![]() Huge ships trade broadsides, formations hit and run, flak peppers your hull, and a single well-placed bomb can decide the day. Massed cap ship battles, with large ships facing off against each other, come as close to creating the feeling of a World War II naval battle in space as any game has ever come. Cap ships have massive beam weapons to train on other cap ships, smaller beam weapons to take out fighters, and flak cannons to throw up a deadly veil of lead. They are vast vessels, reaching up to six kilometers long and bristling with weapons. If size impresses you, then the capital ships in FreeSpace 2 will knock you on your ass. ![]() The other major factor in bringing this universe to life is the sheer scale of the ships and battles. It's a thoughtful touch that keeps the story on track for those who have trouble with some of the greater challenges. If you choose to fight on, you'll be asked the same question after each failed attempt. If you try five times and can't win a mission, you are offered a chance to just skip it with no penalty. Even though they're scripted, the missions feel natural, not too puzzle-like and not too you-against-the-galaxy. Goals are elaborate and often multi-tiered, with occasional stretches of near-boredom punctuated by moments of intense action, just like Earth-bound fighter combat. For starters, I found few missions which required you to just fly around until all the enemies are dead. You're never popped out of your game role, and missions don't feel like the conventional missions found in most space sims. Much of the appeal of FreeSpace 2 comes from the total integration of action, story, and setting. Events, characters, and mission parameters are meticulously woven into an intricate, plausible, engrossing story that, like all the best narratives, keeps you moving forward to the next mission to see what happens. You may go into one mission with a specific goal only to have the plot jerk you in a completely different and unexpected direction. So much is going on that it sometimes can be hard to track all the plots and subplots, particularly when events occur in the thick of a battle. Story drives FreeSpace 2 in a way the original barely tried, with more effective use of narrative through cinematics, briefings, and in-game scenes. As this faction grows and draws devotees from the Terran military, the Shivans make their expected return, turning the long peace into a four-way fight. Thirty-two years later, the fragile peace between the two still holds, but a new Terran faction has arisen with a fresh distrust of the Vasudans. Though they succeeded, their civilizations were left in ruins and they were completely cut off from Earth. The enemies put aside their differences and allied to destroy the Shivans. In Descent: FreeSpace, the long war between the Terrans and the Vasudans was interrupted by a powerful new race called the Shivans. But even if it wasn't the only new game in town, its tight, engrossing space combat action would make it the clear leader in its category. It has the field pretty much to itself, with Wing Commander on extended hiatus while Origin gears up for its multiplayer-focused relaunch, and the future of the X-Wing series in doubt. Now that FreeSpace stands on its own as the finest space combat game in town, the Descent connection has been severed, and this remarkable series is free to carve its own path. It was a somewhat tenuous connection to begin with, designed either to give Interplay's fledgling space combat game a brand name boost or because of a trademark conflict (pick your story). It's telling that Interplay removed the word Descent from the title of FreeSpace 2. We recommend: Pentium II 500, ATI Rage 128 or TNT2, 128MB RAM, 1GB hard-drive space Required: Pentium II, 64MB (96MB for 3D acceleration), 500MB hard-drive space Thanks to some subtle improvements, FreeSpace 2 is free to rule the cosmos as the best space combat game yet to hit the PC.
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