Colony Wars: Vengeance

"A odd sequel."

This is a odd game. It's Colony Wars...yet it isn't. Just enough like it, and just enough different to give any player who got addicted to Colony Wars a interesting case of Deja Vu.

A Sequel to Colony Wars (though the name should give that much away), Vengeance takes place one-hundred years after the original game. Assuming you had gotten the worst of the two "Sol" endings in the original (having to destroy the warp hole and leaving the system to die), a charismatic fellow by the name of Kron is finally taking up power. Kron the great, Kron the brave, Kron the insert-adjective-for-a-typical-cult-of-personality-leader. The Navy has been rebuilt, and now it's time for some good old fashion revenge.

Like the original, the story isn't high art. It tries to be high art, though. In some ways it makes the entire thing seem aspiring, and makes me think there are some talented folks who went into the writing and designing. On the other hand, it gets annoying after awhile. It tries to strike high with emotions and drama, but it just doesn't come out good. Some plot points are infinitely predictable (alright, you have a super-egocentric leader of a budding empire who gets more and more evil and self-centered. What's going to happen? Anyone?), and some are just flat annoying ("The Watch"? Come on, at least think up a name that doesn't inspire laughter).

And, just like the original, the CGI scenes are magnificent. However, they've lost their edge. In the original, the scenes were action packed, dramatic, and actually enjoyable. These ones end up being centered around politically correct introspection. The only scenes I could actually find myself caring or being impressed with was the introduction (mainly because I enjoyed how they used scenes from the original game), and the Sol ending (only time I actually liked Kron).

The similarities end there, however. The vast wealth of knowledge and general facts in the original Colony Wars (something that kept me alive in some bored hours) is completely absent. It's a glaring absence, given the sudden time leap and new settings. Some endings also tend to be vague, but are at least logical (even if it does take a few times going over the Cronos ending to actually understand what happened).

Game play, however, was excellent. Where Colony Wars centered almost entirely on cliche dog-fighting, with the occasional surprise thrown in, Vengeance seems to center around the surprises. This can raise the difficulty extremely, since puzzle solving is not the first function of our brains that come up in a space sim. However, there is something infinitely refreshing about pelting stations with asteroids, flying into ships, and battling off unknowns then Yet Another League Destroyer.

Unlike the original, you are awarded new ships as you advance, and given "tech tokens" to upgrade them. Don't worry, though. Your older ships have absolutely nothing on top of a newer one, unless it's completely modified. Every ship in the game flies exactly the same way, with exactly the same weapons (just more, on the later ones). Modifying it does, happily, have a great impact. And since your ship and modifications keep with you even after you win (or lose) the game you can go back to play through all the hard levels with Super-Modified Ships of Death. Much easier that way.

Sadly, Vengeance seems shorter and more linear then the original. The first one took me hours to get my first ending (the worst), and a good week before I came to the first Sol mission. I completely finished Vengeance, and discovered most of it's missions, in less then 48 hours.

All told, Vengeance is a interesting sequel to a interesting game. It takes good leaps forward in some aspects, but takes a few horrible leaps backwards in others. I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoyed the first, but would advise a rental with anyone else.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99