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The best computer game ever made!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 36 / 40
Date: March 23, 2000
Author: Amazon User

What else can you do for a game that has garnered as many awards as Freespace 2 has? Why add new missions of course! The result is Freespace 2: Sci-Fi Sim of the Year Edition, a product which includes 20 extra missions as well as some high-res artwork and wallpaper not included on the original CDs. The missions have been crafted by users and are approved by Volition and Interplay.

First the specs: Freespace 2 requires at least a Pentium 200MHz processor and 32MB of RAM with a 4MB 3D video card. Ideally, you'll want to run the game on a Pentium II 266MHz or faster processor with an 8MB or higher video card and 64 or more megs of memory. Because the game has a 1024x768 screen resolution option the maximum install is about 1.2GB of hard drive space. But it's worth it, all of it. Freespace 2 is the ultimate representation of what any computer game should be. From the opening cutscene, which chronicles the Battle of Deneb from the previous game, to the first battle in which a cruiser destroys another with an iridiscent energy beam the game unfolds in magnificent fashion. The plot is set 32 years after the first game and casts you as a pilot flying sorties and missions against a rogue faction of Terrans called the New Terran Front (NTF). The implacable Shivans make a return from the previous game with new ships and weapons of mass destruction. Battles range from the cold void of space to the miasmic shadows of ubiquitous nebulae.

Graphics are handled by a game engine that requires a 3D accelerator card; supported chipsets include the 3dfx Voodoo family, nVidia's TNT and GeForce offerings, ATI's Rage Pro, and Matrox's G200 and G400. Direct3D and Glide are also supported as are EAX for Creative Labs' SoundBlaster Live! sound cards, and A3D for Aureal's Vortex audio chipsets. Force feedback deepens the level of immersion with wrist-rattling effects that will make you swear your den (or whichever room your PC's in) is a cosmic battleground.

Freespace 2: Sci-Fi Sim of the Year Edition is the culmination of excellent gaming. The music, graphics, and missions will have you in awe for hours on end. Get this game and experience it today!

poopies

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: May 21, 2000
Author: Amazon User

What else can you do for a game that has garnered as many awards as Freespace 2 has? Why add new missions of course! The result is Freespace 2: Sci-Fi Sim of the Year Edition, a product which includes 20 extra missions as well as some high-res artwork and wallpaper not included on the original CDs. The missions have been crafted by users and are approved by Volition and Interplay. First the specs: Freespace 2 requires at least a Pentium 200MHz processor and 32MB of RAM with a 4MB 3D video card. Ideally, you'll want to run the game on a Pentium II 266MHz or faster processor with an 8MB or higher video card and 64 or more megs of memory. Because the game has a 1024x768 screen resolution option the maximum install is about 1.2GB of hard drive space. But it's worth it, all of it. Freespace 2 is the ultimate representation of what any computer game should be. From the opening cutscene, which chronicles the Battle of Deneb from the previous game, to the first battle in which a cruiser destroys another with an iridiscent energy beam the game unfolds in magnificent fashion. The plot is set 32 years after the first game and casts you as a pilot flying sorties and missions against a rogue faction of Terrans called the New Terran Front (NTF). The implacable Shivans make a return from the previous game with new ships and weapons of mass destruction. Battles range from the cold void of space to the miasmic shadows of ubiquitous nebulae.

Graphics are handled by a game engine that requires a 3D accelerator card; supported chipsets include the 3dfx Voodoo family, nVidia's TNT and GeForce offerings, ATI's Rage Pro, and Matrox's G200 and G400. Direct3D and Glide are also supported as are EAX for Creative Labs' SoundBlaster Live! sound cards, and A3D for Aureal's Vortex audio chipsets. Force feedback deepens the level of immersion with wrist-rattling effects that will make you swear your den (or whichever room your PC's in) is a cosmic battleground.

Freespace 2: Sci-Fi Sim of the Year Edition is the culmination of excellent gaming. The music, graphics, and missions will have you in awe for hours on end. Get this game and experience it today!

I just don't get it.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 18
Date: June 01, 2000
Author: Amazon User

True, the graphics are incredible, and the story behind the game is quite interesting, but...the game itself is dull. Basically you fly around in a beautifully generated computer environment shooting at other ships. If the graphics and musical score were a tenth of what they are, the average user would see it as the low-brow arcade sim that it is. PS: I STILL have not found a game that even closely rivals Red Baron 3D. Now that's a game!

Simple Controls As Well As Great Graphics And Sound: Wow!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 13, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Freespace 2 is in a world of its own when it comes to excitement in video games. The most enlightening aspect of the game other than the sweet graphics, sound, and controls are the voice overs done during the combat sequences. Its great to be given orders by other pilots during some missions and its great to hear other pilots tell you when they are taking heavy damage. It has been attempted before but has never worked so well. All those little extras add to the realism and heighten the level of excitement. You feel as if you are actually part of a flight team trying to protect the transports or making an attempt to take out the larger than life enemy aircraft. With a touch of a few buttons on the keyboard you have the power to rearm your spacecraft, give orders to your flight team(wingmen) and do a number of things like increase your engine strength, shields, or guns.(A gamepad or flightstick of some kind is definitely a plus) The storyline keeps you involved by making mission performance affect the the following missions. According to how well you perform in earlier missions it determines where you wind up later on.(Realism again) Trust me. Turn out the lights, crank the resolution to 1024 * 768, and turn of the volume. Prepare for a feast of action worthy of its acclaim as Sci-Fi sim of the year. Buy it now or buy it later but just buy it!

