"Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization is the first remake of Sid Meier's Colonization ever; there has been no other sequel," said a representative from Colonization publisher 2K Games as we sat down at a Colonization terminal during the recent Games for Windows: The Big Picture press event.

"It's a stand-alone game," he continued, clarifying the somewhat confusing 'Civilization IV' prefix. "You don't need to have Civ IV [to play]." After choosing to begin a new single-player game, the representative was quick to point out that despite not relying on Civ IV to run, an aesthetic overhaul has converted Colonization to a similar interface.

"You'll notice that the whole interface has been redone: the graphics have been revamped, the interface is tighter," he said. "Obviously the hardware requirements will be a bit higher to compensate for these changes."

Players will begin the game by choosing from four unique colonies: English, Dutch, the French, or Spain. Each colony has a number of specific bonuses and, in some cases, more than one leader to choose from. "If a colony is mercantile," explained the 2K Games representative, "their market prices will fluctuate less. Depending upon who you pick you might have more than one leader, and you might also receive a secondary bonus. For example, 100 per cent time in-between taxes, 25 per cent production, 50 per cent less time to create troops, stuff like that."

Colonizing the New World and declaring independence is your ultimate goal, but to the woe of significant others around the globe, nothing is ever quick and easy in a Sid Meier game. "You're also competing against the colonies you didn't pick," said the representative. "Just like in Civ where there's a space race, culture race, money race, domination victory... what you're trying to do is declare independence before everyone else. All of the other colonies will be going for the same goal at the same time you are: you have to found a colony, you have to declare independence, and you have to defend your colony after declaring independence."

Of course, before you can declare independence for your colony, you have to found a colony. Players start on a ship settled on the outskirts of a supposedly undiscovered land mass: the New World. Steering your ship can be accomplished via mouse clicks or the number pad, just as in the original game. Steer your ship to shore, disembark your settlers, and choose a nice spot of land on which to found your first colony.

After either giving the colony a custom name or using the default, your quest to declare independence for your colony will officially begin. Units can be set to work on specific tiles, and the game will soon prompt you to build a new structure within your colony. One prime choice is a Dock, which boosts your food supply. One settler began construction of said structure while we ordered another to roam to the north, eventually bumping into Native Americans, neighbors that will be friendly or unfriendly based on your actions, as well as those of competing colonies.

"The thing about Native Americans is, they're very helpful, but they're also one of your biggest competitors in the game," said our 2K representative. "They help you by giving you gifts, just like our history's Thanksgiving. So they'll give you gifts, and depending upon your relationship with them they can be very helpful; they'll give you more gifts if you have a good relationship."

One boon is a tribal chief's ability to upgrade your units to types not available from Europe. "So if you wanted to make, say, a master sugar farmer, they have the knowledge to do that, and you can't get it from Europe," said our representative.

Unlike most other strategy games, any unit in Civ IV: Colonization can be upgraded to any other type of unit. "Any unit in Colonization can be any other unit," the 2K rep explained. "You can also establish missions within Native Americans [villages], so you'll receive converted natives. It's a good way to supplement your forces. You can't change them into soldiers instantly; you have to train them in a profession and then convert them into a soldier."

A unit's previous training does have an impact on the success he'll find in future jobs. We double-clicked on our settler, chose Fisherman from a list of upgrade choices, and let him work for a bit before moving him to a flat tile and converting him into a farmer. That career switch worked out for the better, since the two lines of work weren't too dissimilar in their requirements.

As you work toward declaring independence, you'll inevitably engage other colonies in violent conflict. War is another facet of the game with which the Native Americans can assist you -- if you've been good to them. "The other thing is, you can actually make defensive pacts and treaties with Native Americans," our representative told us. "So if you want to go to war with someone and you have a really solid relationship with the Native Americans, you can ask them to join you in that war. They'll also ask you to go to war as well. I've seen many examples where the Dutch built close to me, and the Native Americans said, 'We don't like the Dutch, we're going to war with them.'"

Building on the given scenario, what if you felt compelled to ally with the Dutch due to your close proximity? "If you turn down the Native Americans' proposal [to go to war against the Dutch], depending on your relationship with [the Native Americans], they might declare war on you -- they obviously wouldn't ask you to go to war with them if you have a bad relationship. What you need to do is cultivate your relationship so that if you want to go to war, you can receive their assistance."

