Anybody else like the Descent: Freespace series?

jpolz · Post by **jpolz** » Thu May 05, 2005 4:17 pm

Ok so it isn't exactly a SHMUP, but you still get to fly around and shoot things. I personally loved it becuase it had the right amount of action with a real good story line. Anybody else into these gaames?

Has there been a good space combat sim made recently?

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Thu May 05, 2005 4:30 pm

Moving this to off topic.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Thu May 05, 2005 4:31 pm

I know there were 2 Descent games that came out on the PS1; how are those?

jpolz · Post by **jpolz** » Thu May 05, 2005 4:37 pm

dave4shmups wrote:I know there were 2 Descent games that came out on the PS1; how are those?

I think they were the traditional "Descent" type games, not the space combat "Freespace" style. Freespace was only available for PC.

roushimsx · Post by **roushimsx** » Thu May 05, 2005 5:16 pm

Freespace I and II were fucking awesome. As a nice bonus, the games are pretty much free to copy (well the second one is for sure, not sure on the first one...gotta check the EULA) so if anyone needs 3 cd images of pure, uncensored, space flight love, drop me a message sometime (or check the usenet, your favorite torrent site, ask a friend, etc). It's a shame that Volition hasn't done anything remarkable since then (Red Faction was ok but not great, Red Faction II was the worse. FPS. ever.)

I still liked Independence War more, though

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Thu May 05, 2005 5:51 pm

I never played the first one. But the second one is probably my favorite space-sim-shooter type game ever. It's just so ... fun. The giant space battles against huge battle ships with tons of little pieces you can target and destroy.

The monsterous lasers of a station flying across space as you are dogfighting another small ship.

The cool effect of flying through a nebula.

I've been meaning to play it again - just keep getting side tracked.

Stormowl · Post by **Stormowl** » Thu May 05, 2005 6:50 pm

Freespace 1 was incredible, but Freespace 2 is downright godly. no other space sim even comes close. the scale and depth in the game is amazing, and the story in freespace 2 defnintely left me with a few questions that i hoped would be answered in freespace 3...

replayablitity is nearly limitless because of the level editor that's included with the game. i remember there were a bunch of websites with some really great user-submitted missions and campaigns back in the day, i should go back and see what's still around.

the Sathanas is just...freakin...huge...

on a Descent sidenote, descent 3 was fantastic, check it out if you haven't already.

magnum opus · Post by **magnum opus** » Thu May 05, 2005 7:06 pm

god is freespace 2 good. due to computer uprgarde cycles i played the 2nd before the first so i never really got into the first but god damn if freespace 2 isn't one of the greatest games i have ever played.

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Thu May 05, 2005 7:19 pm

Stormowl wrote: on a Descent sidenote, descent 3 was fantastic, check it out if you haven't already.

I really like Descent 3 as well. The problem is it's so incredibly smooth that I get nauseas VERY quick while playing it; which is disappointing as it's fun.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Thu May 05, 2005 7:31 pm

Freespace 2 is one of the greatest games I ever played. I played a demo of it eons ago, and it took me a while to track it down.

I am a sucker for this kind of game (I always felt it has something to do with me enjoying the Star Wars Death Star scene so much)... I loved Epic back in the day, just as an example (While most people hate it).

Freespace 2 was a dream of mine coming true. I always wanted to have a game like that, it was a dream of mine, since playing MSX games, to have a space combat game like that. Epic was the closest to get to this, but Freespace 2 made something even better than I could expect.

So, add me to the count "Yes, I like Freespace 2"

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Thu May 05, 2005 7:49 pm

I still have a copy of Freespace around here somewhere, but I never really got into it. I was a big fan of the Descent games back when those were around (me and my brothers played LAN games frequently.) I guess I've never really been a big fan of space sims though, and I think the last one I spent any significant amount of time playing was X-Wing.

jpolz · Post by **jpolz** » Thu May 05, 2005 7:54 pm

I have all three in the series (FS1, Great War Expansion, and FS2)

Are there any other games along the same lines as Freespace? Microsoft had one that I picked up for $5, but it just wasn't as good.

roushimsx · Post by **roushimsx** » Thu May 05, 2005 8:27 pm

jpolz wrote:Are there any other games along the same lines as Freespace? Microsoft had one that I picked up for $5, but it just wasn't as good.

Starlancer and Freelancer get much love, though I've yet to put much time into either one.

Independence War I and II are somewhat similar (and thanks to the magic of glide wrappers, you're able to play Independence War in Glide mode again....so...sexy)

Tachyon: the Fringe got a lot of good press but I never played it. I think the fact that they tried to hype up Bruce Campbell being a voice actor kinda diminished my interest in the game back when it came out and now it's not the most common game in the world

The Wing Commander franchice is and always will be solid GOLD. Wing Commander II and Privateer remain my favorites of the series. Thankfully, there's a remake of Privateer out (open source, no less...so I have it on my WinXP box and MacOSX laptop).

I haven't been keeping up with the genre for years so I'm not really sure what all is out there now (ie. X2 is supposed to be the pimp shizzle)

magnum opus · Post by **magnum opus** » Thu May 05, 2005 8:42 pm

doesn't freelancer use mouse control, and only mouse control though (though i admit after playing space intercepter i don't hate mouse control as much)?

tachyon is kinda cool, not quite as polished as freespace, but definitely playable and when it bosts of having the largest structures in any space game it isn't lying (or at least it wasn't) the space stations are huge, and there's a definite charm to the way the game is played sort of continuously, you stop in at a base get your mission fly through a couple gates and come in to a fight, gives it sort of a star control/escape velocity feel. only problem is escort missions kinda suck amazing amounts of ass.

i hear good things about the Starwraith series (http://starwraith3dgames.home.att.net/go.htm) but after freespace i don't have much patience for flight/space combat games that don't use the same controls so i never got much past halfway through the tutorial (which i also have little patience for) but, and especially the latest evochron, it is very pretty.

oh also there's this game called space intercepto, came out a just a bit ago, very pretty and 20$ new. plays like the starwars games on nintendo, uses the mouse but it's not too bad if you need a quick fix.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Thu May 05, 2005 9:07 pm

I got freelancer, as a friend of mane said "it is better than Freespace"

I don't think so. For first, the plot gets too much in the way. I personally never enjoyed have to keep looking of hours of cut scenes, but whatever.

But the game itself, funnily enough, feels a lot more arcadey than Freespace. I'd say is closer to a free roam Star Fox 64 than Freespace. So in the end, the game is fun to play, but it gets a little too repetitive at times (I never had the patience to play it very far), and it doesn't have half of the depth and atmosphere that Freespace 2 has.

It's not a bad game, but very far of being as good as Freespace 2. I would recommend it if you could get if cheap.

Post by **Ghegs** » Fri May 06, 2005 5:17 am

roushimsx wrote:The Wing Commander franchice is and always will be solid GOLD. Wing Commander II and Privateer remain my favorites of the series. Thankfully, there's a remake of Privateer out (open source, no less...so I have it on my WinXP box and MacOSX laptop).

I played Privateer 2: The Darkening quite a lot in my PC gaming days. I still remember some of the cooler missions. It also starred Clive "King Arthur" Owen.