Freespace 2 : Review of History

Freespace 2 would first appear to be your standard space sim, but the history behind the game is what makes it a legend. First off, it's known specifically for the sequel (the "2" part of the title), and not for the less well known original story which kicked off the series. Freespace started as a standard sim, although one which was well done.
At the time, finding a simulator which allowed 360 movement within large objects was difficult. I remember that the first game which made the jump was a title called "Descent", which did a very good job of providing a detailed and fluid environment without requiring the player of the game to drop a load of money on a fast processor or video card. The game itself was innovative in that the meat and potatoes of game play revolved around (and sometimes quite literally), multiplayer. Now that seems to be a standard, of course, but at the time there were very few options for creating a LAN party short of having a meeting of people who would bring their own computers and hardware necessary for the connections.
Descent was a good title, but there really wasn't anything that you could call an engaging story behind it. Think of it as a standard shoot-em-up story, but instead of guns, each player was wrapped in a small hovercraft which zipped around a floating maze. It made for some good dogfights.
Freespace took the same game mechanics, but put the players in control of small fighters in large scale space encounters. This meant that they could fly individual craft around larger capital ships, and actually target individual systems and defensive turrets on the opposing forces. It made for a great strategy game, and would add lots of tension to the typical fire-and-forget encounters which most space simulators had.

Anyone still have a copy of "Mantis" lying around? I'd love to see that opening video again. Classic!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. Freespace.
Freespace 2 sought to move the story even further, and bring some advances and technical updates to the graphics as well. For some lucky combination of stars and talent, the game more than met players expectations and in fact exceeded them in many areas. The flip side of this was the publishing company who owned the rights to the title. The seemed determined to kill the game, and stopped publishing it after only a year. Copies that were in existence suddenly became collectors items, and could fetch commanding prices on eBay.

I was tempted, but held fast. I'm glad I did as well because the game finally after over a decade, was reissued as a 'lost game' and available free. I did a quick download of the title, and will write up my experiences in a coming post.