Colony Wars

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a game by Psygnosis
Genre: Action
Platform: Playstation
Editor Rating: 9.2/10, based on 5 reviews, 8 reviews are shown
User Rating: 9.0/10 - 2 votes
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See also: Old School Games, Cult Classic Games
Colony Wars
Colony Wars
Colony Wars
Colony Wars

It's been a long time in coming, but the PlayStation finally scored an excellent space shooter. Colony Wars delivers a sci-fi saga of epic proportions, packed with high-octane dogfights and graphics that'll make you drool.

Borrowing heavily from sci-fi cliches, Colony Wars drops you into the cockpit of a rebel fighter struggling to overthrow--you guessed it--an evil empire. The huge lineup of missions involves taking out enormous battleship-size enemies, guarding convoys, defeating Death Star-like spaceports, and much more. But the game ensures strong replay value with its branching mission structure--a win routes you to a harder mission, while a loss dumps you into an easier one. A kick-ass selection of weapons and craft only add to the fun.

Colony Wars is the kind of high-quality game that's worth buying the day it's released. Action gamers and sci-fi fans shouldn't pass it up.

ProTips:

  • To defeat fleet vessels, such as frigates and destroyers, conduct fast strafing runs and weave in and out the whole way. Use the look-back view to evade fire when exiting.
  • In the Raiding Diomedes mission, first engage the fleet on your right as you enter the system--it flees the quickest.
  • While it's important to conserve missiles for key targets, always have one armed and ready--the red lock-on cross hair provides a killer navigational aid.
  • Use the plasma cannon against fleet vessels, which provide a large enough target for this hard-to-aim but potent weapon.
  • Use the scatter gun as much as possible--its enormous destructive powers are invaluable.

Graphics

Visuals of this caliber usually come from a special-effects studio. Colony's spectacular graphics explode across the screen with awesome weapon effects, Babylon 5-like ships and space stations, and gorgeous outer-space scenery.

Sound

Backed by fittingly melodramatic music, the sounds thump with sizzling weapons fire and explosions. However, more frequent guidance from mission control would've helped greatly.

Control

The intuitive, responsive controls mean that you definitely don't need a pilot's license to fly these craft. Achieving mastery takes practice (especially with the tricky navigational instruments), but your efforts will be rewarded.

Fun Factor

Colony Wars easily ranks as the best space-combat game on the PlayStation. With its fine story, enormous array of missions, and intense, addictive gameplay, it'll engross you for months.

Download Colony Wars

Playstation

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP

Game Reviews

People say:

9

Put simply, Colony Wars is a breathtaking epic! The intense missions (set in five solar systems, including our own) make you feel as if you really are part of a galaxy-spanning struggle, and the game is right up there with Final Fantasy VII as one of the PlayStation's bestlooking titles (wait until you blast apart one of the big capital ships--talk about a big bang!). My gripes are minor. Vour ship's 3-D radar can be a bit confusing in the heat of battle, and, like most Psygnosis games, some levels are so tough they'll make you swear like a drunken sailor. The problem is that many missions have you protecting space stations or capital ships from overwhelming swarms of attackers. There's nothing worse than getting caught in a long dogfight, only to see the ship you were supposed to protect get nuked behind you. Of course, the game's novel system of branching missions keeps the difficulty from being too frustrating. Screw up and you get tossed into another branch of the story line until you see one of five endings. Still, I wish I could save after every mission instead of after every three; it would make getting the best ending less frustrating. Colony Wars controls fine with the standard joypad, but the analog pad's a little touchy. You'll have the best luck with Sony's hulking dual-analog joystick, which is worth buying just for this game.

9

All too often a game excels at graphics or gameplay, but not both. Such is not the case with Colony Wars, which is top-notch in just about every way possible. Psygnosis' gorgeous title makes others look utterly amateurish by pushing the PlayStation's hardware in amazing ways. Play this game with a surround sound, a good TV and the lights off, and prepare to be blown away. This is an epic game that no PS owner should be without.

9

Wow! I was pleasantly surprised by this latecomer. I was one of the few who were unimpressed by earlier betas, but now that I've ravaged the final, I must agree that Colony Wars rocks! I like the automatic difficulty settings, controlled by whether you complete or fail missions--failing sends you on an easier path. I also enjoyed the smooth control and truly mind-blowing cinematic special effects. I only wish there weren't flight boundaries.

8

As I've said, I'm not the biggest fan of flight games, but Colony Wars is done so well and is so fun to play, I couldn't help but get into it. The missions are pretty tough and in some areas there's some minor slowdown, but it's still one of the best games on the PS. In fact, I'd say the graphics in CW are the best on the PlayStation to date. Plus I like the different databases included and the interface screens. Overall, an incredible game.

Colony Wars is a galactic adventure that spans five solar systems. This real- 'ZZ time 3-D action title includes an intricate mission system as well as in-the-cockpit fighting positions where the player is in a fight for his/her life in an action-based, one-person shooter.

As a rookie pilot in the League of Free Nations caught in the middle of a vicious war to free the Colony Worlds, adventure and intrigue await the daring in Colony Wars.

COLONY WARS maintains the futuristic space theme at Psygnosis, and should give the Wing Commander series-a real run for its money. The game is played out in 18 "acts" comprising 70 missions in total, teach the finish and-you'll be rewarded with one of six eroding.

When you begin, the missions are basic, like escorting trarisports and general dogfights, but as you progress, you're given more responsibility and fly recon and spy missions, chasing down enemy scouts and flying into major battles with specific targets to take out.

