Why You Should Play Freespace 2 (Review)
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- čas přidán 22. 07. 2024
- In the genre of space simulators, Freespace 2 is unrivaled in delivering incredible, atmospheric story telling and pulse pounding gameplay. Its a title that lives up to all expectations and deserves your time and commitment to appreciate.
Freespace 2 review - Hry
I had a bill from British Telecom of £700 because of FS2 and Squadwars.
My squad Birds Of Prey (BOP) was amongst the best.
I will love the ppl that i met because of the game and the game itself forever.
FS2 i salute you,
Squad leader Pelegrin signing off.
Hey man, I feel you sort or with Starsiege Tribes one, my 56k modem and phone line had never seen such packet action until one snowy Saturday during December of '98
@@keeganpenney169 I played the shit out of tribes back in the day!
ha i played against you lost in a game and you destroyed my boys
you guys were well good
LOA notices
I'm here because this is free on GOG right now.
Yup
Same here. Free stuff YAY!
@@InFiD3ViL1 Should get the video a bunch more views also.
Proof once more that I do not have an original motivation in me...yes, I am here for this reason as well.
Same!
The modding community since the source code was released has been fantastic. With upgraded visuals, additional control features, and new campaigns, it keeps the game fresh, even 20 years later. This still remains one of my favorite games of all time.
Some of my favorite mod campaigns remains: Derelict, Wings of Dawn, and Blue Planet.
Anybody who played that game remembers 2 things : the amazing sound of capital ships beam lasers spooling up, and the soul crushing sound of flak turrets
BEEEEMMZZZZZZ
Forreal! The sound was AMAZING
And going in and out of warp
It's criminal how underrated this game is.
While I agree the use of difficulty spikes can be a bit off putting to new players (particularly in early missions like 'Slaying Ravana' where they definitely went too far) I still think it is one of the strongest features of Freespace's campaign. If you take note it's not actually "inconsistent" per se; the difficulty will ebb and flow naturally together with the beats of the story - so you end up with harder "climax missions" that are interspersed with simpler power-fantasies as the next story arc starts to build.This avoids monotony by overbalance and makes the story feel much more varied from a pacing perspective.
It should also be noted that while they are not afraid to use difficulty spikes as a tool to deliver drama, they never use difficulty in a way that hinders new players from finishing the story. Not only can you lower the difficulty on any mission you struggle with, but the game will actually allow you to skip any mission without penalty if you have failed it more than five times.
ebb: noun
the movement of the tide out to sea.
oh wow, I never knew you could skip missions when failing over 5 times.. or maybe I did know that because I played this game like 20+ years ago
One of the best games ever made! I spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours playing Freespace 1 and 2 in my childhood. Most entertaining! I loved the addition of beam cannons in Freespace 2! Too much action for what my brain can handle!
I always come back and do some reminiscing on CZcams... now I found your video.
RIP Freespace!
It's free on GOG
You can still play de game with enhancements and more campaigns and mods added from hard-light.net
I miss the medals you could earn! Loved that!
I just started playing this week!
Honestly the best space sim I've ever played. I was always gutted that it ended on such a cliff-hanger. Free Space set the bar, Free Space 2 smashed it. REMAKE WHEN?!
Blue Planet 1&2 are considered the follow up by the Freespace community
Noone ever matched the bar to my knowledge. If anyone know let me know.
@@disturbedomega1331 Rad, I'm enjoying the modded main campaign right now - its amazing. I was wondering what to pick next, so Blue Planet it is!
@@disturbedomega1331 What is Blue Planet?
It was criminal we never got Freespace 3. I was always disappointed by Freespace 2's ending and wished we could have gotten more.
I still remember when i was in my tweens (20 years ago) and a friend recommended me this game. My mind was absolutely blown and i played it for months, still one of my favourite games up to this day. Nice review, agree 100% :)
I went looking for FS2 cutscenes for nostalgia purposes, and not only have you given a nice and neat set of reasons why the Freespace games were (and are) great, you've offered a means of revisiting FS2 to an old veteran. Thank you.
