Aven Colony

Strategy titles on console are generally few and far between. Can sci-fi city-builder Aven Colony bravely go where few games have gone before and bring the genre to a new audience?

As a seasoned city-builder, Aven Colony is a solid game that has translated remarkably well to the PlayStation 4.It’s incredibly fun and challenging and optimising your colony to no end will keep you entertained.

Aven Colony tells the story of the human colonisation of an alien world, and each mission of the fifteen hour campaign is a variation on that one, singular idea. Like Earth, the planet offers everything from frozen tundra to lush, fertile landscapes capable of supporting the growth of crops like corn and wheat. The aim of the game is to take over a fledgling colony ran by a skeleton crew and expan...

One of the best SimCity clones on consoles, whose streamlined gameplay is accessible if not necessarily very original.

The first impressions of Aven Colony are great, as you build your first colony, finding your way on this alien world. It doesn’t take too long before you start to see the limitations, whether by design or by mistake, leaving this as a city builder that’s easy to pick up and play, but one that could do with a little more depth.

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Despite its variety and the occasional innovation, Aven's lack of threat and mediocre story make the game feel undercooked. It's a sold city builder that doesn't do enough with its premise to stand out.

Despite the time I’ve spent harping on Aven‘s issues, it’s not necessarily a bad game. Mothership Entertainment has put in a lot of effort to try and create a threatening world for humanity to conquer. It certainly did the former, but the game fluctuates wildly from barely eking out an existence to being devoid of challenge. Humanity can do better on its first settlement among the stars.

I spent the equivalent of a working week playing Aven Colony and it was hard labor. This is a game of relentless concentration and chore-work, with only the briefest flashes of magic and relief, offering almost nothing new to the city building, or resource management genres.