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GRAPHICS: A+ (10) I must say that the graphics in Colony Wars are far better than were thought possible on the Playstation, achieving brilliance only before seen on the PC in games such as Quake 2 and a few other graphical masterpieces. CW starts you off with an excellent movie quality intro FMV that puts you in the mood to annihilate the evil Navy and save the galaxy from its grasp. You play the role of a League cadet who sets off in his first mission to make the Navy pay for their crimes as they're Colonizing other star systems -including yours. There are FMV scenes between the missions, all through the game, that explain as the storyline unfolds. Each is done so well that they rate among the best FMV sequences in any game. The in-game graphics practically look even better than the FMV. They are so good that they immerse you into the game like no other video game has ever been able to do. The framerate is very good, as is the resolution. However, the main draw to the game, are the excellent special effects. When your enemy ship is near destruction, a big orange flame engulfs its backside making it very realistic, not to mention more visible. Explosions are incredible for both big and small ships, but for a particularly large vessel, it is blinding as the hull begins to tear apart, leading to a flash followed by an explosion sound (light always travels faster than sound) and the debris. Each of the six or so crafts you get to fly are unique in many aspects such as look, speed, firepower, weapons, and shield integrity. They are all much nicer in design than the Wing Commander ones. The portals that transport you back and forth from your base to the missions look really cool and are animated flawlessly, like everything else in this game. Graphics are a big part of this game and are some of the best ever seen, and while the action always takes place in space, there is so much visual variation that it never gets boring.
MUSIC/SOUND: A+ (10) There's really only one problem in this section, and it is so small that it does not detract from the perfect score. Some of the voices are really stupid, like the stereotypical Russian with the bad accent or the overly excited idiot-wingman. But in the other hand, some of the voices are really cool, like your commander with his Jonathan Frakes-type voice or the James Earl Jones sound-alike in the FMV sequences. The music is Grammy-caliber. It is so cinematic that you'll think you're at the theatre watching the next Star Wars movie, I wish they had released the soundtrack for this game. The sound effects for this game are also perfect and match the music in quality. If these spacecraft really existed, this is how they'd sound. GAMEPLAY: A (9.75) I found a little glitch that ruined an otherwise perfect score. Whenever you are too near to a large ship, sometimes you will be bounced around endlessly from side to side for no apparent reason (save maybe for a programming bug that was over-looked). In my opinion, this is very frustrating since many times you'll be shot down or run out of time and lose the mission. This however can be avoided simply by not ramming onto an enemy vessel or flying in contact range, but after a while, you will learn the proximity. Besides that, you will see that this is the best experience of space flight you will come across for a long time. Dual Analog is supported (but has no "Shock" feature in this game) and recommended for CW, the feeling of control with a standard digital controller is not comparable to this. If you TRULY want to play this game, get an analog controller. The Barracuda (this game is an exception) is best because of its longer thumb-pads. Using both Analog pads provide even more realism. It also supports the flight sticks, but I can't comment on that. One odd thing I found is that unlike many other games, if you don't play this game repeatedly, you will easily lose practice and forget how to fly the ships, because this game is, for the most part, extremely hard. You will not get the good ending the first time (of which there are about 5). CW has over 70 missions, so every time you play it, it's pretty much a different experience. I'm really looking forward for Colony Wars: Vengeance, because it will not be all in space from what I've seen, giving it even greater gameplay over the first.
FUN AND REPLAY VALUE: A+ (10) As I said, Colony Wars has an immense amount of missions; around 70. With its branching gameplay as you win or lose, it's like a different game each time you play it. The farther you get in the game, the more different types of ships you will get to use. Different missions will have you fighting different ships, so it will take you a long time to see everything this game has to offer. You are not likely to get bored of this game very soon because of its great replay value, and once you do, you can always keep it to play at a later date. This game is definitely fun, you cannot get tired of a game that is as superb in every way as Colony Wars. You will enjoy this game for ages. WORTH BUYING: YES This game retails at $39.99 or less, and that is a very small price to pay to have one of the best games ever made. If you're a fan of video games at all, you MUST go and purchase CW. Not doing so would be an insult to yourself.
OVERALL: A+ (10) No game has ever captured the feeling of flying advanced spaceships through the vacuum of space like Psygnosis has done with Colony Wars. By any means get this game, it needs to be in your collection if you want to have a killer game library. To order Colony Wars
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