Colony Wars

Players fight in numerous space combat missions using one of seven pre-selected League of Free Worlds starfighters (although in one mission, the player gets to use one captured Navy fighter). The selection is due to the League High Command's decisions for efficiency in every given mission. Each starfighter carries a certain combination of energy weapons, missiles or torpedoes, and a number of units are equipped with nonlethal EMP cannons. The player can also use countermeasures to shake off inbound enemy missiles and/or use a grapple gun to capture targets of importance.

The stages are divided into several "Acts" with three missions each. Multiple paths and outcomes are available throughout the game, depending on the player's performance. Completing or failing missions does not always define the ultimate success or failure of the campaign, and certain missions are vital turning points which can dramatically affect the game's plot.

The Solar System is fully stripped of its natural resources by the fifth millennium. As a result, the Earth Empire sends out expeditionary sleeper ships to distant planets found to have abundant natural resources and harvests them. The discovery of hyperspace technology accelerates the Empire's interstellar expansion. As the colonies become more prosperous, the inhabitants become discontent as most of their mined resources are used to benefit Earth.

A peaceful insurrection in the 47th century results in the Earth Empire's leader, the Tzar, personally leading the destruction of a rebellious planet. Stunned by the carnage, the other colonies band together as the League of Free Worlds, with a man known as the Father leading the fight.

In the original design, players could choose to fight for either the League or the Earth Empire. The development team decided to scrap this option in order to provide a larger mission base for the game. Recognizing that in other games with branching paths based around mission success or failure, players tended to simply retry a mission whenever they failed, the team attempted to conceal mission failure by having the mission-tree move the player on to the next branch without making a point of their defeat. According to Psygnosis product marketing manager Mark Day, Colony Wars and G-Police were "neck and neck" as far as getting the biggest financial push from the company.

The in-game soundtrack was written and produced by Tim Wright, who also composed music for the Wipeout series of games released by Psygnosis.

Colony Wars received critical acclaim. Reviewers lauded the game's graphics, mission branching system, controls (particularly with analog joypads), selection of weapons and craft, and the way the game achieved a feeling of actually being present in an epic space battle. IGN elaborated that "The game has an incredible sense of scale and space ... One minute you're flying your small attack fighter through a formation of giant (and I mean h-u-g-e) space cruisers, desperately trying to avoid the massive laser beams they're firing at you, and the next you're flying like a madman in the midst of a swarm of tiny enemy attack fighters trying to destroy them before they send you floating home in pieces."

Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it their "Game of the Month" award, with Crispin Boyer calling it "a breathtaking epic" and Kraig Kujawa "top-notch in just about every way possible." Boyer also made Colony Wars his pick for "Sleeper Hit of the Holidays" several months before EGM reviewed the game, and in EGM's 1997 Editors' Choice Awards, it was a runner-up for "Best PlayStation Game of the Year" (behind Castlevania: Symphony of the Night), "Best Graphics" (behind Final Fantasy VII), and "Best Sound" (behind Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee). 0 in graphics and fun factor, saying it "easily ranks as the best space-combat game on the PlayStation."