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!
