Descent: Freespace Battle Pack

Hands down one of the best of all time. I remember booting up this game after it first hit the shelves and being floored. Still have all the original discs, even though I can't run them. Thanks, GOG, for getting this jewel in here.

I have played perhaps hundreds of games. Space sims, flight simulators, and more. None came close to this. The magic of this game captures you with a story that holds you in the game, missions that make it worth your time, and graphics that were good, but today with the new open free space, it is simply awesome! But best of all, this case has the near perfect Arcade to Simulator combination. It is detailed enough with the controls, and flight to be a simulator, but not too much, that it will loose that "arcade feeling" that keeps you fighting "one more mission..." I find myself installing this game again and again, looking for new mission that the fans of the game created, and smiling every time I play it.

I still have the original 2 disc set, this game was in my opinion ahead of its time. And is still good today. As soon as I started playing again I forgot how old the game was, still captures my attention. The intro movie is by far one of the best I have still ever seen, would make an epic movie.

First things first, I LOVE Descent Freespace! I owned the combo pack of The Great War and Silent Threat a long time ago, and subsequently lost the CDs. I was therefore naturally excited to find this game (and its successor, Freespace2) on GOG, for quite a cheap price. I read that most people were able to play both games on Windows 7, and I was hoping that would extend to Windows 10 as well. So I bought both games, only to find that while Freespace2 works like a charm on my Windows 10 laptop, Freespace1 does not. Fair play to GOG, they honored their I got store credit for it, which means I can use those funds to get another game from them. The only reason I'm giving it 4 stars is that I could not play it again after these many years. Now, on to the actual game. Descent Freespace introduced me to the world of space simulators, and to date, I have not really found any game that come close to the story and gameplay of this one. The missions start out easy and slowly get more complex and difficult. As with most games, you keep getting better ships and weapons. What I like about this game was that it forces you to actually use all the ships and weapons at least once throughout the course of the game. The difficulty of most levels is decent enough to complete your mission, while keeping you on your toes for that one bomber which manages to sneak in a bomb towards the ship you are supposed to protect, or the seemingly endless supply of enemy fighters who will constantly keep attacking you while you are targetting their mother-ship. Eventually you win (as always), but it feels as if you were made to work for it. Fun-fact : The game is heavily influenced by Indian culture. "Vasuda", the name of the secondary species in Freespace, is derived from the Sanskrit word 'Vasudha' meaning 'Earth'. Also, "Shivans" are likely so called because in Hindu mythology, 'Shiva' is the God of destruction. Overall, this is a very well-balanced game of stealth and all-guns-blazing-ry. GOG, I would love to see this game supported for Windows 10 as well!

Freespace 1: Is a space-combat game, in which you take part of a series of missions against the enemy known as the Shivans. There is not much of a plot really, so for the most part, this can be skipped. The real fun is in how the game lays. When I first tried Freespace, I was almost dismissive of it. You take on a series of missions, in which you attack an enemy formation. There are a few missions, where things are different. Escorts, and stealth/spy come into play, but basically your ship is a fighter. As you progress, you gain access to new technology. Ships range from your basic attack vessel, to bombers and interceptors. Weapons become more and more powerful, and have different rates of effect against enemy hull and shields. Missiles are dumb-fire, lock and heat seek. The combination of all of these allows you to select the way to complete each mission. Graphically and Soundwise, it's fairly simple... If it sounds like, i'm struggling to say something here, it's because it's true. Freespace, at it's core, is quite simple. But with some stunning actual gameplay that's hard to put into words. Fighting is quite intense, and requires attention and reflexes. To aid you, you can command various fighter wings. The whole keymap is huge, and while you don't need to learn all 100 or so keys, it will help! This is simply they type of game you have to try. There might not be much to it, but again, it's very well done. If you do enjoy it, go out and get Freespace 2 immediately. The scale of battles is increased massivly, capital ships are huge and take some time to navigate, enemies are more clever and everything just feels highly polished.