I had a subscription to a PC gaming magazine, which had a demo CD with it every month, and one month the cover of the CD had Silver on it. It looked cool, and there weren't many other demos on it. The magazine reviewed the game as well, and gave it high remarks. I felt I just had to try this, and try it I did. I was blown away by that demo! The prerendered graphics in the backgrounds, the beautifully designed environments, the smooth and innovative fighting system, the voice acting (which to me was still a pretty new thing, at the time) and the excitement of the story all just made me sad when the demo ended. So I played it again. And again. And then a few more times. Then I couldn't stop myself anymore, as I went and dipped into my savings, got on my bike and went to the nearest place where they sold games and bought it. Just like that. I hurried home, installed it and started it up.Even though I had played the beginning so many times in the demo, I still loved it this time too, excited to see what happened after the demo ended hoping it would just as amazing. Oh man, was it amazing! It was one of the greatest adventures I've had in a game, and still is to this date. I can't recommend this game enough, it just needs to be played. You won't regret it!
I first encountered this game at a friends house, who had "aquired" a CD full of games (wow, a CD!) and one of them was Colonization. We booted it up and tried to learn the gameplay. At a first glance, it looked really complicated (we were about 9 years old at the time) but got into it really quickly. At that time I had already played the first Civilisation, but I found it a bit too hard with all the maintenance costs. Colonization on the other hand was much easier to manage, but still pretty hard to beat. It was perfect. I loved exploring, hoping to find new indian tribes, trading with them (or destroying them), locating new places to grow special crops and turning them into new items. The whole trading system was great and well balanced. I always felt that I was really colonizing a new world, with all its rewards and difficulties. It made it challenging, but rewarding all the way through, no matter what you faced. It just never got dull. A lot of games I've played (old and new) have some functions or features that could be used, but never are because they're just not that important. In this game, I've used every feature, and beaten it with every European nation as they all have different strengths which are all useful. What kind of colonizer do you want to be? Do you want to befriend and trade with the locals, to earn gold and resources (and slaves, unfortunately) or do you want to go on the warpath and destroy every village and rivaling country as you meet them? Or maybe a mix of them both? You can play in any fashion you like, and still beat the game. I really love that. But I really love this game overall, so you should really try it if you haven't!