Freespace 2 with graphic mods still looks fantastic after 20 years. And while complex target cycling, playing with energy settings, and deep radio commands are all fun and immersing, I think you still could make a game of this type designed to be played on a regular controller today.
Making a game like this today shouldn't be that technically challenging. I really would love to see some small indy developers take a shot at this today. There should be plenty of mid-30s developers out there who gobbled up these games when they were all over the place in the late 90s.
I'll try these out despite never playing a game of it's type.
You can still play de game with enhancements and more campaigns and mods added from hard-light.net
How did I miss this game in my youth?
Oh right, it was probably never in any store near me of course.
Great review, and the video itself had me intrigued enough to add both to my steam wishlist until I can afford them.
You recommended Arx Fatalis way back when. And guess what? I played it. 32 hours to finish it all, did all the content 100%. Always was trying things myself and had to look up quite a few things, to be honest, but it was worth it. One of my favourites now. But Freespace 2? Never played it, but since you recommend it, I have to.
You can still play de game with enhancements and more campaigns and mods added from hard-light.net
Got it free through GOG yesterday. Haven’t thought about it in years but i remember it being the first game I ever ordered through those Scholastic book-fair pamphlets as a kid.
One part that I will always remember is the mission where the new Terran Goliath warps into your quadrant. I was in my ship looking all around for this new never-seen-before ship and couldn't see it... until the *entire* bottom of my screen was covered by a gigantic ship. Yep, the damn thing had warped in directly behind me, moving in the same direction, and was about to mow me down like a mosquito on a windshield! Good times! I loved the physics of FS2 where you could feel that approaching shockwave, or needing to be far away from an exploding capital ship (or else the explosion would destroy you too).
You mean Colossus?
Still have the original FS1 CDs from 1998.
FS is such an awesome game.
Played this game several times back in the early 00's when we got a copy of it from a friend.
Absolutely riviting story, I'll still fire it up now and again to relive the single player campain.
This is why I am holding out hope for Squadron 42 (the singleplayer star citizen game) it is focused on mission / story based combat and that is something rare in a world where most space sims are not now.
Oi! I just purchased 3 discs, stated as "Freespace The Great War Disc 1, Disc 2, and Freespace Silent Threat.
I can't get it to load on my Windows 10 HP PC. When I click on the exe, I get "error 432", which states that "Setup has detected that uninstallShield is in use. Please close and restart setup." No matter what I do I can't get it to work. Any help would be most gratefully received!
i remember one of those expert non mandatory levels if you failed the commander chew's you out and then says "oh you're a sympathizer for the enemy, we gotta put you down now" i think it was you had to defend a ship from meteorites but jeez it was hard AF.
Space... Rocks... **Vietnam flashbacks**
I still have this on my laptop, what a masterpiece! I’ve been waiting for someone to make a space sim that could match it for years!
This game is primarily responsible for my disappointment with 95% of space combat games
@@unbearifiedbear1885 And that feeling is completely justified in my opinion. I love how much thought went into making a game genuinely fun to play and not just profit driven cash grabs. I remember the first time playing through it I would study the briefings and learn all I could about the missions. I worked out a control scheme that would allow me to do everything necessary to engage in combat without having to look at anything. I used a Microsoft sidewinder force feedback pro to feel all the different actions of the fighter. I miss having a reason to go through all the training and programming that made the game “mine”. A tear comes to my eye when I think upon those days of adventure, but alas, those days are gone but not forgotten! 😢
found this because i was jut reflecting on how 20 years in I can't remember any other video game of any of the genres blowing my mind as much as this one did , first time a cruiser warped in on top of me and shot those mega beams in battle is etched in my head, the sound work was superb
I still have the original disc copy of this game with the fold out CD packaging. I loved this game and to this day am waiting for a remake or a sequel or something like it.
Hey man, you can still get the game on GOG, or if you'd just like to join the community enjoying what the game has to offer each weak, you should check out our channel! There's weekly streams of FreeSpace, and a link to the GOG page where you can buy the game, as well as a bunch of other information on how to enhance your FreeSpace experience.
Hope to see you some time!
