Freespace 2 is one of those games that any fan of the space combat genre MUST HAVE! It is THAT GOOD! If you have owned or played any of the Colony Wars titles for the Playstation, multiply them by a factor of 100 in every department and you have Freespace 2.
Where to start? Let's talk about the storyline. The game takes place 30 years after the events in Freespace 1. The Terrans and Vasudans are strong allies and the Shivans have not reappeared. You are fighting against a rebel element waging a civil war. All missions within the game are tied together and as the situations become more serious, the tempo of the game picks up accordingly. The results of the previous mission draw you into the next mission. You simply have to force yourself to stop and eat, sleep, go to work, etc!
The graphics are simply gorgeous!! The nebula scenes, weapons fire, lighting effects, and especially the explosions, are all FMV quality! Watching an enemy craft explode at close range is the most visually pleasing aspect of the game. However, like anything in the PC gaming arena, gorgeous graphics come at a price of high hardware requirements. Interplay lists the required processor as a 200mhz Pentium MMX. A 450mhz AMD K6-3 (my old CPU) or a P2 450 is what I strongly recommend as an acceptable minimum. An 800mhz AMD Athlon Tbird, P4 or P3 is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!!! As far as video hardware, unless you have a minimum of a ATI Rage 128 or nVidia TNT2, do not bother playing at 1024x768 resolution. The framerate, especially in nebula scenes, will become a slideshow. Run a Radeon32, Radeon64, or Geforce2, and you can play at 1024x768 with all effects turned on without any slowdown or dropped frames.
Freespace 2 is a game where you do more than just fly and shoot. You have to call in reinforcements, give orders to your squadmates, assign energy levels to different systems, switch targeting, customize weapons loadouts, etc. All this makes extensive use of the keyboard even if you have a programmable joystick. However, the learning curve is very easy. It is nowhere near as complex as, say, Microsoft's Flight Simulator or Electronic Arts' F/A 18 Hornet. The controls are very straightforward and there are multiple training sessions that help one easily get acquainted with their ships and controls. Now if Volition/Interplay would have given experienced players the ability to bypass ALL training missions totally rather than one at a time...
Some users have complained about long load times for missions. I have 10,000 RPM Ultra 160 SCSI hard disks, so load times are not a problem. However, users of the newest generation of ATA66/100 hard disks will not be waiting long at the loading screen.
Simply put, Freespace 2 is an excellent game for fans of the genre or anybody who likes action games. Gameplay is excellent and the graphics and sound are first rate. The ending is a bit weak for my tastes though. If you buy this game, get the Sim Of The Year edition. It has some of the more popular user campaigns found on the internet added on to the game. But whatever version you purchase, you will have fun.
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