Now here's a classic.
Released in 2000, the game takes place in the distant future where humanity, along with their new ally, the Vasudans, are still recovering from the long war they fought with each other before joining forces to (by the skin of their teeth) defeat the mysterious, highly advanced, xenophobic Shivan race who appeared without warning and starting kicking their arses in the original Freespace (30 years previously). Freespace 2's plot concerns the GTVA (Galactic Terran Vasudan Alliance) fighting a bloody civil war with the rebel NTF (Neo Terran Front) faction, who are opposed to the alliance with the Vasudans but as if that wasn't enough for them, they also have to deal with the sudden reappearance of the Shivans and another inevitable arse kicking.
In terms of controls, I found them very tight and intuitive and I very soon started to feel like an old veteran and despite there being an absurd amount of keyboard shortcuts, thankfully they're mostly redundant. The tutorial is very helpful and thorough - whether you're entirely new to the game or a returning veteran in need a refresher - patiently guiding you step by step through the controls. It's also broken up often enough the you're never overwhelmed with instructions; you'll only be shown the controls that are needed at the time then given ample time to practice, both within the current tutorial and on your next mission before being introduced to the more advanced controls in a later tutorial. Not to say that certain controls are locked before the next tutorial; if you already know them, by all means use them but you won't be punished if you don't. Navigation is never a problem either, as you can easily cycle between friendly ships, mission critical targets, be they friendly or hostile (whose names are displayed in a little list on the right), hostile ships and even individual turrets/subsystems of your target ship, all of which have their own designated button, which again the tutorials helpfully explain. Keyboard/mouse controls work fine, although I highly recommend a joystick, if only to eliminate accidentally turning nearly 45 degrees when you only meant to make a slight adjustment, especially annoying when you're piloting the more manoeuvrable interceptors.
When you're able to command your wingmen, issuing them specific orders is only 2 or 3 quick number button presses away and even if you don't memorise the sequence, the menu shows you clearly enough which buttons give which order and it's neatly tucked away at the top-right corner of the screen to keep distraction to a minimum. Although the wingmen can be a bit of a letdown occasionally, they still do their job alright and never need baby-sitting.
And of course, one of the best, possibly THE best aspect of the game: the beam cannons!! Oh yes! Watching capital ships rip each other apart with those glowing lances of death just never gets old for me, unlike X3: Reunion's PATHETIC Pew Pew Cough guns! It gives you another reason to think twice before you go charging the nearest corvette because whenever capital ships are involved in the fight, and they often are, you not only have to take out the enemy fighters whilst dodging that corvettes laser, flak and missile fire but you also know that any second now, you're going to get hit by one of it's smaller anti-fighter beams. It certainly made me jump, thinking 'OOOH SHIIIIIIIT!!!!' whenever I got one of those right in the cockpit. The fighters/bombers are all very well balanced as well; all their shields are the same though armour is variable and there are no weapon restrictions; no light interceptor exclusive pea-shooters and no badass 1 hit kill guns for heavy fighters only. So unlike the X series, light fighters don't get swatted by everyone else like flies, in fact in Freespace 2, they are often a bombers worst nightmare.
However, there are certainly a few glaring flaws in the game, the AI for a start. To summarise it in one word: contrary. For example, when it comes to having to take out a certain destroyer, you're given a supposedly brand new bomber called the Boanergees by default, which you're briefing officer informs you "maximises shielding and payload, while offering enough manoeuvrability to make it a viable tactical unit". Fair enough but when I checked it's stats against the older Ursa bomber in the ship selection menu, I found it was the same, apart from being slightly faster and 4 gun mounts short. Well, they don't make them like they used to...morons! Same thing goes for the Hercules mk2 heavy assault fighter: "the mk2 improves the assault fighter's speed and manoeuvrability without sacrificing loadout". Actually you'll find that compared to the mk1, it's only slightly faster and a bit more manoeuvrable, armour is somewhat weaker and has 2 less gun mounts. But this is a minor nit-pick on the whole as you can change both your own and your wingmen's ships and weapons before each mission except when the game occasionally pulls the dick move of forcing you to use the default selection, mainly when it's least helpful.
