NVISION 08 | DAY THREE

by John Gaudiosi

Games was on hand at NVISION 08 to showcase the latest game in Firaxis' best-selling Civilization franchise, which was created by Sid Meier. The new game is a revision of the 1994 PC classic using the latest technology and the Civilization IV game engine.

"Civilization: Colonization tells the story of a group of people fleeing the old world to develop a new colony in the new world," said Liam Collins, associate producer of the title at Firaxis Games. "They’ll deal with native civilizations as well as other European expeditions."

Players can choose from four different factions -- the Dutch, the French, the English and the Spanish. Each group has unique abilities. The English have extra religious freedom points and can create larger colonies. There are also two unique leaders for each faction like John Adams, who has bonus liberty points to get people to rally behind you for independence.

Once in the new world, players will have eight types of native civilizations to contend with, each with their own personalities like the Aztecs and the Cherokees. Players can interact with natives by forming defensive packs and receive gifts and unique units from them. Collins advised that it's in the best interest of the colony to work with natives.

"There are three parts to the game: early exploration and the founding of a settlement, the creation and running of an economy, and then the declaration of independence and the fight to free your colony from the motherland," explained Collins.

There are a variety of maps in this game, each with unique environments like the Caribbean and the Northwest Passage. Where a player chooses to locate his first settlement is very important because it dictates what type of crops are grown for export and shape the economy.

"The player can expand his settlements after more exploration and there are other French and Dutch colonies that are also being established and growing," said Collins. "You can set up your economy as a big port city with two smaller cities to feed it goods, but if you were to lose that city in an attack, you're in trouble. Another option is to create several self-sufficient settlements and spread them out."

As the settlements grow, players can create new buildings and get different types of goods like horses and scout units. Every building can be upgraded. When a ranch building is upgraded it automatically increases the amount of horses you get. The weaver shop can be upgraded with three colonists to produce a lot of exportable clothing.

"There are specialist units like the master weavers, who can double the amount of cloths created," said Collins. "Based on your economy, you can craft and enhance the economic capabilities of your settlement. You can also shop for goods in Europe and buy food in Europe. Interactions with Europe are very important in this game."

The game has 52 founding fathers who provide big bonuses to any civilization. For someone focused on a mercantile economy, Betsy Ross offers a big boost in cloth production. Militaristic civilizations can get military founding fathers like George Washington.

Of course, at the end of the day, Europe will have to be defeated. The motherland will want a bigger cut of the action. Every colony has a king who increases taxes, takes your money and makes life difficult. Collins said you can give in to the king’s demands or tell him to screw off. The latter will leads the player to declare independence.

As part of your Declaration of Independence, players will have to craft a constitution, which will award bonuses that will distributed through the end of the game. These bonuses, especially in the combat arena, will prove helpful.

To win the game, it's the player’s job to rally people under the banner of independence and win the battle against their former country. A player needs 50 percent of his citizenry to support independence. A revolutionary advisor will help earn more points and more citizens will support independence. To declare independence players need a lot of combat units. Ironically, you can purchase cannons and soldiers in Europe to prepare for independence.

"Once you wipe out the ground forces of the king you win," said Collins. "But other colonies will be attempting to declare their own independence. Whoever does it first wins the game. It's a race to finish first and a fight for survival. The endgame requires good strategic planning. It can get hairy at times."

Collins said that using the Civilization IV engine has added secular highlights to the water, high res textures to the terrain, and real-time shadows to all of the units in the game. It also helped with the four-player multiplayer and all of the modding abilities that made Civilization IV so robust. The game ships in September.