Colony Wars

"A 3-D shooter close to perfection"

Mankind has settled on the many different systems in the universe, but is still controlled from the Earth. The Earth, being a dying planet needs resources more than anything else. So the imperial Navy, the military force of the earth extorts all the colonies to pay tributes to the earth. But the pressure on the colonies grows more and more, so the rebels try to form an organization: the League. Having their headquarter in the system with the biggest distance to the earth they start a rebellion and are ''marching'' against the Navy. You are one of the League-pilots, trying to gain freedom.

Graphics: 9

In-game graphics: 8
This game really shows the capacity of the PlayStation. You are sitting in your small fighter, and you can fly in every direction. The game is totally 3-D. Obviously the space is black. But there is always enough light so that you see everything. In the background you usually see any huge, well designed planet, or a very bright sun (well, suns are usually very bright). Your fighter has tons of different weapons, and all the weapons have great graphic-effects. They are shining or glittering in bright colours before they hit the enemy. The battleships are HUGE, and have good textures. The only thing being not so good are the explosions, after destroying a battleship. It makes a great noise, then the screen becomes white for a second and after that you see the ship broken into three big parts, which are exploding soon after that. But the parts don´t look like fragments of a ship broken due to a fight, they look more than someone cut the ship with a huge knife, because the points of fracture are so even...Well, actually it was the best solution the programmers found at that time, but it always annoyed me.
FMVs: 10
These sequences are really great. They look like cut-scenes from a professional Sci-Fi-film. Some of the best I´ve ever seen on the PS.

Sound: 10

Music: 9
This is really cool. I don´t know why, but classic music always fits to Science-Fiction-films (remember Odyssee 2001, Star Trek). Colony Wars has a complete classic, high quality soundtrack, including some very famous classic motives. You really should pump up the music-volume during playing this game.
SFX: 10
I don´t have a dolby-surround system but if I have one, the first thing I´ll do is to play Colony Wars. The sound is even in stereo very impressive. Each weapon has its characteristic sound, the engines are rumbling, and when a battleship flies over you, you understand what ''rolling thunder'' does mean. The whole thing in DolbySurround must be really cool.
Voices: 10
The mission briefing is completely spoken, and either during your mission different people are talking to you. This makes you feel being a pilot even more. Even for the FMVs they hired a very good narrator.

Controls: 10

The controls are perfect. You can move into every direction, but it´s no problem with those controls. Colony Wars is the first game I know that gives the R1 button an important role. Because this is the button for the throttle, all the other four ''main-buttons'' are free for the weapons. After having completed a few short training-missions you have everything perfectly under control.

Gameplay: 8

In nearly all of the missions your aim is to destroy anything/everything. You have a wingman to support you, but even if you try to protect him he will be shot in the first 2 minutes of each mission. Your objectives are nearly always the same, but they are always in a different setting, depending on which part of the story you are. If you are a good fighter you are nearly always attacking, if not you spend the most time in defending your allies. So if you want different types of missions you may not agree with my rating. I have the opinion that 3-D-shooter should be a shooter in first place - so CW is o.k.

Story: 7

If you would write a book out of this story you definitely would NOT have a bestseller. But hey, it´s ''only'' a PlayStation-game. And for a 3-D-shooter the story is good. The plot has many twists depending on your skills, and 6 different endings. It´s a bit a pity that the FMVs do not directly relate to your success in the single missions, this would make the whole thing a bit more interesting.

Presentation: 10

Normally I do not rate the presentation of a game, but Colony Wars must be honoured with some extra 10 points. This game is an example of perfect presentation. The menus are very cool designed, after you started the game, and the intro is over, a computer voice ''welcomes'' you, and the main point: For EVERY ship, and EVERY planet in any system you can call of information (and there are many ships and planets). A female voice explains the history and every detail of the selected ship/planet. Great.

Final Score: 9

Better explosions and a storyline referring more directly to your achievements as a pilot and the game would be perfect.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/15/02, Updated 08/15/02