Now I'm sure that all gamers, regardless of experience or preference, will have at least once in their gaming lives, felt themselves slamming into what I can only describe as a solid wall of stupid. Well here is mine (if you don't want spoilers, skip the next paragraph):
At some point in the campaign, you're introduced to the Colossus, a huge 6km long juggernaut which swiftly snuffs out the rebels. After that, with seemingly flawless timing, you run into the Shivans own juggernaut, the Sathanas. Everyone's shitting themselves about it, so they send you in to disarm its 4 forward beam cannons before it goes toe-to-toe with the Colossus. After an incredibly arduous battle - made worse by NOT being allowed to select the best weapons for the job in the briefing and my wingmen forgetting how to launch torpedoes, so they just end up stupidly picking away at the Sathanas with their lasers, like blue tits trying to knock down a brick wall - I'd managed to take out all 4 of them MYSELF (thanks for the help you lazy shits!) before it jumped to the system where the Colossus was waiting. The next mission pretty much has you just sit back and watch the climactic showdown, or you can go and knock out a few more of the Sathanas's systems if you like. The thing is, the Sathanas is dawdling towards the Colossus but both GTVA command and the Colossus are panicking for no good reason; "The Sathanas has only sustained moderate damage, you need to direct more power to you're beam cannons", "Secondary and tertiary reactors are down command, we're giving it all we've got, we'll melt down our cannons at this rate!" FUCKING CALM DOWN YOU LOT!!!! What's the hurry? It's not even shooting you because I disarmed it for you earlier!! So, after about 10 minutes of this retarded radio chatter, the Sathanas kicks the bucket and I'm allowed to return to base but it's during the debriefing that I slammed into the stupid wall, when the officer says "The Sathanas inflicted moderate damage against the Colossus" NO IT FUCKING DIDN'T.....YOU.....FUCKING.....STUPID.....ARSEING....SHITTING....CUNTING.....UNGRATEFUL......TOFFEE-BRAINED.....RETARDS!!!!! That was the point where I suddenly wished I could defect to the Shivans! And, just to put the cherry on top, the Shivans later piss all over this victory by sending about 80 more Sathanas ships in hahahahaha! And I was ecstatic when 1 of them came and destroyed the Colossus. YEEEEESSSS!! Serves you right you ungrateful, pathetic, over-sized, over-designed Super Soaker trash!
So in spite of all the aforementioned flaws, do I recommend Freespace 2? Definitely! The Colossus scenario, infuriating as it was, wasn't quite bad enough to alienate me from the game and the story kept me interested enough to fly through to the end and the combat was consistently fun from start to finish, so really the seemingly glaring flaws only ever make this game, the peak of the genre, eccentric at worst.
Released in 2000, the game takes place in the distant future where humanity, along with their new ally, the Vasudans, are still recovering from the long war they fought with each other before joining forces to (by the skin of their teeth) defeat the mysterious, highly advanced, xenophobic Shivan race who appeared without warning and starting kicking their arses in the original Freespace (30 years previously). Freespace 2's plot concerns the GTVA (Galactic Terran Vasudan Alliance) fighting a bloody civil war with the rebel NTF (Neo Terran Front) faction, who are opposed to the alliance with the Vasudans but as if that wasn't enough for them, they also have to deal with the sudden reappearance of the Shivans and another inevitable arse kicking.
In terms of controls, I found them very tight and intuitive and I very soon started to feel like an old veteran and despite there being an absurd amount of keyboard shortcuts, thankfully they're mostly redundant. The tutorial is very helpful and thorough - whether you're entirely new to the game or a returning veteran in need a refresher - patiently guiding you step by step through the controls. It's also broken up often enough the you're never overwhelmed with instructions; you'll only be shown the controls that are needed at the time then given ample time to practice, both within the current tutorial and on your next mission before being introduced to the more advanced controls in a later tutorial. Not to say that certain controls are locked before the next tutorial; if you already know them, by all means use them but you won't be punished if you don't. Navigation is never a problem either, as you can easily cycle between friendly ships, mission critical targets, be they friendly or hostile (whose names are displayed in a little list on the right), hostile ships and even individual turrets/subsystems of your target ship, all of which have their own designated button, which again the tutorials helpfully explain. Keyboard/mouse controls work fine, although I highly recommend a joystick, if only to eliminate accidentally turning nearly 45 degrees when you only meant to make a slight adjustment, especially annoying when you're piloting the more manoeuvrable interceptors.
When you're able to command your wingmen, issuing them specific orders is only 2 or 3 quick number button presses away and even if you don't memorise the sequence, the menu shows you clearly enough which buttons give which order and it's neatly tucked away at the top-right corner of the screen to keep distraction to a minimum. Although the wingmen can be a bit of a letdown occasionally, they still do their job alright and never need baby-sitting.
