Psygnosis confirms Colony Wars: Vengeance as the successor to Colony Wars and unveils new planet-based environments.
Atlanta, GA - May 28, 1998 - War is most dangerous when it gets personal. Become involved, and you're sucked into a hideous conflict where, regardless of the outcome, the destruction reaches beyond a few battleships to your very soul. Colony WarsΓäó: Vengeance, Psygnosis' 3D space combat epic for the PlayStationΓäó game console, is that kind of war. The game launches you into a war waged in the name of justice, but is secretly about personal vengeance. Colony Wars: Vengeance is planned for release in winter of 1998.
Colony Wars: Vengeance features enhanced game-play and technology from the original Colony WarsΓäó. New in Colony Wars: Vengeance will be planet-based missions, where the dogfights and battles will take place across a range of highly detailed landscapes. Complex, multiple-objective missions are action-packed with more fighters, and the game's engine, AI, graphics and physics models all are significantly upgraded. The gaming environment is richer with more animated and detailed objects, and the characters have substantive personalities and pack a greater emotional punch. Numerous plot twists and multiple endings will keep you on the edge of your seat. Overall, Colony Wars: Vengeance is a more involving gaming experience from every angle.
Once Upon a Warp Hole
Vengeance picks up 100 years after one of Colony Wars' six endings left off. When the League closed the warp hole to imprison their enemy, they cut the population off from precious resources and consigned them to slow starvation. As competition for the remaining resources grew, so did civil unrest. With no leader to unite them, the people split into feuding tribes … until Kron emerged. A fierce pilot who seemed to rise out of know-where who effortlessly rose through the ranks inspiring and uniting the people. He creates a new Navy, prepared and eager to topple the League and assert their dominance in the galaxy.
You don the persona of Mertens, an idealistic young fighter pilot who believes in the cause of the new Navy. As Merten's piloting and fighting skills grow with the escalating conflict, so does his character and emotional depth. What starts out as a clear-cut choice of right side or wrong side becomes complex as the game progresses. Who, actually, is the enemy?
Ready, Aim, Fire
In Colony Wars: Vengeance, Mertens must succeed in increasingly challenging missions for the new Navy and move up in rank, ultimately becoming an elite pilot. The action is viewed from four perspectives - one more than in the original Colony Wars. The different camera angles are 3rd person, 1st person with full or reduced cockpit overlay, and the new view, external behind the craft. The expansive gaming universe takes you through five solar systems - Sol, Gallonigher, Cronus, Alpha-Centauri and Boreas - each laden with unique and increasingly difficult enemies.
Like its predecessor, Colony Wars: Vengeance features six endings divided by 19 acts. A new mission tree focuses on ensuring that the player experiences more of the major incidents embedded in the campaigns greater depth of campaign. The non-linear structure allows a variety of player experiences and the player himself will determine the cause and outcome of the war.
As a new recruit, you start out with a basic issue Navy fighter. Every fighter is equipped with a Power Plant that supplies power to its engines, shields and gyros (these determine the ship's maneuverability), and you to decide how to distribute your power allotment. You earn new fighters if you're successful in missions, so you can end up with a fleet of four progressively more powerful fighters. Fighters carry up to five primary weapons that come with the ship and five secondary weapons that you choose. There are 22 total weapons, 50 percent more than in the original game, and flight control also is improved.
Technology
Virtually every technological element of Colony Wars: Vengeance is new or significantly enhanced, making the game faster, more intense and more realistic. An updated and optimized space combat engine increases mission populations significantly. Big ships, too, are improved with weak spots that you must seek out and fire upon in order to destroy the vessel. An enhanced physics model for objects allows fighters to realistically spin out of control when hit by missiles until you make corrections. Heavy damage to craft also will affect how they fly, and there will be a variety of unique death routines.
The game will feature about 75 individual models and ships, all of which are new to Colony Wars: Vengeance. A new model format provides an innovative way of grouping and storing model data for optimal cache processing, and the enhanced model renderer displays the model format 40 percent faster than in the original game. All of the models feature animating sections and textures. Additionally, collision is extremely accurate and runs four times faster than in the original Colony Wars.
A new graphics engine supports a more detailed and captivating space environment that is loaded with nebula, asteroid belts, comets, black and white holes, and mine fields. The game's overall look is hardened and realistic with a bent toward industrial techno-gothic, though glowing neon weapon effects, suns and other objects provide a startling contrast. Planets appear spherical and have atmospheres and crafts and installations look distinctively advanced from their predecessors. Fighters, however, don't just look better. They also fly better. Enhanced AI for wingmen and objects integrates phenomenon like inertia and gives you the ability to use objects within the environment for tactical advantages.
Climactic orchestral themes such as "large scale battle" and "chase" add emotional impact to the game. Dolby surround sound is used for the bold sound effects, like explosions, roaring engines and weapon firing, and speech samples convey messages and feedback from other pilots. Peripheral support includes analogue joypads.