Still got the original CD for this game, i loved all the ship designs as a kid but was a bit too young to play it properly, so i'm coming back to it after all this time
Mines next to me on a shelf by my rig
I couldnt tell you how many times I've played both freespace and beaten them. And how many mods and enhancement campaign runs I've played, along with the Battlestar Galactica stand alone. The engine still holds up as a basic story building space combat experience. Love the storyline of the original two games as well, Soundtrack and tension help drive the series as almost like a novel. If anyone reading this hasnt ever played it, I can't convey how much better of a game it is then almost all space fighter combat sims of this day, and yes theres huge leaps and bounds in graphical enhancements threw the freespace mod launcher now, but you may need to do some tinkering for your hardware setup. Some of the mods as well are so epic they're start missions match tensions set in the vanilla campaigns later missions. Find them on GOG, one of the best old games you could pick up.
We love Freespace!
We recently played both on our channel.
This with a Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro is heaven
A proper Freespce mod for mod or a tie-in (not the crappy current mod I found for it on steam) would be amazing.
I have this in my Gog library but I forgot to play this. Looks awesome
I actually modded the game files because I had they key to unlock the encrypted files.
What was amazing about the game was FRED2… the mission editor.
this is an excellent review!
You play with a mouse? I like a controller for this game.
This game is such a badass.. Loved it so much, i must play it on easy and work my way up the hard settings again before i get to old lol...
it's the only game series where I spent hours reading lore in terminals - they did a fantastic job at worldbuilding and lore that you miss when just playing the game
You can still play de game with enhancements and more campaigns and mods added from hard-light.net
I actually like that Freespace doesn't simply scale the difficulty.
It made it feel more realistic. Some missions are dull patrols where nothing happen, some are just a mop up missions, and some are ambushes you have to survive.
It just felt realistic that way, todays mission is what it'll be and not just harder then the last because it's just a game.
That's a fair point, explains why FS1 feels so easy
grabbed it for free on the GOG.com today, the offer will stand for a day or two I think.
Damn im too late
@@djsway4041 Do a search on Google for Hard Light Productions. There are several Freespace total conversions on there that can be played for free without the original game.
Are the controls somewhat like freelancer?
I never played freespace but loved freelancer. Now I noticed I got it for free on my GoG account, so I'm tempted with it. But I don't want something that's kind of over-complicated (simulation/realism) like elite dangerous, which I have but just can't get into (despite enjoying real world flight sims like DCS, flight sim X, and even the old WW2 sim wings of prey).
Wanting something closer to freelancer, where it's simple but deep, and endlessly fun and diverse.
This will tide me over if it's like freelancer, until rebel galaxy outlaw comes to steam.
There any flight model/dynamics/physics mods to advance it beyond the Wing Commander whack-o-mole point & shoot format? I'm not talking about wanting Orbiter or LR Space Combat hardcore nerd physics, but come on... no gravity, little CG/inertia effects, and few reasons to use the roll instead of the yaw? I can also do without the glide mode.
Nothing beats it. Really, it's 2021, and still nothing beats this masterpiece in the space-sim niche.
kept waiting for the sequel to come out, but it never happened. It was nearly a perfect game. It was like all of the developers died.
Hey man, you can still get the game on GOG, or if you'd just like to join the community enjoying what the game has to offer each weak, you should check out our channel! There's weekly streams of FreeSpace, and a link to the GOG page where you can buy the game, as well as a bunch of other information on how to enhance your FreeSpace experience.
Hope to see you some time!
The only mission I ever found really hard was the Ravan fight. Which can actually be trivialized by ordering your wing to hit the ship and you acting as screen for them killing enemy fighters.
Favorite game. Forever.
Quality games is about one thing:
Its all about refinement.
I've noticed how people focus too much on new 3D technology but if you think about it the games that really pushed the envelope did so through the sheer level of artistic craftsmanship.
Multiple levels of art.
Writing, pacing, Color Scheme, UI design, all having quite a bit of refinement.
Yeaaa.....one of my fav game.....soooooo addictive......hope can play this one....
You can still play de game with enhancements and more campaigns and mods added from hard-light.net
Hopefully Star Citizen and Squadron 42 end up being good new gen versions of this type of game. So far, they're looking pretty good for it.
