Colony Wars III: Red Sun

"A very decent coaster."

Sorry to call the game ''the best in the series.'' I have never been able to find the first Colony Wars anywhere. I played Colony Wars: Vengeance, and that was an extremely good game. It did have quite a few flaws though, as it has some rather bad gameplay. Colony Wars: Red Sun has improved in graphics, gameplay, replay value, and challenge. This incredible game does it all.

Colony Wars: Red Sun, deals with realistic graphics and nice scenes.

First of all, I'll discuss the graphics in the game. The cutscenes in the game are really nice. Valdemar, the main character of the game, is very detailed and looks quite realistic, as does the General, and the few other characters, such as the aliens, called the Sha'Har do there. This definitely improves on what I've seen from Colony Wars and Colony Wars: Vengeance.

Well, the graphics I just talked about are outside of the real action itself! Now I'll talk about that! I have to say that the galaxies, planets, and other areas inside space are very nice looking. Heck, they even look like the pictures my father has of space. The ships, however, look rather disappointing. The enemy ships, your ally ships, and just about any normal aircraft look rather disappointing. I experienced this problem in Colony Wars: Vengeance, and that is that the ships are TOO SMALL. I do not understand why so many games make the ships look so pathetically small. But, at least the sentinels and large ships are really good-looking, to say the least. All of them look quite unique. The explosions in Colony Wars: Red Overall, Colony Wars: Red Sun, is an extremely graphically impressive coaster.

Any shooter, flight sim, or coaster needs a story.

I have to say though, that I rather disliked the story in CW:RS. It is almost definitely the weakest area of the game. The story is like this: Long ago, someone told your guys that the final battle between the Navy and the League was over. This was entirely wrong. Quite a while ago the League imprisoned the Navy and had definitely beat them. That was in Colony Wars. In Colony Wars: Vengeance, the Navy got their revenge. In this game, you don't even know if you're the League or the Navy! What a large shame that was. The ''Empire'' is involved too. This is definitely a complicated storyline.

So, the guy you play as is named Valdemar. (Weird name, eh?) He's in the battle as well, and at some point, he meets this guy in blue who has no name, he's just referred to as the General. He tells Valedmar that the final battle between the Navy and the League is nigh. But there's a great ship around known as the Red Sun, a ship who is not whom she seems... I won't spoil anything more. The game may have a complicated and slightly leaning story, but I actually enjoyed it a bit, even though it is the game's weakest point.

The audio has two parts, one for fair, and one for excellence.

As for music and sound, I have to say that the music in Colony Wars: Vengeance is better. The music in this game was fairly dull. I can't really explain to you the music, but I'll just say it was good, but most of it was kinda repetitive. The same music plays in a lot of stages. But the one that plays around the shadow asteroids is one of the best songs in the game, if not the best one. Other than that, most of them aren't that great.

Sound is a giant improvement within Colony Wars: Red Sun. The explosions of ships sound really great, and Valdemar has a really good voice. (Humorous.) The guns and missiles really sound nice as well. The fellow piloting the Red Sun has a really good, menacing voice as well. Voices are well-done, as you have probably seen, and weapons sound great, as well as the explosions of ships. This sounds really great.

As any gamer knows, gameplay nearly makes a game.

The game has incredibly good gameplay. There are tons of weapons, from the Scatter Gun to the Plasma Pistol to the BFG to just about everything, the weapons are really good. Not to mention that they all look good! Also, there are plenty of ships here too, perhaps 10-12. They are all different. There's definitely a great deal of variety within Colony Wars: Red Sun's gameplay, when it comes to ships and weapons.

The controls are basically the way that you probably think they are. You use the R1 button to accelerate and move forward, Left, Right, Up, and Down to move your aircraft, X to fire your lasers and guns, and O, (I think) to use your missiles. I don't think there are any improvements needed within the controls.

Depending on how many kills you have pulled off within a mission on what sort of aircraft, you are given points and credit within the missions you have completed. If it's a sentinel, then you get 10 points, if it's a small ship, you get 1 point, etc. Once you have a good deal of points, you are given a rank. There are a lot of ranks in the game, from Beginner to Ace to Grand Master to more. Once you gain a rank, new weapons and ships are unlocked, for you to buy. This system is a great new addition.

There's another thing I liked about the gameplay. There are about 50 missions in the game, and there are ''stages'' as well. Each stage you go across, the more difficult the missions get. Each mission has its own pay value. When you complete a mission, you are given that amount of credit. The harder the mission, the more the credit. You get to choose which mission you want to go to. For example, at the beginning of the game, you have three missions to choose from. After one is done, another is sometimes available to play through. Although many do not like this, I really enjoyed this, as it gives you a good choice on what to do.

Overall, Colony Wars III: Red Sun, has some of the most entertaining gameplay that I have ever come across outside of RPGs. Spanning great controls, good choices, tons and tons of weapons, and lots of aircraft, not to mention great missions, a lot of variety, and just about everything else splendid within the gameplay, it is impossible to give it less than a 10 average in this area.

To make a game entertaining, you must play it again and find just as much fun.

Yes, that's true, and Colony Wars: Red Sun, has a LOT of replay value. Since you can play through the missions you choose to play through, and a lot of missions that you might not be able to complete on your play through, the game is quite addicting. Although the game is fairly short, regardless of how many missions it spans, the game has absolutely no lack in the area of replay value.

The game is not too easy, but not too hard. Excellent.

The game can easily be completed within two days, but the challenge level is just as it should be: the game is not too easy, and it is not too hard. Sometimes, the enemy aircraft do not even shoot at you, to lower the difficulty, but to heighten it again, some of the really big enemies, such as a lot of the Sha'Har machines, are VERY difficult to dispatch. At a lot of points during the game, you will have to defend some aircraft as well. So the challenge level is just right. Just as I like it.

Here are the ratings:

Graphics: 9.5/10
Music: 8.4/10
Sound: 9.2/10
Story: 8.9/10
Gameplay: 9.8/10
Replay Value: 9.0/10
Challenge: 8.8/10
Overall: 9.1/10

Striking Areas:

The graphics are rock solid.
The sound effects rock.
The story is good.
The gameplay is terrific.
The replay value is high.
The challenge level is just right.

Punching Areas:

The music could have been a little better.
The story, while good, leans a little bit.
The game is a bit short.

Overall, Colony Wars: Red Sun is a terrific coaster. It is definitely one of the best in this genre that I have ever played, and is probably better than what I've heard of Colony Wars. While it is nowhere near the best game ever, it is on my list of favorite games. This game won't be your favorite, likely enough, but you will enjoy it nonetheless. RichardB guarantees it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/03, Updated 06/08/03