Review
Played on: PlayStation
Released: 1997
Released: 1997
For those unaware, the British gaming industry had a significant impact on the early years of 3D gaming in the homes. Alongside developers like Core Design, that would pioneer into this third dimension as early as on the Mega CD, then hit jackpot by the time Tomb Raider blew up the market in 1996, we also had Psygnosis. Liverpool based Psygnosis, was a far more famous developer from the UK prior to Core Designs rapid rise to fame. Psygnosis started out in the early 1980s, with game development for systems like the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. One of their most famous series was the mega hit Lemmings in 1991.
Psygnosis would head start the focus on 3D games when the home console market shifted from 2D in the 16-bit generation to 3D in the 32-bit, fifth generation. Developing games like wipEout, Krazy Ivan, Lifeforce: Tenka, Formula One, G-Police and Colony Wars. Even publishing famous series like Destruction Derby too. The significance of how far ahead the UK was in the early 3D gaming market can’t be understated, with many of these titles leading the way in visuals and boundary breaking design.
Psygnosis would go on to be bought up by Sony in the mid 1990s and begin releasing only for the PlayStation and PC from there on. They would later be renamed Studio Liverpool and sadly were later shut down in 2012.
Psygnosis would go on to be bought up by Sony in the mid 1990s and begin releasing only for the PlayStation and PC from there on. They would later be renamed Studio Liverpool and sadly were later shut down in 2012.
I was a huge fan of G-Police, from 1997 and loved it’s Blade Runner style combined with futuristic helicopter combat. Alongside this franchise, Psygnosis also made Colony Wars, which released almost identically the same year. This space combat title always fascinated me and seemed to feature the same excellent design work on its visual style, artwork, packaging and in-game menus.
Colony Wars is a more typical space combat game than G-Police, allowing the player to take control of a fighter spaceship and fly around freely in space. Although large in scale, the fights take place close to your spaceship and don't contain more than a few massive ships and a handful of small fighters, maybe an asteroid rock or two. So, if flying around freely in space sounds intimidating, don't worry!
Colony Wars, which funnily enough shares its lore and setting with G-Police and wipEout, features a cinematic presentation with a lot of CGI cutscene usage. Depicting narrated events that lay the fundamentals for the story.
The solar system is stripped of resources and the Earth Empire seeks to find more on distant planets. This empire's expansive and rapid colonisation utilises aggressive and violent ways to get its resources and hold the distant colonies under control. In a unique twist, you play as a rebel colony that wishes to push back and fight Earth, our home planet is very much depicted as the bad guys!
Each side of this conflict has a leader, Earth having the relentless Tzar and the opposing League of Free Worlds being led by the Father. It’s a heavy political story with a dark and alarming view of the future, perfectly aligning itself with the other aforementioned Psygnosis' series.
While the story is complex and its presentation focusing on the battle scenes, without any specific pictured heroes, it has a slightly impersonal feel. Which makes it hard to fully live yourself into a role of a single person. Yet, here is where Colony Wars cleverly and deliberately avoids having a main character: you can lose battles and die, yet continue the game. You're presented with missions, be it to protect a massive space freighter or battle it out in a huge spaceship, but you don’t actually have to succeed each mission to continue.
Confused? Well, the structure of Colony Wars is quite unique. There are 30 plus missions in total, but you won’t play them all in a single playthrough. Depending on your success of missions, you're playing about 10+ of them, resulting in various cutscenes depicting the story unfold after your wins or losses. There are multiple endings to unlock as a result. It’s an impressively ambitious structure and understandably spans two CDs, considering the various cutscenes contained to explain each story arc.
While the story is complex and its presentation focusing on the battle scenes, without any specific pictured heroes, it has a slightly impersonal feel. Which makes it hard to fully live yourself into a role of a single person. Yet, here is where Colony Wars cleverly and deliberately avoids having a main character: you can lose battles and die, yet continue the game. You're presented with missions, be it to protect a massive space freighter or battle it out in a huge spaceship, but you don’t actually have to succeed each mission to continue.
Confused? Well, the structure of Colony Wars is quite unique. There are 30 plus missions in total, but you won’t play them all in a single playthrough. Depending on your success of missions, you're playing about 10+ of them, resulting in various cutscenes depicting the story unfold after your wins or losses. There are multiple endings to unlock as a result. It’s an impressively ambitious structure and understandably spans two CDs, considering the various cutscenes contained to explain each story arc.
It's a game that begs for replays, my only gripe being that you can’t specifically jump in and out of previous missions at your own will once you complete the story. You have to pick a certain battle you want a different timeline to develop from, and complete the whole game to the end from there. A little cumbersome if you want quick results of the changing story, depending on your battle success.
