I used to play this when i was a kid after i found it hidden amongst some of my dads other games back around 2002-3 before i lost all of my discs (it came with like 2-3 discs at the time). Ever since then i had always wanted to hop back onto Freespace 2 and fast forward to 2019 and it still lives up to how much i enjoyed it back then. Out of all of the space sims i have played - Elite dangerous, star citizen and even the recent infinity: battlescape; none of those compare to the immersion that freespace 2 give me for space simulation combat, but maybe i'm biased. The graphics though dated still hold up well and the atmospehere and voice acting really sets the scene for the relatively interesting storyline. I tried playing originally with just a keyboard as i was keep to play but that was pretty grim, i used to play with an old microsoft joystick so i ordered a new one, if you're interested in this game (which i would highly recommend) a joystick is a must, it's makes it a lot more fun!
