Colony Wars: Vengeance

"Great gameplay and plot make up for relatively linear storyline"

Gameplay: 9
The first few ships you get are a bit clunky, which makes the game seem un-enjoyable at first. However, the missions are VERY well done. Most games in such a genre (i.e. StarFox 64) have relatively one-sided missions that just orbit around blasting everything in sight until you reach a big nasty boss which takes minimal thought to kill. Not so in CWV. Missions range anywhere from pulling mines off a ship to uploading viruses to satellites to rescuing freighters from alien hostility. CWV also introduces BOSSES, a concept not seen much in the original Colony Wars. The bosses are a bit basic, but often just killing the boss is not all you have to do to win....

Audio: 9
The music really fits the mood, the computer does what's needed, and the miscelanious effects (explosions and weapon fire) fit perfectly.

Story: 9
On the borderline of a 10. A fantastic story dealing with the Navy's recovery from the war with the League of Free Worlds (the side you fight for in the first Colony Wars). The characters are believable, the villains aren't the one-sided ''we kill everything because we like being bad'' kind of villains the video game world is plagued by, and the plot is very well constructed. The reason it gets a 9 and not a 10 is because the story is rather linear compared to Colony Wars, where you can lose certain battles and the storyline will take a turn in an entirely different direction.

Video: 10
Very nice graphics. The FMVs serve their purpose, and the real-time rendered graphics (i.e. the ones you see while playing) are very good as well. Particularily good are the nebulae and planets that you see in the background during many fights. The spacecraft throughout the game are done extremely well, as are the bosses

Replayability: 7
Like I said earlier, unlike Colony Wars, in which there are many different endings to be discovered, CWV provides a relatively linear storyline. There are only about 2 ''good'' endings, which can only be achived by near-perfection on the missions.

Buying advice: Buy it new, but buy the original Colony Wars first
Good gameplay, great story, lots of variety in the missions, overall an extremely good game for its category.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/00, Updated 07/27/00