What’s innovative about beam weapons? Didn’t other space sims before have lasers, etc.? And I think WC5 had the nebula stuff. The flak cannon may have been new, but even that’s just a new weapon, right? That didn’t really change the gameplay much, did it?
Getting hit by a beam weapon was bad news-- they’re hitscan, not like the wimpy “watch my laser streak toward you from 5km away” stuff from Star Wars. The flak cannons were on the cap ships as defensive emplacements, and they not only would damage you but also batter your ship around and screw up your direction and aim.
The nebula was interesting because it obscured your visual range AND it screwed up your radar. There were lightning storms too as I recall, which could damage your ship. It was also visually impressive, and it slowed down my GeForce DDR quite a bit at the time on max detail.
Also, the scale of the battles. I’m talking over a half-dozen massive (really massive) capital class ships and 40 fighters. Maybe more, but I might be misremembering. The massive explosion wake from those cap ships was also very dangerous.
Also an excellent soundtrack.
Freespace 2 is a gem. No doubt about it. It leaps off the screen at you and grabs you by the neck. It’s frantic when you’re in those huge furballs with cap ships blazing away all around. When it comes to the “you are there” that many gamers including myself love, Freespace 2 has it in spades.
–Dave
FreeSpace 2 was like Wing Commander in the same way that Half Life is like Quake 1 – it’s not a radical redesign, but it has so much more depth and polish.
Gameplay was fantastic – there’s never been, before or since, battles on the same scale in any sim - and in spite of everything going on that could kill you, the game never got ridiculously difficult - it was very well balanced. The best interface the genre has ever seen also made the extremely hectic battles completely manageable.
Capital ships weren’t just exotic bombing targets - they were extremely dangerous and played logical roles in missions (mission design was excellent) - and they were constantly fighting each other. As Mark indicated, other space sims gave capital ships “lasers” – in FreeSpace they were flying armadas, with lasers, missiles, anti-fighter beam weapons, flak cannons, and capital ship beam weapons.
The graphics were, and still are, outstanding. Sound and music were as good as I’ve ever heard in a game. Voice acting was solid. Story was outstanding, and told in a more interactive way than in typical space sims. The story was far more sophisticated than in other space sims – the dilemma the characters were facing after the previous game; featuring a mysterious enemy of undetermined strength that actually still seems mysterious and interesting as opposed to cannon fodder by the end of the game. Volition brilliantly gave you a reasonable manner of defeating a seemingly unstoppable enemy without diluting the threat that your opponents represented --instead of relying upon the serendipitous discovery of some trite weakness or “uberweapon” so typical in games.
Obviously if you don’t like sims/joystick action games, you’re not going to like even the best game of that type – but that’s definitely what FreeSpace 2 is. And I’ve never seen a better combination of gameplay/story/graphics/music/sound/interesting background “world” in any computer game.
I gave it the highest rating of any game I’ve ever reviewed – 94%. At the time, I was really concerned with overrating it – i.e. that I didn’t yet have enough distance from the game yet to put its accomplishments in perspective. Three years later (and I just completed it again this weekend), I’m convinced I underrated it – it’s just about the perfect game, in my opinion.
Stefan
Am I the only person who liked Freespace 1 more than the second one? I played through FS2 in a single, long sitting, but came away with the feeling that it was more of the same…and the story didn’t really get me too excited. :?
My take on why FS2 tanked…it was incredibly pricey ($49.99), and never seemed like it was discounted. I don’t think many people wanted to take a chance on it – and me, I waited until it was $30 before buying it, and I liked the series…
Oh, and also, the box design was HORRIBLE. Could they make it look any less exciting?
Right on both counts :-). But I wouldn’t be able to maintain my well-earned reputation as net.nutcase without a long, rambling, and moderately entertaining tirade, now would I?
But you neglected to mention what you think would make for a “really fun space sim.”
