This is my first Civ game I've owned and played. It is very difficult to know what to do and doesn't communicate very well to me what to do at all. Are all Civ games like this?

Colonization started out as an entirely different game series than Civ. The most recent one used the Civ IV brand in the title in an attempt to market it better, but from my understanding, it's still a very different thing.

Colonization is more focused and linear than Civ. It shares similarities for certain, and the remake uses the Civ IV engine, but it's still different enough that it can't really be called a real civilization game. Nonetheless, it's pretty rad, all the same.

So is vanilla Civ 4 easier to play?