Freespace 2

Run on Win 8 pro

FS2 was the first game I ever bought on GOG, when I first learned about the FSOpen project, the still ongoing open source development of the engine, which has spawned countless mods and some complete conversions. Now, almost exactly ten years later, I finished the original campaign for the first time. What took me so long? Well, back in the day I began by playing the port of FS1 on FSOpen, with original graphics and a mouse. When I was done with that I decided that I needed a joystick and a better PC for improved graphics before I could continue. Several years later, I got both, and played through the FS1 campaign again to get the best experience out of it. After that (but not immediately, as there were a lot of other games to play on my new system at the time) I continued with the excellent Silent Threat Reborn, an improved and expanded version of the FS1 expansion. In between, I played a bit of "The Babylon Project", a Babylon 5 total conversion based on the FSOpen Engine. Only then I got around to start the original FS2 campaign, I guess it was around 2015... however, I interrupted that playthrough because of a mission that I just could not beat (until I disabled the improved graphics mod, for some reason), only for it to be followed by an even more impossible mission... Maybe I didn't realize that these were skippable bonus missions that were meant to be hard, and that it would get easier again afterwards. Anyway, if you like flying through space and shooting things, this is your game. You don't really do much of anything else. The campaign is mostly good and the missions are somewhat varied, although they are usually variations of fly there, shoot this, protect that. In my opinion, the last third of the campaign was a bit of a letdown, and the last mission either incredibly easy or incredibly frustrating, depending on how you approach it. There are countless mod campaigns offering potentially unlimited playtime, but I guess most are mainly more shooting.

This game has a way of drawing you in and keeping you there. Can't wait to play it again and finish it this time around!

This is a second part of my space sim love ...

Awesome game when it came out and still is. Played it right before leaving the states. Just wished I wouldn't die at the very end all the time.