Ned Flanders
Banned
Back in 1997, when the PlayStation (PSOne my ass) was hitting its stride, lost among the holiday onslaught of new games was a nigh-masterpiece from Wipeout developer Psygnosis. It was a space shooter called Colony Wars, and it was among the best space-flight games ever to grace a console.
It sported spectacular graphics for its era (still looks good on my new tv), complete with the colored lighting and trail/particle effects that Wipeout had popularized. The soundtrack was epic and the voice narrator was not James Earl Jones only because his name was not James Earl Jones. The storyline was typical "colonies v empire" fare that echoed Star Wars, but the way the storyline branched depending upon your victory/defeat, and the capable narrative that accompanied it, made the game far more involving than just another Star Wars ripoff.
The gameplay was fairly straightforward and chose a arcade-style feel in lieu of other more technical shooters like the Wing Commander series. Blue lasers lowered shields, reds did actual hull damage, EMP pulses lowered defense grids on large ships/bases, homing missles swarmed locked-on targets. There was a good variety to the action, and even the escort missions weren't so painful. Once you got the hang of the gameplay, you were putting leads on streaking imperial fighters and doing slingshot-aligned missle launches. The game played extremely well.
But perhaps the most memorable thing about the game for me was something that even more contemporary titles like Rogue Leader never got right. The game had some of the most satisfying explosions yet put to disc. When you finally weakened a large freighter/destroyer/outpost etc, light would begin to emit from the cracking structure, followed by a tremendous, blinding blast that saw huge chunks of the ship hurled spaceward. When you downed a big one, it really felt like you hauled one in, and thats something a lot of space flight games have taken for granted.
Anyway, Colony Wars had a couple of sequels that subsequently turned toward more individiual narratives (bah) and incorporated some over-land missions, but they were all variations on the exceptional foundation that the first game laid. I also think they served to diminish the originals reputation somewhat (see: Matrix films), but the fact remains that Colony Wars was a fantastic title for the Playstation and one of my favorites for the console. I wish a worthy new installment would see release on one of the current/upcoming consoles (a la Warhawk) that could incorporate some of the new benefits of modern console gaming (improved gfx, online play).
It sported spectacular graphics for its era (still looks good on my new tv), complete with the colored lighting and trail/particle effects that Wipeout had popularized. The soundtrack was epic and the voice narrator was not James Earl Jones only because his name was not James Earl Jones. The storyline was typical "colonies v empire" fare that echoed Star Wars, but the way the storyline branched depending upon your victory/defeat, and the capable narrative that accompanied it, made the game far more involving than just another Star Wars ripoff.
The gameplay was fairly straightforward and chose a arcade-style feel in lieu of other more technical shooters like the Wing Commander series. Blue lasers lowered shields, reds did actual hull damage, EMP pulses lowered defense grids on large ships/bases, homing missles swarmed locked-on targets. There was a good variety to the action, and even the escort missions weren't so painful. Once you got the hang of the gameplay, you were putting leads on streaking imperial fighters and doing slingshot-aligned missle launches. The game played extremely well.
But perhaps the most memorable thing about the game for me was something that even more contemporary titles like Rogue Leader never got right. The game had some of the most satisfying explosions yet put to disc. When you finally weakened a large freighter/destroyer/outpost etc, light would begin to emit from the cracking structure, followed by a tremendous, blinding blast that saw huge chunks of the ship hurled spaceward. When you downed a big one, it really felt like you hauled one in, and thats something a lot of space flight games have taken for granted.
Anyway, Colony Wars had a couple of sequels that subsequently turned toward more individiual narratives (bah) and incorporated some over-land missions, but they were all variations on the exceptional foundation that the first game laid. I also think they served to diminish the originals reputation somewhat (see: Matrix films), but the fact remains that Colony Wars was a fantastic title for the Playstation and one of my favorites for the console. I wish a worthy new installment would see release on one of the current/upcoming consoles (a la Warhawk) that could incorporate some of the new benefits of modern console gaming (improved gfx, online play).