Properly evolving a friendly relationship with the Native Americans is also instrumental in getting them to voluntarily assimilate their land with yours, an effective method of blossoming your colony. "As your city grows, if you're near a Native American drive, they might become upset if you haven't been kind to them," said the 2K representative. "If you encroach on their land, they might go to war with you. However, if your relationship with them is strong, they might simply give you their villages as your borders expand."

The more bodies at your command when it comes time to declare independence, the better. We relinquished our comfy chair to our 2K representative, who loaded a saved game that featured Spain on the brink of declaring a revolution, a pivotal step toward completing the game. Pulling up the Revolution screen, the representative pointed to a meter at the top of the screen. "This is the meter of rebel sentiment. Once it reaches 50 per cent, you can start a revolution. The Revolution screen also shows what forces you have, and what forces your opponent has."

Declaring a revolution is not often accomplished in one or two turns; many decisions that you'll make over the course of the game will impact factors that determine your chance to win a revolution and raise your flag on a nice, shiny pole.

"The king will ask you to give him gold, and he'll raise taxes," explain the representative. "When he says 'Give me gold,' you can say 'No,' and that will make him upset. When he's upset, he has a higher chance to increase taxes, or he'll start adding more units to the royal expeditionary force. When you decline taxes, you can't trade [certain goods] with Europe. Again, the king grows upset and adds more troops to his expeditionary force."

At 54 per cent rebel sentiment, our 2K representative decided his rebel sentiment bar was full enough to take the plunge. After a single mouse click, our once peaceful colony began prepping for war.

"After declaring a revolution, you get to form your constitution," he explained. "You receive choices in increments of two, each with a bonus: you can pick slavery, which will increase production in all cities; monarchy, which allows continued trade with Europe; elections beget founding fathers; manifest destiny versus native rights; separation of church and state; right to bear arms... we included everything in the [actual] constitution."

Referencing our Revolution screen revealed that our representative commanded 16 soldiers and three cannons and warships apiece. Not too shabby on its own, but quite shabby indeed when compared to Europe's forces: 57 soldiers, 16 dragoons, 13 artillery, and 10 warships.

Uh-oh.

The French, allies with Spain in this particular game, offered a revealed world map in exchange for some piece of technology or other. Given our need to see all of the king's expeditionary force's movements, the exchange was a no-brainer. All dark areas of the map became visible after the trade was complete, revealing several thriving colonies which the representative had beaten in terms of starting a revolution, but not the end objective of attaining independence.

The world map also revealed a fleet of warships docking at the border of one of Spain's many colonies.

Our representative sighed. "Because our borders extend so far, they [enemies] can sail in, deposit their troops... they're aiming to destroy my colony, so depending on how far I've built out, they have a lot of places they can go."

Grazing his hands over the keyboard, the Spanish commander ordered one of his three warships to engage one of his opponent's. The ship sailed into position, arranged itself parallel to its adversary, and opened fire. Puffs of smoke preceded the crack of cannon blasts as the ship let loose, which was returned ten-fold by the European craft. His first ship sunk, our representative sent his next vessel to a similar fate, but damage had finally accumulated on the European warship: the sails were in tatters, the body was splintered, and some of the masts had cracked in half.

The third and finally Spanish ship won the encounter, but was in just as battered condition -- meaning, of course, that the single ship stood no chance against Europe's remaining nine warships.

"You don't have to battle naval units, just ground units," the beleaguered representative told us. "Of course, if you destroy ships before they can land and deploy troops, that's a good thing. But if they land... It's a really good balance between upgrading your colonies and your troops."

European troops had already stormed the heart of the Spanish colony. Referencing on-screen HUD elements shown during a revolution revealed friendly and hostile unit occupancy per colony; Spain again found itself outnumbered, but chose to fight on valiantly. The attack command manifested itself by showing a soldier from each faction squaring off face to face, rifle to rifle, bullet to bullet.

Same scenario, different units -- but the same outcome. Poor, poor Spain. Your noble sacrifice for the purpose of demonstration will never be forgotten.

As with any strategy title, our time spent with Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization was brief, slightly overwhelming, but fun. Prepare to colonize the New World later this fall when the game debuts exclusively for PC.