My Review of Colony Wars

OOOOH boy nostalgia time! This was the very first game I've ever played so forgive me if I sound too nostalgic towards this game. Colony Wars was one of my favorite games out there, though has it aged well in my point of view? Let's see.

Graphics: 8


The game is beautiful for a PS1 game. The stars look pretty life like, as if you're looking at it in real life. The design of the player ships and fleet craft is also pretty nice looking. And I also like the designs of the planets within the systems in the game. Making this a very nice looking game. Though my problem is (and I've seen it in a play through years ago), fly too close and you might end up getting stuck in the polygons. And it is pretty awful, which brings this rating down a lot.





Sound: 9


The music is very good and I loved listening to it, although the problem is, the music isn't titled so I can't specifically say which themes I like the most. The voice acting is also pretty well done for this game, which further brings up the rating. If you do like the occasional victory quotes and the lines detailing what you need to do with your missions, then you're probably going to like it. Sometimes it can start to grate on the nerves, mainly depending on what kind of player you are. Then again you can take out the voice acting in case it gets annoying.





Addictiveness: 8


Let's face it, I'd put the rating a lot higher since it is the first game I've played. But I have to take a lot of things into consideration: how others view the game, the possible routes the game has, and most importantly, how the game controls. And to be honest, the controls were a little tough to get used to, especially getting back into the game back in high school which was years after losing my copy from moving to another house.





Story: 8


Yeah, the story is alright. The main character is a faceless pilot in a faction known simply as the League of Free Worlds. The story takes place in the middle of a massive war between them, and the Earth Empire (or the Colonial Navy). Each mission feels heavy because it can tilt the scales between the League getting to the Sol System and ending the war or a bitter defeat by the Empire. Each ending feels different depending on your standing in the war which I will explain in the depth section of the review.



Depth: 10


The game is long. But mainly split into multiple routes. You start at the League's home star system of Gallonigher fighting back the Navy's invasion and attempting to capture the Battle Platform to gain an advantage over the Empire. Victory or defeat takes a heavy toll in the game's story because if you succeed in the story, the fleet will move on to the Draco system, where the Navy's factories and production plants are at which produces their fleet. Capturing Draco is very important to the story because success in capturing the system leads you to the Sol system where the Navy begins to panic and get desperate because they know the war is over and they're going to lose. However, all that can be avoided for the navy if you fail in either Gallonigher or Draco. If you fail in Gallonigher, the League receives signals of panic and desperation from their other system of Diomedies. Failure to keep the Navy off of Diomedies results in the complete surrender of all League forces and the subsequent slaughter of all. However, victory at Diomedies or failure at Draco results in the League being forced into a civil war at Alpha Centauri. Where they are then forced to fend for themselves against those in the League that thinks they can end the war on their own ends: traitors known as the Faction. At that point, the League wants the war to be over so they try to negotiate peace with the Navy. Success in the system results in peace. Failure in the system results in the Faction making a deal with the League and the navy to gain peace but at the cost of the Faction roaming free. However if you're a perfectionist, you'll end up at the Sol system. As you can guess, victory in the Sol system results in the total end to the war and victory belongs to the League (the good ending). Failure in the Sol still results in the League's victory due to how much damage done to the Navy and thus civil war breaks out in the Sol system, sealing their fate due to the league closing the warp hole for centuries (the canon ending which leads to Colony Wars: Vengeance) The game also has it’s own database which can be unlocked during gameplay detailing the history of the game’s star systems, their military standings in the war, as well as the craft database showing the history of the player ships, enemy ships, and the fleet crafts and buildings found throughout the game.





Difficulty: 7


The game can be fairly difficult especially at the Sol and Alpha Centauri campaign but not by much in my perspective. Part of the reasoning for the difficulty is the controls, which can be fairly sensitive which can get annoying which is justified since it took me time to get used to the controls. But the game is still "hard" hard not "bad" hard. But it’s not by much really.

Final Verdict: 8.6!

To me this game managed to succeed the test of time. Colony Wars is a great game with an interesting story line and multiple routes in the game so that your campaign can be unique. If the gameplay of a space sim turns you off then I’m sorry that you’re missing this game. If you are a fan of the space sim shooters then you are going to have a good time playing the game. Personally I recommend the game to check out and I hope you do enjoy it. This is the first game in the trilogy, with Vengeance being the direct sequel to the Sol system’s bad ending (which is the canon ending). Then it follows up with Colony Wars: Red Sun, which doesn’t really involve the war that much so it’s the kind of the black sheep of the series in terms of the story since it derives away from the war the first half. I personally hope you have enjoyed this little review of mine since this is one I absolutely wanted to write.