Controlling the ships in Colony Wars is intuitive and quick to learn. Basically, it features a forward and backwards thrust, the analogue stick rotates your ship and the shoulder buttons control left and right rolls. There are laser cannons, with several types of lasers to choose from, depending if you're firing on shields or actual ship hulls. There’s also a secondary set of weapons, focusing mostly on rockets with various effects.
Controlling the ships in Colony Wars is intuitive and quick to learn. Basically, it features a forward and backwards thrust, the analogue stick rotates your ship and the shoulder buttons control left and right rolls. There are laser cannons, with several types of lasers to choose from, depending if you're firing on shields or actual ship hulls. There’s also a secondary set of weapons, focusing mostly on rockets with various effects.
I found the secondary weapons a bit confusing, thanks to a rather tiny text on the HUD explaining what they are. It lacks recognisable icons when swapping to a weapon you wish to fire. I stuck mainly to the lasers and could take down most enemies with them.
The flying can be a little disorientating, considering you can fly in any direction and there's no ground beneath you The external camera can help if you're not used to this kind of gameplay. There's no obstacles or ground to hit though, so it doesn't really matter at what angle you attack the enemies.
The flying can be a little disorientating, considering you can fly in any direction and there's no ground beneath you The external camera can help if you're not used to this kind of gameplay. There's no obstacles or ground to hit though, so it doesn't really matter at what angle you attack the enemies.
I found controlling the ships very satisfying and was impressed with how well the controls had aged, the simplicity is key. This is not an advanced spaceship simulator, which you might think of from this era of release. Basically, a space combat game with the arcade lightness of a Ace Combat title.
Colony Wars holds itself well visually, just like most Psygnosis titles from this period. Pushing the graphical capabilities of the PS1. By the time of release, 1997, the sweet spot of PS1 graphical achievements had been reached. Developers were familiar with the hardware and pushed it to impressive results. Colony Wars boasts some neat lighting, with lots of blue, purples and orange colours used for lasers, planets and effects.
Colony Wars holds itself well visually, just like most Psygnosis titles from this period. Pushing the graphical capabilities of the PS1. By the time of release, 1997, the sweet spot of PS1 graphical achievements had been reached. Developers were familiar with the hardware and pushed it to impressive results. Colony Wars boasts some neat lighting, with lots of blue, purples and orange colours used for lasers, planets and effects.
It runs very well, with some occasionally slowdown in heavy battle scenes, but nothing significant. The picture is sharp and the 3D models do a great job at depicting angular spaceships and distant planets.
Sound is excellent, it even boasts Dolby Surround for those lucky to have that back in the 90s! Explosions and laser fire have satisfying sounds and feel heavy in their use of bass. I found the narrator of the cutscenes somewhat over dramatic, otherwise the narrated mission briefings and female spaceship voices are great. There's even a comprehensive encyclopedia, narrated by voice, with info about planets, conflicts, spacehips etc.
The music score is done by Tim Wright, more famous perhaps by his stage name Cold Storage, of wipEout fame. He would make music for a lot of Psygnosis games back then and his score here sounds excellent! It's not the dance scene inspired techno of wipEout, but a grand orchestra inspired style. Reminding me of large and dramatic sci-fi movie scenes.
My overall let-down, is that the ship control never differs regardless of which type of ship you're flying. Granted, you quickly learn the controls, but it never allows for you to become skilled in a deeper and more complex fashion. Combat and mission structures are repeated frequently and most of the time you're floating about in star covered blackness.
I found it fine for the game length of one playthrough, but repeated attempts at seeing other story arcs, might reveal a little too simplistic approach to space battles. There's a balance of not becoming a simulator, but Colony Wars lean a little too much to the arcade side.
It’s been great going back and finally finishing a title I've been wanting to play since 90s. It sits proudly alongside G-Police, to beautifully showcase how great Psygnosis handled the sci-fi genre and were top of the class at 3D back then. Considering the depth of the gameplay, my nod goes to G-Police for the longer run, sporting a more complex flight control, with hovering, gravitation and vertical thrusters to manage, but both are fantastic games for the system.
It’s been great going back and finally finishing a title I've been wanting to play since 90s. It sits proudly alongside G-Police, to beautifully showcase how great Psygnosis handled the sci-fi genre and were top of the class at 3D back then. Considering the depth of the gameplay, my nod goes to G-Police for the longer run, sporting a more complex flight control, with hovering, gravitation and vertical thrusters to manage, but both are fantastic games for the system.
Being so impressed, it might be time to check out the Colony Wars: Vengeance sequel!