I’m big on proof by example, but I got into way too much trouble on the last round tooting my own horn too early and too often. So now I’m totally stealth until I have something to show. It’ll happen, but the current dayjob both pays a lot better than my days as a post-doc and eats up far more of my time (not that I’m complaining as I think it’s the coolest place I’ve ever worked).
But given the above caveat, I’m big on making the game accessible to anyone comfortable with 3D, possessed of a killer tactical interface, devoid of formal mission structure, and full of righteous procedural in your face blow-em-up action.
Yes. :D
Yeah, I remember seeing the GotY edition all over the place for $40 for a long time, so I can sympathize with the price complaint. I finally waited until I found it for $20, but that was like two years later. The box design didn’t strike me as particularly bad, although I tend to make purchasing decisions on recommendation as opposed to box design.
- Alan
So, does anybody want to handicap the other two big name space titles – EVE and Freelancer?
Post time! Place your bets!
–milo
So, does anybody want to handicap the other two big name space titles – EVE and Freelancer?
Post time! Place your bets!
–milo
http://www.starshatter.com[/quote]
I give them 99 to 1 odds against in the American market…
So, does anybody want to handicap the other two big name space titles – EVE and Freelancer?
Post time! Place your bets! [/quote]
I give them 99 to 1 odds against in the American market…[/quote]
The annoying thing is, Freelancer actually had a chance to breakthrough game the genre needed – a game in the Privateer mold, but which featured graphics that generated a lot of buzz, a different control scheme, possible persistent world expansion. But then Chris Roberts went and mucked up Digital Anvil and the game lost focus and essentially went into development limbo. It should have been out in early 2001, and now it’ll be lucky to make it out a couple of years late, with a scaled down design.
I wouldn’t consider EVE a big name space title.
Stefan
u are erred… come over to hk or tw or kr and u know how wrong u are…
and japanese dont make pc games… they want mm on PS2 etc
Eve looks good but Desslock is right, if E&B is having trouble selling… Eve is screwed. If anything the gameplay in Eve is going to be more obtuse (but potentially more satisfying) than E&B.
Well, it’s all relative, I guess. After Freelancer, EVE is the closest thing to a big name that is scheduled for any kind of near term release. Between those two, EVE seems to have more momentum going. It will probably do OK if not spectacular in Europe. If Mankind has been able to survive, EVE should do OK…
The only other big name is Star Wars Galaxies, and I’m not aware of the timeline for releasing the space-based add-on to that. Some time in 2004?
–milo
While such a game, if done well i.e. it’s actually fun to become rich and powerful (as opposed to merely tedious), could rack up some big numbers with the hardcore, I seriously wonder whether it would go mainstream. I’m bored to death with hauling moisture vaporators from Toshi Station to Deep Space Nine for a 1% profit. And why bother anyway? Where the hell’s the nanotech or even the asteroid factories in these worlds? At least Hardwar delivered big on the flying cars and that’s a start IMO.
But if I had my druthers, I’d screw the endless remakes of Elite: give me something more like Halo, with great play mechanics, a great storyline, and Freespace 2-level spaceship interactivity, and you might just change the world. Otherwise, I’m bored, bored, bored…
I should just mention in passing that Elite 4 (separate single and multi-player versions) is in development as well. Details at http://www.frontier.co.uk/ (I don’t think this is anything especially new, but it seemed germain.)
Peter
“germane,” sorry. :)
po
On the same topic (English-made space sims), those of you with good contacts Over There might want to seek out Phoenix–an excellent (I think) sim developed by Team 17 for MicroProse in the Hasbro era. (It never got picked up for US release–a surprising amount of MPS stuff from that period didn’t.)
Peter
The expansion pack for X Beyond the Frontier (Xtension), which was never released in North America, also completely changed (and improved that game).
In fact, I’d say it’s the best “Elite-style” game in recent memory. I really liked Independence War 2 as well, although the trading/pirating aspects of the game were pretty ancillary.
Stefan
… and the sequel, X2, is due later this year.
Peter
I think that’s unlikely. I find it hard to find enough time to even play one well; why the hell would I want to pay for three (even at the cost of two)?