Gamertell Review: Settlement: Colossus for PC
by at February 22, 2010 9:34 am
Sections: 2D, Casual, Developers, Exclusives, Game-Companies, Genres, Originals, PCs, Publishers, Puzzle, Reviews, Sim, Windows
|
Sign up for the FREE Tell Membership and receive benefits that include the digital edition of Tell Magazine sent straight to your inbox, product giveaways, coupons and much more!
A recent trend in casual games is to create amalgams, titles that cover two popular genres in an attempt to entice more people into playing. For example, Simplz: Zoo combined the match-3 and simulation genres, in the hopes of attracting fans of both games. The Flower Shop tried to easy new players into visual novel and dating simulation style games by combining those genres with a farming simulation. Alawar Entertainment is continuing this trend with Settlement: Colossus, a simulation and hidden object game that has players gathering necessary resources in hidden object puzzles so they can create a thriving settlement from the ground up.
Building an empire to atone for sins and please the gods.
Settlement: Colossus begins with an ancient, deposed emperor and his loyal followers traveling through barren areas searching for a new place to call home. He’s made mistakes in the past, and now he and his people are searching for a fresh start. Thankfully, they stumble upon the perfect plot of land, which happens to be near the ocean, a lake, a forest and ore and clay providing caverns. You then go through many chapters, building the new city up and helping the emperor atone for his past transgressions that brought the god’s wrath upon him until he makes things right.
Each chapter has certain goals, which usually unlock as conditions are met. Typically, you’ll be searching for the right amount of resources to sustain your people while also funding research to create new inventions and discoveries that will turn a tiny camp into an established and glorious city. So, for the most part you’ll be searching hidden object puzzles for resources. Once you have the right items, you can put them to good use making your people’s lives easier. Occasionally, about twice a chapter, mini-games that will ask you to solve puzzles will pop up to keep things from getting monotonous.
A totally manageable simulation, as long as you know what the materials you’re searching for look like.
One of the most striking things about Settlement: Colossus is, while the simulation scenes where you’re cultivating and creating a city appear whimsical, the hidden object puzzles featuring a striking amount of realism and detail. Details like animal life is encorporated into almost every scene, and elements like wind or rain even appear. It makes you appreciate the game more and enjoy spending time searching for items.
Being so authentic does have its downsides. For example, the scenes you’re hunting through for supplies look real, and actually have moving plants, bugs and occasionally small animals. Occasionally, there’ll even be a downpour. This makes finding necessary objects more difficult, as the movement is distracting and sometimes the extraneous objects can obscure necessary ones.
This is compounded by the fact that you sometimes have no clue what the item you’re looking for should look like. For the very first puzzle, the game points out the berries to you, so you know all berries will look something like that. After that, you’re on your own. Finding some materials, for example brushwood, reeds and clay, would be much easier if you knew what the items would actually look like when hidden in the scene.
Thankfully, there are two hint systems. One is an automatic one, where if the player hasn’t moved or clicked in a while, a faint sparkle will shimmer near one of the hidden objects. The other is an actual hint button that gradually fills up over time and players can tap to instantly reveal an item or give a hint about how objects should be used. You also aren’t timed when you’re searching a puzzle, so you can take as much time as you need. And the mini-games can all be skipped, after a certain length of time, if you’re stumped.
Settlement: Colossus makes city building and hidden object searches seem more realistic.
Some elements of Settlement: Colossus are quite whimsical, from the story of a 300 year old emperor trying to atone for his past and make amends to the gods, from the artistic design of some of the characters and mythical items that can be collected, but for the most part it’s a fairly realistic and accurate depiction of what must be done to create a thriving settlement and the areas you’d be searching through for materials. Players may encounter some frustrating moments, for example when playing certain mini-games or searching for new materials for the first time, but these are trivial annoyances that are easily overcome by utilizing the game’s hint programs or skip features.
The Facebook connectivity feature was also an interesting touch, but I chose not to implement it after initially testing it. Personally, I don’t think people have to be constantly aware of what I’m playing or what kind of achievements I’ve unlocked in games. It’s very simple to use though, and is an novel option that I’m sure other Settlement: Colossus players might like.
Site [Settlement: Colossus]
Related Posts