Descent: Freespace Battle Pack

As far as the game goes, Freespace series are the best campaign oriented, mission driven space sims ever. Period. BUT READ THIS FIRST. IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO APPLY THE MODERNITY UPGRADE FOR GRAPHICS VIA THE FREESPACE OPEN PROJECT, DO NOT BUY FREESPACE 1. THE ENTIRETY OF FREESPACE 1 (CAMPAIGN + SILENT THREAT MISSIONS) IS INCLUDED IN THE FREESPACE OPEN PROJECT'S GRAPHICAL UPDATE OF FREESPACE 2. IF YOU UPGRADE FREESPACE 2'S GRAPHICS WITH THAT MOD PROJECT, IT WILL INCLUDE FS1'S CAMPAIGN -AND- THE SILENT THREAT MISSIONS. With that said Freespace 2 uses what is now an older game structure of a mission by mission system rather than an open world. I wouldn't call it inferior to open worlds, just different, and I wish games nowadays would employ it more often. Not only is it a full on space sim ala Xwing vs Tiefighter, but commanding your wingmates is just as important as the actions you take on your own. With the FSO update the graphics are beautiful and modernised. They completed the project in 2014 or so, and upgraded all the sounds, graphics, music even the main screens. But even without it, it still does more than a good enough job. The world is tight and concise and you know who you're fighting and why the entire time. The storyline is a classic one (During a war with normal enemy A -> crazy enemy B surfaces making the old threat look like a joke.) but it's well told through briefings, debriefings and the occasional CGI cutscene (also greatly improved as part of FSO's project). So as a whole, buy it. But if you're even considering applying the modernised graphics and sound updates make sure you only buy FS2 so you don't waste ten dollars. Unless you want FS1 for other reasons. OH And last but not least the FRED mission editor is a great way to learn boolean logic, it's easy to script events in and easy to create missions. I had great fun with it even as someone who usually doesn't create missions. And that's it. 10/10 The Great War was, in fact, Great.

This is my all-time favorite game... Amazingly fun, eternal replay value, 100's of user created missions... go read someone elses review for the rest. This review is to alert you to the fact that since the source code got released ages ago, this game has an amazing MODDING community that has updated the sourcecode, AND CONTINUES TO RELEASE UPDATES 17 YEARS LATER. No other game has 17 years worth of mods exept for Doom. Go to http://www.hard-light.net/ to get started learning what this engine can do. Go to http://www.fsoinstaller.com/ to upgrade to the OPEN engine. Modern graphics, modern lighting effects, standalone games based on the engine... If you are "nostalgic" and you looked this game up. Stop. Google "Freespace Open Source". This game will be better than you remembered it. The best part is that none of the "game" is really different than you remember. I played this game minutes ago on three moniters, with voice activated wingmates, and had my mind blown by the fact that my missle lit up a trail on the side of a completely remodled Orion that had me jizzing myself. It will take you... a little time to figure out how FS OPEN works, but it is worth it 19282882%

Descent: Freespace the Great Conflict or Descent Frespace for short was a milestone for space simulators. At the time Wing Commander saga and Privateer were the pinnacle of the genre. D:FS took that and added a few ideas native to the Descent series and typical combat craft simulators that ultimately led to Freespace francise. The first game isn't so huge in terms of the feeling how vast space is, but it gave a well told, mission-driven story about the fight against Vasudans and later Shivans. Game progression gave access to better units and weapons, which gave a natural feeling of how technology developped as the war and research went on. New technologies were neatly introduced in Command briefings and mission briefings. Moreover D:FS taught peole NOT to skip briefings like in Wing Commander for it was a sure way to fail a mission. Of course there were a few bugs as well but it hardly impeded gameplay. Fred editor gave rise to numerous campaings and high demand for the game spawned the sequel FS2, the greatest game of the old space sim era.

This game was and still is fantastic! To get around some of the issues caused by its age (640x480 resolution for example), get also FS2 on gog, then get the Freespace Open installer and get the pack that integrates FS1 into FS Open. You'll need the gog version of these games for the assets. You'll find it to look and run amazing on modern hardware. i think even VR support is either already in, or not far anymore. Putting Freespace into open source was a great great thing the Volition founders did back then!!

Review is based on playing using SCP, get it here: https://wiki.hard-light.net/index.php/Source_Code_Project_index Also, read up on FS2_Open. In this game, you pilot various spacecraft and accomplish various objectives. The story is a continued war between the Galactic Terran Alliance and the Vasudans. A new threat appears that neither race has anticipated. Pretty much everything in this game is awesome. Using the aforementioned mods/conversions, visuals are stunning, audio is awesome. The base game is great. There are detailed briefings for each mission, sometimes you fail objectives as part of the plot... it's a reminder that things don't always go your way. The difficulty level is adjustable, and is useful, because some of the missions suffer from poor design. There are capital ships of various classes that have various subsystems that can be disabled or destroyed. This can hamper a ship's speed, reduce the effectiveness of its weapons or knock out its sensors. Brilliant design. The campaign left me longing for more, at which point in time I played various mods.