The space genre is such a tough one to truly succeed in and FP2 was such a satisfying game, easily in my top 5 favourites. Imagine if Elite dangerous and Freespace got frakensteined? Would be the best
Honestly, the Blue Planet team should be hired to make Freespace 3 officially... even though I know that will never happen.
In the meantime, I look forward to more War in Heaven and Wings of Dawn in the future.
FreeSpace 2 is a bit old, but sill a classic in the space sim genre that time seems to forgotten about...
It's actually amazing how modern it still feels, and with graphics mods it doesn't look half its age.
2:55 With a *mouse?* HERESY! HOTAS forever! :P
Free on GoG for the next 38 hours!!
Cool
looks like tie fighter with lots of colorful nonsense. i got it now. maybe ill try it someday
I really need to play this. I'm still part way through Freespace 1.
Hey man, you can still get the game on GOG, or if you'd just like to join the community enjoying what the game has to offer each weak, you should check out our channel! There's weekly streams of FreeSpace, and a link to the GOG page where you can buy the game, as well as a bunch of other information on how to enhance your FreeSpace experience.
Hope to see you some time!
@@IllFatedGamingTV Oh I already own the game. I just never seem to get around to playing it. Made the mistake of getting Elite dangerous and there's only so often that I feel like using a joystick...
is this the one with a cutscene of ur execution when you destroy a friendly ship? trying to find an old space shooter i played as a kid
I think you mean Starlancer. It was my first big game. Oh how I loved that game. The sound design and the atmosphere were on point.
@@LandoCalrissiano Yes that's the one! Thank you!!
This game reminds me of a spiritual successor to Colony Wars.
Great stuff. One day I'll actually beat it. Too many false starts.
I liked the game when it first game out. It was the showcase for my, what was it... Voodoo 3 card? But playing today, I frankly feel more like a spectator than a player. I prefer TIE Fighter more - at least, how I remembered liking it.
Dont forget the mods! Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius is awesome!
Man I loved this game.
Being separated from Earth is pretty much the Terrans in Starcraft. Not to mention Dan Simmons Hyperion Cantos and Titan A.E.. Battlestar Galactica...Lost in Space...
is the gameplay here modded? looks fantastic!
Graphics are modded. The gameplay itself is vanilla
Tachyon the fringe is also a good one
Blew my mind in 2 and I still can’t find the other half!
The nostalgia
5:31 EMP Advanced, x64 speed and support ship spam ;p
This game deserves a remake and a sequel.
No word on Freespace 2 Open?
You're not wrong that it's one of the best games ever crafted. Gaming in 1999 has set me up for disappointment ever since. Games feel so stale now and none of them bother to push envelopes in any category except graphics. Star Wars: Squadrons or Everspace don't even hold a flame to Freespace 2.
To me the shivans are the best alien threat in all media because they are really alien, we have no clue about what they do because of that, every theory out there is just an attempt at reading into what the devs gave us, but in the end nobody know squar about them, because they don't really care about humans or shivans, I dont think they even tell them apart, they are just there doing their thing and removing those bothering them...
I only know this game because of Battlestar Galactica Mod and it was the best space fighter "game" i ever played
Yeah, that'd be pretty rad
@@salokin3087
Do You recommend buying also Freespace 1 or 2 is enough?
If You could help me, do you know any similar game but i think story was about war between Earth and Mars, i played it many years ago and don't remember what it was
Brutal Freespace 2 when?
Shame I don't have Joystick or anything helping control this kinds of games. I own it on GOG though and the more I hear about it, the more I want to play it.
I say just play it, man. I've played the games numerous times with just a keyboard+mouse and its worked out fine.
You can play with a mouse. If you got an Xbox controller, steam controller not sure about a PS4 or ps3 controller. If you download the mods it makes it look way better but the mods are not the easiest to do. Took me forever to get mods working and had lots of errors. But if you're just playing the basic freespace 2 you can play with mouse and keyboard and you can customize every control. It's really a dope game because every key has a function. When you learn it. It's one of the most realistic feeling games. They have a star wars mod that I actually got posted on my channel, a baylon 5 mod, a Battlestar Galactica mod and many others.
