History VideoGame / DarkColony

* BlueIsHeroic: Averted. The fact that this game has no downright heroic factions aside, Stratus' main color is blue -- and they end up betraying other two human corporation. [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves And pay dearly for that betrayal]].

''Dark Colony'' is a 1997 RealTimeStrategy game for Windows [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PCs]], developed by [=GameTek=] and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. Set on a terraformed Mars in 2137, it focuses on the conflict between humans and aliens for domination of the planet.

* OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank: Non-robotic units, when hit in-game, spout absolutely ''copious'' amounts od blood, much more than they reasonably should have in their bodies.

* KillItWithFire: S.A.R.G.E cyborg has the ability to launch a napalm grenade (making it the only unit in human arsenal with secondary attack). The resulting fire deals only minor damage, but makes the area impassable, allowing you to immobilize enemy force and destroy it from safe distance using artillery and sniper units. The alien Gorrem counterpart's equivalent of this ability is Disease.

* EleventhHourSuperpower: In penultimate mission of each campaign, you obtain an alien artifact (Esgaard if you're playing as a human or Portalis is you're playing as an alien) so powerful that it hopelessly outmatches anything that your enemy may throw against you. To give a small summary -- it's airborne, making it invulnerable to most unit types (only a few can shoot aerial targets), it [[OneHitKill one-hits]] every unit (sans armoured ones -- turrets and assault units -- which are killed in two shots), it has a ''very'' high rate of fire, range on par with that of sniper units and on top of that, it has lot of health. All you need to do is to send it straight against enemy bases and expect the final mission to be a cakewalk.

* BadassBaritone: Played straight with human commander, who has a deep, raspy voice to underscore his status as a legitimate badass. Inverted with alien commander, who speaks in squeaky, high-pitched voice, but is no less of a badass.

* KillEmAll: The main goal for either side of the conflict is total and complete extermination of the opposing faction on Mars.

* RidiculouslyFastConstruction: [[UpToEleven Taken to extreme degree]]. There is ''no'' building time for units and structures in this game -- new soldiers, combat machines and beasts of war leave the barracks, factories and hatcheries the moment they are ordered. Possibly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in case of buildings, which are delivered in whole via dropships.

* AliensAreBastards: Taar definitely count. Not only they try to conquer the planet that humans have just recently terraformed and colonized -- not even considering the possibility of peaceful coexistence -- but are utterly cruel and remorseless, torturing and dismembering their enemies and siccing genetically designed monsters on them, especially the Scythe Demons, which just love to rip their victims apart piece by piece. Then again, [[HumansAreBastards humans are]] [[NotSoDifferent no better]].

* NotSoDifferent: The Taar think of themselves as a superior race -- standing way above filthy, primitive ''homo sapiens'' -- and highly value their pride and ''[[TheNeedsOfTheMany pro publico bono]]'' ideology. In reality, they are just as cruel, selfish, short-sighted and petty as humans are.

* ArmorIsUseless: Human infantry unit, the Trooper, wears a protective suit while alien infantry unit, Gray warrior, is completely naked. Despite that, they both have the exact same amount of health.

** Kaox, when deployed, divides into multiple copies of itself which cut down everything in their path instantly. Trouble is, they all move completely randomly and there is no way to predict where they will go, nor control them once deployed. Therefore, whether you're lucky or not, Kaox can mow down multiple enemy units (besides the one you targetted) or none at all. If you're ''unlucky'', it can even kill ''your own troops'' purely by accident.

* BadassBaritone: Played straight with human commander, who has a deep, raspy voice to underscore his status as a legitimate badass. Inverted with alien commander, who speaks in squeaky, high-pitched voice.

* BadassBaritone: Played straight with human commander has a deep, raspy voice to underscore his status as a legitimate badass. Inverted with alien commander, who speaks in squeaky, high-pitched voice.

** Kaox, when deployed, divides into multiple copies of itself which cut down everything in their path instantly. Trouble is, they all move completely randomly and there is no way to predict where they will go, nor control them once deployed. Therefore, whether you're lucky or not, Kaox can mow down multiple enemy units (besides the one you targetted) or none at all.

** The title of alien campaign mission twelve ("Then There Was One") may be a reference to Agatha Christie's novel ''[[Literature/AndThenThereWereNone And Then There Were None]]''.

* SufficientlyAdvancedAliens: The alien civilization that used to inhabit Mars long before Earthlings and Taar came there definitely counts. It was so powerful and so advanced that its artifacts, which were just mere tools for mundane tasks like demolition or garbage disposal are now [[MundaneMadeAwesome repurposed by fighting sides as]] ''[[MundaneMadeAwesome weapons of mass destruction]]''.

* EnemyMine: After backstabbing Pan Luma and Aerogen, Stratus briefly forms an alliance with the Taar in order to fight its former partners. Once the battle is over and the aliens get what they need, they [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness turn on the Stratus and kill them off anyway]].

* CivilWarcraft: Stratus Commander Tick is brainwashed by the Greys roughly halfway through the game. For some reason not only to the rest of Stratus turn on Pan Luma with no objections, they remain enemies even after Tick shakes off the mind control and later dies. [[spoiler: It's hinted they were planning on backstabbing Pan Luma from the start, Tick's brainwashing just made it happen sooner]].
-->'''Trooper:''' I thought this war was supposed to be against the aliens.

* EnemyMine: After backstabbing Pan Luma and Aerogen in alien campaign, Stratus briefly forms an alliance with the Taar in order to fight its former partners. Once the battle is over and the aliens get what they need, they [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness turn on the Stratus and kill them off anyway]].