Freespace 2
Interplay/Volition
Windows 98
$34.95

This game has been out for a while now. I resisted buying it mainly because I sort of dismissed it out of hand as a 'Wing Commander' ripoff, and it seems as if I'm not alone in that assumption, as this game seems to be selling about as well as dead Sea Monkeys.

Which is a pity, because Freespace 2 is very likely the best space-combat sim ever created.

D:2 takes place 32 years after the first game. You begin as an ensign in a Terran military fleet that has been cut off from Earth for the last 30-odd years, following a climactic battle (presumably the end of Freespace 1) in which the Jump Gate back to 'Ol Terra was cut off. The Human Race has formed an alliance with the Vasudans (one of 2 alien races in D:2...the Vasudans are the good aliens), but all is not well...a rebel faction that opposes the Human/Vasudan alliance has arisen, and now leads attacks against both Humans and Vasudans in an effort to start a conflict which will split the 2 races apart. As if this weren't enough to worry about, the Shivans (the second alien race...these are the bad aliens) return, just in time to re-ignite another interstellar war. And in the middle of all this is a mysterious, alien jump-gate that could lead the way back to Earth, or somewhere...else.

If this all sounds epic...it is. And it's not just the storyline, either. The battles in Freespace 2 are massive on a scale not previously displayed in a space fighter sim. Sure, X-Wing Alliance had lots of spaceships going at it at one time, but the size of the larger space cruisers seemed wrong. As an idea of how big some of the craft in F2 are, imagine the Star Destroyers from X-Wing alliance. Well, those are about the size of the medium cruisers from F2. The big cap ships in F2 are about twice as large as the Super Star Destroyer from Alliance. That's just big. Aside from their sheer size, these vessels actually act like capital ships. Unlike other space fighter sims, the cap ships really tear each other apart. If you've played Homeworld and seen the way the cruisers maliciously use beam weapons on each other, you have some idea of what I'm talking about. The first time one of these massive ships fires a beam weapon, either at you or another cap ship, its enough to make you go wee wee in your underoos. There you are, flying around, minding your own business, when you start to hear a low hum. What's that, you wonder. The hum slowly builds until you hear a loud zzzap that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. And then ten or so fighters go up in flames, and you as well if you're not lucky.

The effects in this game are so well done, it's criminal. The explosion of any of the aforementioned capital ships is amazing. In one mission I was playing, I was hunting down an enemy fighter and had him down to 2% hull integrity... as I was pursuing him, a nearby cruiser blew up. I could actually see the blast wave from the cruiser as it propigated through space, engulfing myself and my prey. Both our ships shook with the explosion, and my target was destroyed! This was just too cool...

As for the game's features, they are also outstanding. The game features over 70 ships (a good portion of which are 'flyable'), a mind boggling selection of weapons ranging from simple laser cannons to multi-warhead tracking missiles, and superb multiplayer capabilities, featuring Deathmatch, Team vs. Team, and Co-operative modes. As that weren't enough, Freespace 2 ships with a powerful and versatile mission creator, FRED2. With FRED2, you can create entire custom campaigns...replayability is clearly not an issue here.

The game's presentation is also great stuff. The story permeates every inch of gameplay, from between mission animations, to the missions themselves. Not a single event in this game passes without advancing the story line in some way. By the way, I would like to point out one important thing where F2 is concerned. The voice acting in this game is unparalleled. It's clear that the game designers placed a great deal of emphasis on this aspect of the game. Robert Loggia, Ronny Cox, and other real actors lend their talents to the game, adding weight to the atmosphere. What a great feeling it was to be addressed by the Admiral, only to realize: Hey, that's Robert Loggia! (I must've sounded like that kid on the orange juice commercial.) All too often, a highly immersive game spoils all its atmosphere with shoddy voiceover work (ahem...heads up, Origin...). F2 doesn't spoil the scenario by placing us in the shoes of a has-been sci-fi actor pasted in front of a 'virtual set', a la Wing Commander. Instead, the story unfolds through the missions themselves, allowing us to more easily blend into the action.

The game's controls are highly complex, but in-game training missions help to ramp up your skills, and you are always able to hop in the simulator and re-fly any previous missions smooth out any rough spots in your performance. The game's HUD is highly detailed, nearly TOO detailed. But fear not, you are given the option to tweak every element of the HUD to your liking. Wish that target display were green instead of blue to help distinguish it in the heat of combat? No problem...you can not only change the color, but the hue, with handy sliding bars. Don't like your pilot's portrait? Well, slap in a picture of Keanu Reeves, or Gillian Anderson, or, God Forbid, yourself! Just place a .pcx format picture in your pilot directory, and you're good to go.

Complaints are few and minor. Game resolution is fixed at either 640x480 or 1027x768, no 800x600 mode. And choosing the higher resolution mode forces you to install the higher detailed textures, which weigh in at nearly 300 megs. This was no big deal, since 640x480 was a dream to look at anyway, but the option would've been nice. It would also have been nice to have the training missions seperate from the campaign itself. Like it or not, there are a lot of people who just want to get on with it, and the training missions just get in the way of the killin'.

Overall, Freespace 2 is one hefty piece of game, sure to waste many of your precious hours hunting down those nasty Shivans.

In one word: Essential.

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