This game is unlike others. It's easy to get into. And hard to leave. The plot is railroaded and linear, but the pacing is perfection. The story is great - reading the FreeSpace bible shows the developers really managed to get most of what they planned into the game (a rare feat). I know some people dislike a railroaded plot, but I loved it here - it was like being the protagonist in a well-written novelette. I can't change the story, but I wouldn't want to; I could only make it worse. The story captures the emotions, and leads the player along a journey which, surprisingly for a game, contains a moral lesson. The early game ends feeling on the defensive against what could only be described as a god. But, slowly, as humanity understands their technology, the god is deconstructed, until we feel we are their equal. And then, the game enters the final act - our hubris at believing ourselves equal to god destroys us, and shatters our foolish "myth of humanity everlasting" (a great quote from the opening of FreeSpace 2). Though technologically inferior to FreeSpace 2, the lesson on the folly of pride, and the perfect pacing places this game, in my opinion, well above the sequel. This game captured my fantasy and emotions like few other - placing it in the same class as Half Life, Deus Ex, and Baldur's Gate. A great game - buy it.
