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OVERVIEW: The developers at Psygnosis have pushed the Playstation beyond its limits in Colony Wars. The visuals seen in this game are on par with high quality pc games, and the sound is unbelievable. This game should not be passed up by anyone, as it is one of my all time favorites. GRAPHICS: 9.7 The graphics are much more vivid and lifelike than one would expect to see in a space shooter. Visuals are detailed, colorful, and posses an all around simple beauty. The FMVs are some of the best seen on the system, and in-game graphics are of the breed. Huge ships are filled with gorgeous detail. It is wondrous to see the explosions of enemy fighters. As you shoot them and begin to damage their hull, you see it light on fire and leave a trail as it attempts to fly away. When the small fighters explode, you see something much like the explosion of the Death Star in Star Wars Special Edition, only on a smaller scale. When flying near a large ship, sometimes there is a bit of clipping. Most of the time it is inconsequential, but once in a while it can interfere at a crucial moment and even cause a failed mission. The other graphical shortcoming in Colony Wars is larger scale explosions. There is a build up previous to the explosion. The hull of the ship begins to light up, and then, instead of an explosion, there is a white flash. This is similar to the clipping that I mentioned earlier, in that the majority of the time it does not interfere, but there are times when it does, which can be aggravating.
SOUND/MUSIC: 9.9 Psygnosis has done an excellent job in the music of Colony Wars. It is of an orchestral style, always appropriate to the mood of the level. Often times it has a mysterious or hyper sound to it. If the soundtrack of Colony Wars were played for me I may have believed that I was listening to a recording of the London symphony orchestra. Sound effects are of sterling quality as well. You hear ships and missiles exploding, laser fire, missiles flying, the engines of your and other ships. The only imperfection in the sound effects are the voices, which are high quality, but often times are sterile sounding. I have found some of the voice to be annoying, mostly because some of them sound like the speaker has no feeling. STORYLINE: 9.8 You are a member of the League of Free Worlds. Your leader can no longer stand the tyranny of the evil Navy from Earth. The Czar of Earth sees everything, knows everything, and punishes everything. The Father (leader of the League) has planned an assault on the Navy to end its reign over the innocent members living in the colonies. Colony Wars has an excellent story. Story is told through FMV scenes at the beginning of each new act (an act contains an average of three missions). Depending upon how you play, you can get one of five endings. The missions branch out, depending upon your success or failure of a mission. The story is perfectly written, but it does have a weakness in its delivery, which is that it lacks emotion. Having an unemotional story makes the game feel less believable. Otherwise, the story is perfect.
GAMEPLAY: 9.75 Gameplay another amazing aspect of Colony Wars. The control scheme feels odd at first, but functions quite well once you learn it. R1 and L1 make you move forward and backward respectively. L2 and R2 are used to make your ship roll to the left and right respectively. You have two kinds of weapons, primary and secondary. Primary weapons are those which are predominately used in the mission, such as your different types lasers. Secondary weapons are not always necessary to complete the mission. Examples are your missiles or torpedoes. To change primary weapons, press square, and to fire primary, press X. Triangle changes your secondary weapons, and circle fires them. Although there is no "shock" feature in this game, the use of analog is excellent. In fact, it's so good that I can't recommend playing this game without a dual shock controller. Most missions have a seek and destroy objective. Sometimes, you have to use a special type of weapon to disable a ship to complete your mission. The radar in Colony Wars is impressive. It's 3D, which allows you to easily and accurately determine whether an enemy ship is in front of you, behind you, above you, or below you, which adds much to the gameplay. There are two flaws in the gameplay. When flying close to a large ship, sometimes if you get too close you will run into it and be bounced around seemingly endlessly. This inconsistency in the gameplay can be frustrating, as sometimes it will cause you to lose a mission for no apparent reason. The other flaw in not so much of a flaw per se, but more of something that could be improved upon: missions grow in difficulty, but have no real variety. Most of the time, your mission objective is to destroy enemy ships. This doesn't detract from the gameplay, but if missions were more varied, the already strong gameplay could become even better. CHALLENGE: 8.1 Colony Wars has a well balanced level of challenge. There is not much of a learning curve, but things do get more difficult as the levels progress, which is a strength. A weakness is that even by the end, the game is not really that hard. The hardest missions only took me two to three run thrus to figure out and win. If you're a rookie, then you will most likely find this to be a hard game, but otherwise, I imagine that you'll find this to be a fairly easy game. If you are the type of gamer who seeks only the most challenging games, you may want to look elsewhere, although, there are things that a creative player could do to add challenge. For example, if you decided to not use any of your missiles and to use the least effective weapons for destroying your target, the game would become a good deal harder.
FUN AND REPLAY VALUE: 10 Colony Wars is one of the most fun games out for the Playstation. Trust me, you will never get sick of flying around and blowing up Navy ships. Part of the fun is lost once you have figured out what to do in a mission (exploration is a fun aspect of Colony Wars), but missions do not ever seem to lose all of their fun. Replay value is high as well. Colony Wars has over 70 missions. Gameplay branches out as you win or lose, which ensures that you can get a different experience every time you play. Colony Wars does not get boring, either. It is enjoyable to go back and play through the game over and over. Even if you're someone who easily gets sick of a game, Colony Wars, with its 70 missions, high fun factor and replay value, will keep you busy for a long time. OVERALL: 9.35 Colony Wars captures the essence of what a shooter should be. It combines a good story, with commendable graphics and sound, and fun gameplay, to form a game that no one should miss. WORTH BUYING: YES Colony Wars is a game for every one, a true classic. Even those who dislike the genre should give it a whirl. I wouldn't be surprised if once you play Colony Wars, you'll begin to hunt down every game of this nature, and I'm sure that you'll never get enough. To order Colony Wars
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