Freespace 2

simply to say, there will never be another that is this good. i've looked around, this is the pinnacle. what else can i say. it's 20 years later and i still have it on my HD and play it often, over and over.

I honestly can't say anything that hasn't already been said by my forespeakers. Freespace 2 is a legendary game when it comes to space simulators. A great improvement over the original D:FS that was a milestone game in its own righ, FS2 not only continued with the quality and story telling of the original, but added numerous new elements and taught players to perceive space on a much larger scale that the prequel. Where Lucipher was the biggest ship in D:FS, FS2 made it pale in comparison with the Sathanas or the Colossus. The biggest quality of FS2 is the fact one can tell complex stories using simple means. That is one the biggest strengths of FS2 that can be seen in many mods that have been made over the years. If you ever played Wing Commander or any other space sim, or maybe a regular airplane sim like F-22 Raptor, FS2 should be right up your alley.

This is best of what is now a dead genre. Forget your wing commanders or your freelancers this is the real deal. Decent story, good cut scenes and an active community who are still improving this game 10 years after release mean that this game will still be great 10 years from now. After you buy this head over to the Hard light forums to pick up the latest Freespace 2 source code project release as well as the derelict, and freespace port mods and you will have well over 20 hours of quality entertainment for less than the cost of meal for 2 at McDonalds.

I was lucky enough to play this when I was much younger and it was only years later that I realised the reason I fondly remembered the voice acting so much in this game was because it is by the fantastic talents of Robert Loggia, Ronny Cox and Kurtwood Smith to name a few. The games mechanics borrow heavily from the wonderful X-wing/TIE Fighter games and when combined with a long, engrossing and excellently narrated campaign it results in a truly epic space shooter that deserved so much more attention than it received. 10/10.

To be honest, I haven't even tried the retail vanilla FS2 after I bought it. Nostalgia-coloured glasses is not my preferable fashion choice. What I did instead was gping over to the Hardlight forums, get the Knossos mod manager, download half a dozen of most popular mods and overhauls, and start kicking butts. One disclaimer: FS2. for all the arcade-ness, is pretty simulationist when it comes to controls. And with all the craziness on the battlefield you will want to run your fighter as smooth as possible. Fortunately, you can re-map all the keys, and you better do it. If you don't have a stick, base your movement controls (pitch/turn) on the WSAD-cross, with acceleration nearby, a dozen or so other useful keys as you like them, ignore all the other controls and do the fine-aiming and firing with your mouse- and you're gonna be dandy. It is a pretty steep learning curve, but once you get rollin, it's fun AF. Everyone else already gushed about how amazing the game is. Space sims don't get any better than this (and I loved both TIE Fighter and Wing Commander). The mods and overhauls will make the game look like it came out... well, maybe not yesterday, but circa 2010, and a lot of the fan content could pass for AAA products, no sweat.