Your main screen features a very slick 3-D space map and targeting system which locks onto the nearest enemy ship, making life a lot easier. You have a "rear-view mirror" view to check who's on your tail.

Graphically. Colony Ware is exceptional. The space backdrop is amazing, with beautiful, texture-mapped planets and suns, excellent light sourcing and lens flare and highly detailed enemy craft. The game runs at 30 frames per second and is hi-res (5.12x240 resolution), which really makes a difference. The weapons are truly awesome; you've got six primary weapons to select, plus missiles, torpedoes and defensive light mines. There's even a grappling beam which allows you to stun other ships and keep them at a distance!

Be warned that this is an immense game, and one of the best we've seen in the genre.

Psygnosis may be hyping G-Police as their key, take-no-prisoners Christmas title, but the jaw-dropping Colony Wars certainly won't hide in its shadow. This explosive space combat sim turned plenty of heads at EJ with its hi-res graphics and ultra-bright lighting effects and is easily one of the show's most promising titles.

Yes, Colony Wars is similar to the Wing Commander games, complete with several rendered cinemas narrated by a guy who must be the best James Earl Jones impersonator on the planet. But the game's visuals, designed by the same artists who worked on Krazy Ivan and WipeOut. are light-years ahead of what we've seen in the WC ports. Explosions and laser blasts are so vibrant they'll light your living room, while enemy ship-slook straight out of Star Trek.

The space environment itself looks especially convincing, with shimmering planets moons, asteroids and suns. You'll battle through five solar systems over the course of the game, and each is realistically scaled; fly toward a distant planet long enough and you'll eventually crash into it (try that in Wing Commander IV!). And you get all these visual perks in high-res, 30 frames per second.

Colony Wars' story, told through 25 prerendered cinemas, set several centuries hence, when humanity has spread from Earth to innumerable, far-flung colony planets. Yet Earth's government still maintains a stranglehold on the galaxy, and the colonists are fed up with slaving away for the mother planet (it's that whole taxa-tion-wifhout-repre-sentation thing that got England in trouble about two centuries ago). So they form the League of Free Worlds and revolt, thus dropping you into a the pilot's seat of one of six different ships to take on Earth's armada. Ship types include standard and stealth fighters, nimble scouts, bombers and heavy assault gunboats, each with its own weapons and virtual cockpit (although out of-cockpit views are available).

Colony Wars packs 70 missions, divided among 18 acts. These missions-which feature plenty of digitized radio chatter-follow a non-linear structure; your degree of success in one sortie will determine what happens in the next. Depending on which mission path you follow, you'll see one of six different endings. Six additional training missions teach the ins and outs of zero-g dogfighting, as well.

You'll need the practice, too because spaceflight in Colony Wars is pretty darn realistic. Your ship obeys the laws of inertia, and will keep cruising in the same direction you last thrusted (a sweet tactic during strafing runs). No. you don't have to be a NASA shuttle jockey to play the game, but the true-to-physics flight is just another perk in this already highly polished package.

  • MANUFACTURER - Psygnosis
  • THEME - Space Combat
  • NUMBER OF PLAYERS - 1

If Psygnosis puts on the right finishing touches, Colony Wars packs the potential to blast off as the PlayStation's top space shooter. Playing as a raw recruit, you take on the nefarious Empire in a fight to free its colonies, blasting through 60 nonlinear missions across 5 solar systerns. Six slick crafts--a stealth bomber, interceptor, scout, and more--help you cut a swath through this space opera.

This extremely promising title already delivers wicked dogfight action. Although the complete 3D freedom of flight fashions a convincing outer-space feel to the action, it's also pretty easy to get lost, so hopefully Psygnosis will fix that. Gorgeous scenery, such as huge Babylon 5-like mother ships and colorful planets, rounds it all out with flair. Colony Wars looks like an A+ game in the making, especially if you're a sci-fi fan.

Colony Wars is a space shooter that features 60 missions across 5 solar systems. As a rookie pilot in the League of Free Nations, you take to the stars in this realtime 3D title, where you pilot six crafts each suited for certain types of missions. Mission objectives include rescuing prisoners and escorting cargo ships. Like G Police, your craft has unrestricted movement enabling you to fly where you wish. The Wars start in October.

Colony Wars earned tremendous critical acclaim as a groundbreaking space combat game, and Psygnosis has set its sights on an even grander space war with Colony Wars: Codename Vendetta. While it's clear from this artwork that the game's still in the early concept stage, Psygnosis has some slick innovations on the drawing board.

Vendetta takes place a century after the first game when the League has grown decadent in its triumph. You play as Merten, an idealistic pilot who fights for the scrappy forces of the now-vanquished Navy. As you take on the League, you earn your way into four craft, each upgrade-able in weapons, speed, shields, and gyros. More than 22 weapons improve your firepower, and you can also carry special primary and secondary weapons, such as a robotic pod that cuts loose to fight as your wingman. The innovative grapple gun is also getting a tune-up, and will flick out into space like a frog's tongue or allow you to hurl debris as weapons.

The same branching-missions structure returns, so winning or losing each assignment sets you on a different course through the 19 acts. The missions will involve plenty of dogfighting mayhem, but Psygnosis is aiming to instill more depth by challenging you to figure out the best way to achieve your objectives--and it won't always be balls-out blasting. Finally, the already dazzling graphics and sounds will be tuned for even greater glory. If Vendetta comes together as planned, it will likely rank as one of the top action games of '98.

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