Space Colony (PC)
Space: the mild frontier.
by Nicole Tanner

PLATFORM: PC

PUBLISHER: Gathering

DEVELOPER: Gathering

GENRE: Strategy/Simulation

ESRB: Teen

Rating:

The rules of pop culture dictate that whenever anything becomes the rave, others try to cash in with knockoffs. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

With the phenomenal success of The Sims, it was only a matter of time before game companies started jumping on the bandwagon, including the Austin-based Gathering. The company released the ambitious Space Colony, a simulation and building strategy hybrid. Just think of it as RollerCoaster Tycoon, SimCity and The Sims rolled into one interesting, but disappointing, package.

Venus Jones, a cooler-than-school spacegal, has been sent by her questionable employer to extract valuable minerals from a martian planet while maintaining a livable space colony. Eventually, your team expands, leaving you with 20 misfits who will keep the station active. The catch—you must make sure your colonists stay content. The more rested, well-fed and socialized the colonists are, the better the overall morale. The higher the moral, the more productive the station. In the meantime, you’ll also have the responsibility of dealing with invading aliens, locating wayward colonists and eventually, attracting tourists to your planet.

To its credit, the Space Colony’s building simulation element fares respectably. This gameplay element doesn’t present much in the way of innovation, but if you overlook the static camera angle and the limited building options, you might find a few challenges and a bit of fun. That is, if the repetitive missions don’t get to you first.

The people simulation, however, disappoints the most.

Unlike The Sims, Space Colony doesn’t allow you to create your own characters. Instead, you must work with a limited cast, none of which could win any type of congeniality contest. Most of the characters are also based on stereotypes—stupid valley girl, drunk hick, philosophical, old Chinese man—to name a few.

Also unlike The Sims, there’s no need to expend much energy to care for the crew’s individual needs. If they have a hankering for sludgy space porridge, they’ll take care of themselves. Aside from making sure you have the proper facilities for them, you can almost ignore them for the rest of the game, making the people simulation seem like an it was tacked on as an afterthought. I would have been happier if the developers had forgone the people sim and focused more on improving the strategy elements in the game.

Space Colony also offers several other modes of play; the most notable being the Sandbox mode. The free-for-all mode allows you to build to your heart’s content on an unpopulated planet. Too bad you don’t have the option of deciding how many or which colonists populate your space station. The most annoying characters kept appearing in my custom-made space base, so I couldn’t spend too much time with this mode.

Small extras add to the game's few redeeming qualities, especially the ability to upload your own MP3s. If you’re anything like me, it’s a feature you will want to use. While the in-game music isn’t as bad as that in other games, the repetitive techno is distracting. That also applies to the downright annoying little sayings that come out of the people’s mouths. The worst was Tiffany, who continutally piped, “Like, oh my god.” It was so irritating that, when she was sick, I kept her from accessing a medical station in hopes that she would die.

The graphics don’t add much flavor either. Granted, Space Colony looks better than The Sims, but the people sim is now three years old. Graphical technology has exploded so much since then that it seems the developers could have done a better job in this space odyssey—especially since it’s 2D with only one camera angle. Most of the planets look exactly alike, and there’s little variety among the plants growing in the alien environments. The character models look OK in the control panel, but that quality doesn’t translate into the actual game.

Female gamers who enjoy SimCity or RollerCoaster Tycoon, may find Space Colony amusing for a while. If you’re looking for a game on caliber with The Sims, this title probably won’t satisfy your appetite. With the exception of Venus, the other female characters fall victim to negative stereotypes—a huge turn-off for me.

It’s not that Space Colony can be called a terrible game, but it’s nothing to write Grandma about, either. Who knew space exploration could be so blase.