Dark Colony is a real-time strategy with heavy emphasis on the actual combat. Resource gathering, base construction and unit production have been made as simple and fast as possible, allowing the player to focus on decimating the enemy armies. Ancient artifacts, available in some of the missions, provide unique options for beating the odds, even when they seem to be against you (and they often will).
In a gloomy not-so-distant future, mankind have finally made it to Mars. The colonization of the red planet is vital for humanity's survival, as the heavily polluted Earth's resources are nearly depleted. At the same time, the Taar, a mysterious alien race that lost their homeworld many centuries ago, has decided to take Mars as their new home.
As the war between the two species erupts, the player has to choose his side and lead his people to ultimate domination over the red planet. Things become even more complicated when the ruins of an extinct ancient civilization are found on Mars, revealing immensely destructive weapons that could easily turn the tide of the war in favor of the faction that manages to gain control over them first.
| Recommended System Requirements | ||
| CPU | Pentium 133 MHz | |
| RAM | 16 MB RAM | |
| Game Analysis | The game is set on a fictional Mars colony - the so-called "Dark 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 Petra-7, the Humans begin terraforming the planet. | |
| High FPS | 0 FPS ( GTX 1060 ) | |
| Optimization Score | 10 | |
-Massive drawn out battles with hundreds of units
-Immersive atmosphere
-Peculiar unit and building design
-Immersive sound
-Slow pace of battle
-Spikes of difficulty in campaign
-Little emphasis on tactics
It is amazing how much this game manages to achieve with so little of available resources. It would be safe to say that this game comes from a time when the technology available to produce it was very basic and very limited in capabilities. It even had a separate version for DOS. Thus it is surprising how fun such an old under-the-radar title can be. You fight a war of humans versus martians and that’s kind of the whole plot summed up. Start of with scratch, farm one resource, construct your all-in-one base of operations and spawn units to go attack your opponent. That’s it. And yet somewhere down there lies the potential for long drawn out battles with hundreds of units constantly fed into the grinder. Don’t expect quick tactical skirmishes here. No. This is all about massive clashes of armies with constant reinforcements and slow pushing of front lines. The amount of units you get to choose from is pretty small. But its enough. Each unit has a specific purpose and it copes with it pretty well. Design is rather minimalistic but still likable and the game sounds, although rendered by old age tech, still manage to please the ear. They help immerse you into the atmosphere of this simple but cozy universe, and if you manage to look past the age of the title, you’ll definitely find a fun little experience that will cling to you for quite a while. Dark Colony is by no means a grand headliner title. But its a small well-balanced and carefully-made game that delivers on its potential. I’m sure we could all learn a trick or two of making the best of what you have from this little fellow.