As if Psygnosis’ arsenal wasn’t augmented with enough stellar titles --
Assault Rigs,
Wipeout,
Wipeout XL,
G-Police to name a few -- they now come (full force) into the Space Shooter genre with
Colony Wars. What Psygnosis has effectively done here is harnessed each and every facet of their development experience, know-how, and creativity to fashion, to create not only a visually astounding space adventure, but also a story of unquestionably epic proportions. Psygnosis has managed to incorporate very well rounded aspects of the space fighter genre into the “
Wing Commander Crusher.”
First they have put in place, what is without a doubt, one of the most comprehensive running story lines found in a game of this type. The script work is movie quality, as are the CG presentations that seamlessly integrate themselves into the experience. The musical score is absolutely top quality, as is the voice acting, especially that of Burt Caesar, who is the epitome of a James Earl Jones impressionist. True, the “Star Wars” undertones run strong in this game, but it develops a personality all its’ own.
With all this glitter and filler, one would think that Colony Wars’ gameplay might have been sacrificed. This is not the case at all. Besides modeling very believable craft, Psygnosis has managed to implement useful and albeit enjoyable flight elements. Instead of having to constantly make minor adjustments to air-speed, Colony Wars uses a fixed rate of speed that is augmented by the use of the ship thrusters. This keeps things a bit more simple in this area, because you don’t have much time to fiddle with speed adjustments when your enemy’s A.I. is as good as it is here. Enemy craft constantly perform a drifting or slide maneuver that is pretty slick. It is used as an offensive/defensive tactic on attack runs against the League of Free Nations’ (the good guys) vessels. But, the Colonial Navy (the bad guys) does not have a monopoly on this tactic. By accelerating rapidly toward and just past or along side an enemy ship, you will find that you can abruptly decelerate (the thrusters), nosing your craft toward the target. What this does is it allows your craft to slide (sideways) in a strafing-type manner, allowing you to pummel the enemy with fire. You will take much less damage this way as your craft is not traveling along a static vector. Add to this the fact that stars will actually streak past as you employ the use of your thrusters. With every change of direction, the star trails will make the appropriate adjustment. Very impressive indeed!
The various craft you will pilot feel different, and are equipped with different load-outs. Colony Wars handles the task of assigning the appropriate craft for given missions. Some will like this feature, while others may not. So far I have found the default choices very appropriate. The cockpits of the various ships are also very intuitively laid out and presented. In fact, they look really cool, especially when you notice how the game simulates the slight shift in perspective as your “virtual” head moves side to side when changing direction. You can also check your shield and hull status, as well as those of target craft, which brings me to another point:
