Colonization of the Moon is yet another construction kit template copy+paste from serial shovelware pushers, . These guys do nothing but copy premade game templates and game tutorials, fill out a few things/stamp out basic levels using the construction kit templates, slap on an asset flipped set of sprites/assets, and dump them on Steam and into DailyIndieGame bundles as cash grabs. Trying to get paid for someone else's game templates, assets... at best, this is shovelware, at worst, it's a scam/cash grab.
An important note: ImperiumGame are known asset flippers and have previously taken other developers work and put it on Steam in an attempt to scam gamers and get paid for someone else's effort. ImperiumGame have shown a repeated pattern of trying to scam gamers, here are some examples of other asset flip scams they've pulled:
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[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/857570]World of Feudal[/url]" = [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGslj41TSFY]Tayphyn[/url] developed by Bocharov Anton
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1488020]Bird[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/sky-flight-full-game-template-113460]Sky Flight Full Game Template[/url] developed by Puppeteer
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1496430]Relax Fly[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/sky-flight-full-game-template-113460]Sky Flight Full Game Template[/url] developed by Puppeteer
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1470820]Mad Bus[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/zigzag-infinite-runner-game-100035]ZigZag Infinite Runner Game[/url] developed by Puppeteer
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/913150]Kitten and Food: Adventure Park[/url]" = [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kje_0eMY7g4]Cat and Food[/url] developed by Softrave
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From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.
There's no options to change the resolution for the game or customise the graphics settings. There's no way for gamers to ensure this is running at the native resolution of their displays... there's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. There's no way for gamers to try improve the low quality graphics.
The game features somewhat lazy, simplistic 2D graphics, of the type you normally expect to see in low effort Flash/browser games and mobile apps. Considering this is being evaluated as a PC game, having the graphics phoned in like this isn't going to result in a high quality, visually impressive game that PC gamers are used to seeing.
Bewilderingly, the game doesn't include proper audio controls, so you can't turn off the annoying background music, you'll need to alt+tab out and stop the music using the Windows sound mixer. This is obviously not okay and it's unclear why the developers chose not to include this basic feature.
The controls can't be customised because the game has such a dumbed down, simplified interface that it's just point and click stuff like a browser/Flash game. The fact that the interface is this dumbed down might be seen as a problem in itself, however... this is a fairly shallow experience if you're the kind of gamer that likes to play games with deep, rich control schemes and interaction. You'll get none of that here.
Some of the defects in the game can be attributed to the choice of using the GameMaker Studio construction kit/toolset. This is a very poor quality toolset favoured by amateur developers as it's cheap and requires little in the way of development skill, but unfortunately has very limited capabilities. Just as you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear, you can't make a great video game if you use a terrible engine. GameMaker Studio is often used to make retro pixel shovelware and cash grabs.
The very poor quality of this game puts it squarely on-par with ancient 1990's Flash/Java games, and given it's 2023 (and this was released not so far back in 2018), gamers and the industry expect and deserve better than this kind of low effort shovelware.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
The poor quality of this game is reflected in the general public reception. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 4 players. That's right, only 4. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 50,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in the game is to be expected. Gamers just didn't take this low quality game seriously, and for good reason.
Colonization of the Moon is relatively cheap at $1 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price and the unethical developer, this is impossible to recommend.
