Dark Colony Download PC

Dark Colony is a real-time strategy video game developed by GameTek Canada (a subsidiary of Alternative Reality Technology, which in turn was a subsidiary of GameTek) and published by Strategic Simulations. The game was released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS in August 1997.

Overview

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. At the start of the game the project has produced jungles and deserts habitable by people. All seems to be going well, until the Taar show up. The Taar are aliens from a scattered and dying race looking for a new homeworld, and Mars seems to be good fit. Before they can move in though, they seek to get rid of the humans.

The game consists of two campaigns where players can either play as the humans, commanding a colonization force from Pan Luma Industries (one of the Earth corporations along with Aerogen and Stratus who are in charge of the Mars project) whose goal is to defend against and defeat the alien threat, or as the Taar, where players have to defeat the human presence on Mars and claim it as their own.

Balance

Both the human and alien armies have almost absolutely mirrored units that differ mostly in appearance. The few differences between races are that the range of the heavy assault units is bigger by 1 for humans in exchange for speed, the range of alien sniper units is bigger by 1, and alien defense turrets have less range and less damage. However, there are two aspects to the gameplay that can sway the tide of battle: effective use of artifacts and day/night cycle.original research? Dark Colony is one of the first RTS to add day/night cycle as a tactical consideration, as the Taar see much better during night time and also deal a little more damage and Humans see much better during day time while dealing some more damage in daylight.