Space Colony attempts to nudge the boundaries here by giving each and every one of your merry helpers (crew members) a healthy dose of attitude. Which in turn gives you a whole new field of problems to enjoy and deal with. Human Relationships. Not something I've had to deal with since mum put a lock on the attic door (it's one of those quaint rooms with bars on the windows). The tutorial introduces you to three of the twenty odd characters in the game and sets a few simple tasks to get you acquainted with the interface and general gameplay. Venus Jones is the initial mainstay of the team. Pretty, multi-skilled and unflappable she is the archetypal Ripley ala Aliens (and probably quite shaggable if you happen to be a Pixilated character). Stig Svenson. A Norwegian Biker type who don't take no shit, loves to drink improbable amounts of beer and spends most of his spare time in the sauna. He's also pretty handy with the heavy work. The third team member is Tami Le Belle - the Bitch from Hell. Not only does it rhyme but it's also appropriate. This over-the-hill alcoholic misery just lives to hate every one else and she will piss you off in no short order. Your first task is to put her to work (most of the characters come with one or more skills under their belt but many more are available to be taught or brainwashed into your idiot of choice) and then get her together with Sven for a heart to heart (she has already taken a dislike to the sound of his voice and the brand of beer he drinks), in the hope of bringing them closer together. Firearms are not available at this point which rules out the simple and quick method of dealing with her.

The Campaign proper starts in a similar vein with each scenario requiring you to add more module structures to your growing base while bringing in the rest of the cast in one and twos via planetary shuttle. And with every new arrival also comes a new personality to mix it with your growing bunch of moaning Prima Donnas. Neglect them at your peril. Your crew suffers a fair gamut of pseudo simulated emotions ranging from plain tiredness after a hard days work to boredom, hunger, greed, sexual depravity (I made that one up) and a sort of fixated hatred syndrome when working with someone they don't like. Everyone can be set up with primary and secondary job priorities, so if your good Doctor is no longer needed in the infirmary (lets just say that everybody has already died mysteriously) then he will report elsewhere to sweep up or man the repair station or whatever you set up as his second job priority. That is of course as long as he's not eating, or sleeping, or exercising, or cashing his pay cheque, or up in the Library... Did I mention the Library and the Training Pod? .... Whoops. Never mind.

   

Out of Colony amusement is provided by the indigenous creatures of the world you happen to be on and there are a few varying types. Mutant bees get caught in your force fields with much the same effect as flies in the purple buzzing insecto-zapper thing mounted over the meat counter in your local kebab shop, where as trans-dimensional entities are a little harder to show to the door. There is also some sort of disgusting creature that lives deep in the core of the base who pops out for a bite now and again like some sort of grisly half mechanoid jack-in-the-box that nobody really takes seriously until they find it chewing on their girlfriends head.

Space Colony is a well-polished game with all the usual resource bits to manage and mess with. The Graphics are colourful and cutesy and the character dialogue is reasonably witty (to a point). Game options are impressive should you take a shine to this galactic number, giving you plenty of opportunities to carry on the experience for as long as it holds your interest. Personally, I don't think it has enough to justify too many revisits and its new approach just added a whole mess of complications instead of a new dimension of fun.