The Colonists is a game inspired by The Settlers and the Anno series in which you control a team of self-replicating robots created to simulate human civilization. You have to go through three centuries and create the colony’s infrastructure, including road, sea, and rail transport systems. The game also needs to extract natural resources, create farms, produce food, explore the land and learn new technologies.

The Colonists campaign has fourteen missions, which are divided into two directions: military and peaceful. Within each of them, the game implies a different experience. For example, the military direction will offer to enter into an arms race with colonies under the control of AI.