And of course, one of the best, possibly THE best aspect of the game: the beam cannons!! Oh yes! Watching capital ships rip each other apart with those glowing lances of death just never gets old for me, unlike X3: Reunion's PATHETIC Pew Pew Cough guns! It gives you another reason to think twice before you go charging the nearest corvette because whenever capital ships are involved in the fight, and they often are, you not only have to take out the enemy fighters whilst dodging that corvettes laser, flak and missile fire but you also know that any second now, you're going to get hit by one of it's smaller anti-fighter beams. It certainly made me jump, thinking 'OOOH SHIIIIIIIT!!!!' whenever I got one of those right in the cockpit. The fighters/bombers are all very well balanced as well; all their shields are the same though armour is variable and there are no weapon restrictions; no light interceptor exclusive pea-shooters and no badass 1 hit kill guns for heavy fighters only. So unlike the X series, light fighters don't get swatted by everyone else like flies, in fact in Freespace 2, they are often a bombers worst nightmare.
However, there are certainly a few glaring flaws in the game, the AI for a start. To summarise it in one word: contrary. For example, when it comes to having to take out a certain destroyer, you're given a supposedly brand new bomber called the Boanergees by default, which you're briefing officer informs you "maximises shielding and payload, while offering enough manoeuvrability to make it a viable tactical unit". Fair enough but when I checked it's stats against the older Ursa bomber in the ship selection menu, I found it was the same, apart from being slightly faster and 4 gun mounts short. Well, they don't make them like they used to...morons! Same thing goes for the Hercules mk2 heavy assault fighter: "the mk2 improves the assault fighter's speed and manoeuvrability without sacrificing loadout". Actually you'll find that compared to the mk1, it's only slightly faster and a bit more manoeuvrable, armour is somewhat weaker and has 2 less gun mounts. But this is a minor nit-pick on the whole as you can change both your own and your wingmen's ships and weapons before each mission except when the game occasionally pulls the dick move of forcing you to use the default selection, mainly when it's least helpful.
Now I'm sure that all gamers, regardless of experience or preference, will have at least once in their gaming lives, felt themselves slamming into what I can only describe as a solid wall of stupid. Well here is mine (if you don't want spoilers, skip the next paragraph):
At some point in the campaign, you're introduced to the Colossus, a huge 6km long juggernaut which swiftly snuffs out the rebels. After that, with seemingly flawless timing, you run into the Shivans own juggernaut, the Sathanas. Everyone's shitting themselves about it, so they send you in to disarm its 4 forward beam cannons before it goes toe-to-toe with the Colossus. After an incredibly arduous battle - made worse by NOT being allowed to select the best weapons for the job in the briefing and my wingmen forgetting how to launch torpedoes, so they just end up stupidly picking away at the Sathanas with their lasers, like blue tits trying to knock down a brick wall - I'd managed to take out all 4 of them MYSELF (thanks for the help you lazy shits!) before it jumped to the system where the Colossus was waiting. The next mission pretty much has you just sit back and watch the climactic showdown, or you can go and knock out a few more of the Sathanas's systems if you like. The thing is, the Sathanas is dawdling towards the Colossus but both GTVA command and the Colossus are panicking for no good reason; "The Sathanas has only sustained moderate damage, you need to direct more power to you're beam cannons", "Secondary and tertiary reactors are down command, we're giving it all we've got, we'll melt down our cannons at this rate!" FUCKING CALM DOWN YOU LOT!!!! What's the hurry? It's not even shooting you because I disarmed it for you earlier!! So, after about 10 minutes of this retarded radio chatter, the Sathanas kicks the bucket and I'm allowed to return to base but it's during the debriefing that I slammed into the stupid wall, when the officer says "The Sathanas inflicted moderate damage against the Colossus" NO IT FUCKING DIDN'T.....YOU.....FUCKING.....STUPID.....ARSEING....SHITTING....CUNTING.....UNGRATEFUL......TOFFEE-BRAINED.....RETARDS!!!!! That was the point where I suddenly wished I could defect to the Shivans! And, just to put the cherry on top, the Shivans later piss all over this victory by sending about 80 more Sathanas ships in hahahahaha! And I was ecstatic when 1 of them came and destroyed the Colossus. YEEEEESSSS!! Serves you right you ungrateful, pathetic, over-sized, over-designed Super Soaker trash!
So in spite of all the aforementioned flaws, do I recommend Freespace 2? Definitely! The Colossus scenario, infuriating as it was, wasn't quite bad enough to alienate me from the game and the story kept me interested enough to fly through to the end and the combat was consistently fun from start to finish, so really the seemingly glaring flaws only ever make this game, the peak of the genre, eccentric at worst.