 players)

Dark Colony is a 1997 real-time strategy computer game developed by Strategic Simulations, Inc. and published by GameTek. The game works on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Mac OS.

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 to 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.

Gameplay

Dark Colony gameplay is focused on combat, so resource management and base building is very simple and inflexible. Every player starts the game with a base. The base consists of a pylon on which buildings are dropped (by "dropship") once you decide to buy them. There are 5 buildings per race, 2 of which may be upgraded. Building is restricted to the original base, with no opportunity to expand to a new base. Therefore, each player's units are always produced the same spot throughout the game.

There is one resource in Dark Colony, the gas called "Petra-7". Petra-7 can be collected from discrete holes in the ground dispersed around the map. When the Petra-7 holes are active, they glow in yellow to indicate the presence of harvestable gas. Mining of the gas is done by placing an extractor unit on top. By an unspecified method, this generates a flow of money for buildings, units, and upgrades until the geyser is depleted. Geysers differ in the total amount of money they contain and on the flow of money (harvesting speed).

Compared to other mainstream RTS games, Dark Colony combat is somewhat simple. 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 behind 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 nine main unit types in the game (plus several special units, or "artifacts"); each of the two "races" has a version of each of the types, with only minor ability variation between the versions of each type of unit. 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 game also contains special units called "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 massed enemy units.

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.

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 generally considered to be nice-looking.

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.

See also

• Dark Colony: The Council Wars A single-player campaign Expansion.

External links

• Polish Dark Colony Fan Site
• Dark Colony Fan Forum
• Dark Colony at MobyGames