Colony Wars III: Red Sun

"An amazing space adventure"

It’s the third Colony Wars title on the psx. I have enjoyed the first two ones, so I hoped this was going to be even better. When I heard Leeds Studios were going to use new programmers for this game, I got mad. But that was until I played the game…

Story Time
The story in Colony Wars: Red Sun is about the fifth millenium. You play a mercanery called Valdemar(yes, it’s a strange name). The war between the coloninial navy and the world of free leagues still continues. While the war is still being fought out, theres a new alien race with it’s own secert plans to take over the universe. And the warship: RED SUN has something to do with…

Our good old Valdemar get a dream, were he meets a guy who calls himself : The General. He says him to go on a journey and save the world. Like that’s an easy job ehh…

GRAPHICS: 9
WoW. I thought part 2 of the Colony Wars series really pushed it to the limit, but I guess I was totally wrong. The graphics of this game are far more better than Colony Wars 2: Vengeance. All ships look cool and a bit dangerous. Especially the big cruisers of the Navy and League are a feast for your eyes. The framerate is still fast and the loading times are pretty fast, compared to the first two titles. The most important thing on Colony Wars, the lighting effects, look good as well.

SOUNDS: 9
The music tracks are made by on orcestra. This gives the game a bit of a Star Wars feel and that is off course a plus. When a big battle ship is approaching, the track will go from a relaxing tune to a hefty sweeping which is also nice for the exictement and adrenaline bursts. Now for the FX, they are very good. Each weapon has it’s own unique great sound. They also sound a lot more like lasers then the last part. While you’re fighting multiple pilots, they will also get a lock-on on you. Then you get warning, meaning they’re face appears on you’re monitor and scream something like: “I got you now” or “Taking the shot”. This is all fun to here. In missions when you need to protect a target they will also scream for like this way or even call you names if you don’t come right away!! The only thing annoying is that you still get that weird alarm sound when there is a missle behind you’re tail. It’s a clear warning but with three missiles behind you’re tail it’s simply very irritating. Just a slight minus to al the good plusses the game has.

GAMEPLAY: 9
No changes compared to the last title, meaning the good old perfect gameplay hasn’t changed. Yes, the gameplay was already perfect last time. You earn money by completing missions for the league or navy. It depends, so that means you are actually on both sides. You can buy a new craft from the money you earn or buy better weapons for your ship. Your ship has a certained amount of slots for weapons, so more expensive ships have better shields, better hulls, better afterburners, better coolers and more slots. You have lots of different weapons and accesoires to choose form. They even included the pods from the last title. As for the missions, well most of them are fun. Involving lots of blasting. One time you might be attacking a great fortress, while the next moment after that you are escaping with a secret pod you stole there, so you really need all kinds of skill to complete the whole game.

REPLAY VALUE: 8
Not too high, but some missions just simply beg to be completed more then one time. For example: theres a missions where you have to catch fish with stun missles and take them back to a mother ship. Each time you have a higher score you can unlock new stuff.

RENT OR BUY
If you are a shoot ‘em up fan and like space you must buy this game. For anyone else i would say that it’s worth at least a rent.

Overall: 9
A must have for the fans and an overall good space shooter for anyone else.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/28/01, Updated 11/28/01