Others say...

"If you loved the original Colonization, you will love this one more."
As a fan of the original Colonization, I always wondered why they never built a sequel or had any type of continuation to the game... well with this release I am pleased to say that Sid Meier and Firaxis have done an outstanding job of remaining true to the original game while significantly enhancing the game with improved graphics on the CIV-4 Engine.

For those of you who like playing with the game settings to allow your cannons &/or other pieces to move more than one space, this is still contained in a file that can be modified to play with these settings. Most of the code seems to be contained in XML and Python, but it isn't difficult to figure out if you like messing with this stuff.

The game itself has a very high replay factor, though I will advise with High Graphics settings, and if you manage to take over the whole world with lots of pieces in play, you may experience some significant delays in processing a round, but I still consider this game worth every penny.

"good game ! like usual."
very good game. the new interface is really nice.

Only negative point : very hard to win the game. king army is really strong

"Pointless"
I'm a big fan for all the Civilization Games but this one really let me down. The game seams pointless to me. They want you to colonize the New World but time runs out before you can even get started. I like conflict and taking over other civ's and in this game these thing take a back seat. I'm sorry. I put it away and maybe some day I'll try again.

"Fun for a while, but no staying power."
Fun enough as a scenario, but hardly enough to warrant a standalone game. There is only one goal and one way to play, and a massively simplified military model belies its Civ roots.

This is an economic micromamagement optimisation game, and can't really do much more than that.

I'd suggest waiting for it to hit the bargain bin.

"The glow fades fast"
I was a huge fan of the original Colonization, playing it up to the point that it wouldn't run on the latest version of Windows, and so I was quite excited to give Civ IV: Colonization a spin.

The first game through was a lot of fun, bringing back old memories and a few new twists. A few. I didn't feel most of them enhanced the game. I guess I was expecting more.

To touch on a few examples: For those who played the old version, you'll find don't get Founding Fathers automatically; you have to earn them. That was cool. You can train your Native American converts to become professionals by "living with the natives." Odd, but okay, that one is cool, too. Your monarch can raise your tax rate or request you pay a lump sum to support his personal projects. You have limited diplomatic options between yourself, other European nations and the Native Americans. All good.

On the flip side, there are the not so good things. Whereas before you could protest the king's tax hike by dumping a particular trade good in the ocean, resulting in an inablity to trade that item; you could always "buy back" forgiveness and resume trading that item. That feature is gone. In the old version, if you left a colonist working at a particular profession for long enough he/she would eventually become a professional. It made sense, but it's not an option anymore. (You can still send them to school). Your pioneers no longer spend tools, rather money, to make improvements. Your calvary no longer gets a "second chance" when they are defeated by downgrading to infantry.

These are minor things, to be sure, but you stack a bunch of minor qualms together and they become a major beef.

Other reviewers have complained about the imbalance between yourself and your home country during the end game after you declare independence. Many legitimate concerns: not impossible to win, but you better have stockpiles of weapons and horses if you have any hope. Forget any kind of naval advantage; the best ship you can build is completely inferior to the warships your monarch can put to sea.

By the fourth time I played, I was over it. Unlike Civilization, you just seem to run out of new things to try/do. Once you get your raw materials/refined good production down (which is fairly simple), there's no real economic challenge. In the original Colonization, there used to be a sneaky strategy where you could provide a native village with guns and rum and they'd eventually go on the warpath against your rival Europeans. Perhaps this was deemed too un-PC, but such proxy wars don't seem possible anymore. The diplomatic options are very narrow. There's no hobnobbing with other European monarchs to attempt to curry favor (where is LaFayette when you need him?).

I don't know what sort of effort is going to be put into refining/improving this game. I hope there is some commitment to making it better.

Get this one from your bargin bin.