I always preferred Colonization to the Civ series, and keep wondering why I am apparently in the minority.

Civ, and also SimCity, always felt as if they would progress along more or less the same trajectory of growth, with little actual choice for the player as long as they broadly stayed within the bounds of what the designers considered typical gameplay.

In Col, I loved building these intricate industrial networks and trade routes.

Now that I’m writing this, I’m wondering if Colonization possibly came too close to the Soviet idea of central economic planning for the taste of the audience.