Result : 8 - Light 'n tasty space shooter
 | Graphics: 9 - Amazing what they fit into 1MB. |
| FMV : 7 - Solid story, good video and acting. |
| Sound : 8 - Pity about the variety. |
| Music : 7 - Broody and melodramatic. |
| A.I. : 6 - No "immelman manoeuvres". |
| Lifespan : 8 - A stack of missions, good enough to replay. |
| Gameplay : 8 - Bite-sized Elite. |
| Adrenaline : 9 - "I have you now!". |
Colony Wars: Red Sun is third in the series, I haven't played the others, but this one is very good. It is sort of a modern take on Elite - complete with ratings, Novice to Grand Master, but instead of unlimited gaming, you have a set of jobs/missions at each space station, and when the storyline propels you to the next station you get no say. The plot is quite reasonable for this sort of game (although a little contrived), a couple of things seem disjointed, like the arena games, and the ratings. Not really necessary, but don't detract at all. You play as Vandemar, a mercenary who is looking back and recollecting at the events you play. Lets just say it has some political intrigue, and xenophobia. My only quibble is that you don't really get enough hardpoints to experiment with the different weapons and upgrades. for most of the game you only have 5-6 hardpoints, and 3 weapon slots, an anti-missile device, some improved shields, and one other slot for ??? I think you could almost double the number, and then implement a "power usage" stat to stop people putting too many electronics in (but allowing more missiles, and laser combinations).
Graphically? wow! the space missions are real pretty. You get fog on the ground ones, which detracts somewhat, but the change in style breaks up potentially repetitive gameplay. The enemy ships are nicely detailed, and I love the motherships! Like when I first played X-wing, and you cruise over a StarDestroyer, nice and big. The sounds are good, but the range and variety is slightly lacking.
The genre is almost done-to-death, so it's nice to get a game that works. It is simple enough to picky up and play, but not so simple that it's just "turn and shoot" over and over. The combat could have been improved with a bit more inertia, ironically you don't notice in space so much, but on ground missions you notice that all the craft turn rather too well. It might have been better to make more use of the ability to reverse thrust to change course, it's all a little too much like a aeroplane. Definitely worth a blast, but it might be better to hire than buy.