This was such a good game.
A real shame we didnt get freespace 3
for me is this game top best battle space simulator ever
Shame that the missions are of such varying difficulty. But maybe that gives it a bit more realism; you never know what meets you out there.
free on gog right now.
Isn't "humanity cut off from homeworld/earth" a major part of WH40k and the Homeworld series?
Hmm, sorta but 40k has humanity controlling earth for the most part
Freespace 2 stands out in that the loss of Earth is ingrained in the mood of the narrative itself, rather than just being an event that happened. There's a sombre, almost lovecraftian, feeling of existential horror underlying FS2's story and themes. It's in many ways the opposite of something like Homeworld; which is a very hopeful story under it's outer sombre shell - in Freespace the outer shell is militaristic and hopeful while the underlying mood creeping up from under is extremely depressing.
Yes.
I was always more of a Freelancer kind of guy myself. This seems a lot more arcadey. That's not a bad thing, just a different style.
You're missing out. If you like Freelancer you will like Free Space (1 or 2). The difference is there is no roaming around aimlessly, you're always "on mission".
Freespace is closer to tie fighter as far as gémellaire is involved. It has a much better story than freelancer though
Its why i give some money to chris Roberts! his promise was to make a new space sim for pc, a new wing commander! Then all goes shit, his head bigger day by day making space citizen, the solo SQ42 completely on hold for years..
Got it for free at GOG
More about mods please.
in 2023, new design and massive upgrade : new game !
in one mission of freespace one or two you had to defend your homeplanet earth. It is a huuuge invasion, shit is going crazyyyy everywhere around you. You with your tiny ship, navigate between huge beams of destruction, next to you a huge carrier is blowing to shit and thousands die, and you have just one goal in your mind: to save earth. becaus ewhen earth is lost, all hope is lost.
that game does everything right. have no ideaaaa why there was no similiar game like this
I've just started playing SW Squadrons. While it's an OK game, it just can't compare to the 2 Freespace games. Such a sad state of affairs that we will never get a third installment...
Starlancer and Tahyon the Fringe some good oldies too
awsome gane......never beaten the final boss....might have been bugged
Help me find another space game. its also old. it was like in world of warcraft game, you could mine asteroids to build stiff and explore areas that are dangerous. You could even issue commands over radio to friendly npc "Drop your Cargo" they would blow you up in seconds :D There are few ships with different main stats. Not a strategic. I can paypal you for helping me, ty. i keep notifications on.
Lol, sounds cool, but i need more details. maybe space wolves, Parkan 2 or Conquest Frontier
@@salokin3087 I replyed yesterday but i can not se ethe comment :s. let me try again. " @Josh Karol Here we go. It was Demo at that time. Not strategy. Space combat dog fights, on kill salvage their cargo, view is always from inside a space ship, always in the space ship. IF close enough to other spacecraft/unit can initiate hacking to get digital currency, but if nearby ship see you doing it they will open fire. Asteroid farming is another fun aspect, find minerals to progress game in all fields. When free roaming can come a cross a dead space station, probably pirates attacked it, full of metal junk yard in the space. Thats where pirates ambush me too. Also when free roaming to a peaceful space music you can run into an Anomaly, its a field of energy that no one know what it is, will strip you from shield if come too close.
It’s the best space sim ever
Good company.
between all the grindy BS we get nowadays, why can we not have a new 2020 version of Freespace?
because ... it was awesome ! ... it is Awesome !! .. IT WILL REMAIN AWESOME !!!
KNOSSOS RoX ... Get that ! :D
Probably better than Star Wars Battlefront 2! 🤣🤣🤣
Classic
AND NOT EVEN MENTIONING THE IMMENSE MODDING SCENE? This game is worth for mods alone.
You play with a mouse?
This is heresy of the highest order.
Oldschool multiplayer vet, get gud ;)
Seriously, though... Play this one with a dual-axis joystick, it's worth it.
Why not just play eve online...
Because EVE online isn't a space sim...
The game is buggy, specially the times when capital ships are blasting each other with beam lasers. Sometime, they refuse to fire their beams at all. The TAG is also buggy