Colony Wars: Vengeance

"The best in the Colony Wars series"

Colony Wars: Vengeance is the second in the highly regarded, but (in my mind) underappreciated Colony Wars series. Though an old game for today's standards, it remains one of my favorite games on the original Playstation. With superior gameplay elements and graphics to the original Colony Wars and more challenging (some may say to a fault) in comparison to the third and final installment, this is the finest game in the trilogy.

The original Colony Wars put you in the role of a pilot in the League of Free Worlds fighting against all odds against the evil, ruthless Colonial Navy (akin to Rebels vs. the evil Empire in Star Wars). At the end of Colony Wars, the League defeated the Colonial Navy and left the Sol system forever while closing the wormhole behind them and dooming the Naval survivors to a wretched existence. However, a charismatic leader named Kron has arisen to reform the Colonial Navy and to unify the surviving descendants to strike back at the League. Colony Wars: Vengeance puts the conflict to the other side. You play the role of a young pilot named Mertens who fanatically follows Kron but over the course of the game learns that he isn't all that he's cracked up to be.

The gameplay is standard space shooter stuff but with some interesting almost RPG-like elements. Early on, you start off with the weaker fighters but as you progress you gain access to more advanced fighters and earn tokens which you can use to upgrade your ship's shields, engines, handling and afterburners. Weapons include different types of lasers, missiles and torpedoes and enemies include a wide array of fighter types and capital ships. There are ground based missions as well as space missions and there are a wide variety of missions types (from pure dogfights to defense missions, missions requiring a grappling hook to courier objects while fending off enemy attacks). Like the original Colony Wars, Vengeance uses a branching mission structure so subsequent missions may vary depending if you succeeded or not, though usually the missions after a failure are even more difficult. The difficulty rapidly gets ramped up after the first few missions almost to the point of frustration which can turn casual fans off. There are multiple endings and finishing the game with the good ending unlocks every mission in the mission tree which is a good incentive to stick it through. I'm proud to say I've actually beaten the game and there are still some missions I haven't been able to beat.

The graphics are definitely a step up from the original Colony Wars which wasn't too shabby to begin with. Excellent ship models, dynamic lighting effects and detail with the excellent sound effects make it an immersive experience. I also enjoyed the rousing orchestral score, especially in the opening cinematics, though the music does get repetitive between missions. However the cutscenes, while nicely rendered aren't very interesting and by the time the big ''plot twist'' comes up, it's pretty anti-climatic and you pretty much shrug it off.

There are over 40 missions and the difficulty is pretty steep so depending on your skill and patience it could take you quite awhile (it took me about two weeks of fairly regular playing time to complete it). And once you finish it you can play any mission in the game with any fighter, which is fortunate since you'd likely be too exhausted mentally to play through the entire game again from the beginning.

I highly recommend this game to any space shooter fan who welcomes a true challenge. The only real sticking point is the difficulty level which could frustrate more casual fans and lead to some broken controllers.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/22/03