Wow.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: June 27, 2000
Author: Amazon User

It's funny, I picked up a copy of BattleCruiser 3000ad back in the day, and the most entertaining part of it was a trailer for descent:freespace, depicting crips, beautiful graphics together with epic space battles. So I bought that game and played it in conjunction with X-Wing Alliance. I thought the two were pretty comparable in terms of replayability, so when Freespace 2 was announced I was pretty psyched.

But the game blew me away. The mission designs are well varied, the opportunity to be a hero is tremendous, the satisfaction you get launching 8 hornet missiles at a bomber and watching the thing explode into fragments, all while tearing along at high speed, afterburners blasting, across the hull of a capital ship over 2 kilometers in length... it's intense. Even if you don't like the genre, the game is too damn close to a movie. I swear, my older sister, who's 22, and hardly a video game buff, stares at the screen while I'm playing and just shakes her head.

The plot is just as fascinating. I know sometimes reviews of games mention the plot and people say "yadda yadda who cares". But in this case the plot makes the battles that much more desperate and epic.

The gameplay is great, too. For a novice, the controls are relatively easy to learn, and weapons essentially similar in usage, but the depth available is tremendous, with experienced players knowing exactly what weapons present the best balance of firepower vs energy, and which ships do slightly better in a knife-fight vs which ones can take a flak cannon volley and live, etc. The list goes on.

Immersive. I guess that's how I'd describe this game. If you have 20 minutes free, you can tool around and play a single mission. Or the game can keep you going mission after mission, well into the night, until you're on your fifth cup of coffee and second pack of smokes.

Definitely a must-have for anybody remotely interested in these types of games. Or games in general.

"Sci-Fi Sim of the Year" is an understatement

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 07, 2000
Author: Amazon User

If you love the action space sim as much as I do, hold on to your hats because this game vill blow it off! I got "Star wars X-Wing" several years ago and played it hard. Back then, it was the top of the line. Now, with the great advances in graphics and sound, realism and 3D effects are minimum standards- without these qualities, a game is doomed to fail in the market. Freespace2 goes a little further though. There are multidudes of fantastic ships and the missions are well designed and though you have clear objectives, expect the unexpected! As for the sounds,narration and voices of characters, Interplay and Volition have really got the goods! They have even gone so far as to get some good voice talent - Robert Loggia (Over the Top, Big), Kurtwood Smith (Dead Poets Society, Star Trek: the Undiscovered Country, That 70's Show), Ronny Cox (Beverly Hills Cop I & II, Total Recall) and Stephen Baldwin.

Play is fast and furious. The large captal ships have a devastating "beam" weapon that cuts through about anything and even flack guns!Fighters have superb array of energy and ballistic weapons and are fun to fly. A couple of great features in flight are a toggle that automaticly targets enemies and matches speed. You can even customize your Heads Up Display! Your flight skills do improve with each mission and you can earn medals and rise in rank!

I have played a few other games like this and this one ranks near the top.

If you play games like "Tachyon : The Fringe" or other mission oriented games, You will love this one!

The standard to which others must be compared

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: July 30, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the best games to come out in the last couple of years. I'm not sure that I would say that the extra missions included in the 'SF Sim of the Year' edition make it worth paying the ten extra bucks, so you might want to point yourself in the direction of the standard edition if you're pinching pennies this week.

This is a space sim (duh); so you want to have a joystick or a gamepad unless you're into punishing yourself. I'm of the understanding that a lot of people avoid or are disappointed in games that are built around a joystick, which is too bad. This game deserves wider sales than it has had, because it's the spaceflight equivalent of Half-Life or Starcraft.

System requirements are also fairly heavy. It can be played in 640x480 or 1024x768 (older Voodoo owners, take note: no 800x600) at 32-bit color, and at 1024 in 32 there still is no game to date that looks better. But you've got to be prepared to throw some hardware at it. I get fairly decent framerates on my Celeron 400 with TNT2 Ultra, but it's the kind of game that makes you want to buy a whole new system just for better play. If you want consistent 30fps and beyond, think bigger CPU.

Enough with the technical details. This is a work of art. As gamers we live for those jaw-dropping moments when you see something that you've never seen before that astonishes you with sheer visual impact and wonder, followed by a rush of adrenaline as you try to survive what's being thrown at you. The first time you see a huge beam of alien energy scream by your puny fighter and start carving up an allied capital ship like a roast, you'll have one of those moments. This is, as people have noted, the closest thing so far to having a movie-like experience in front of your computer, and then some.

This is a great game: The storyline is great, the voice acting is tops, the graphics are eye-popping, the gameplay is white-knucked, the interface is fantastic. It's the new standard for the genre. The only thing I can think of that's a crying shame is that not enough people brought it to a cash register for there to be a true expansion pack. If there's a FreeSpace 3, it won't be for a couple of years...but I'm sure that when it does arrive, you'll be sorry you weren't following along.

Not to be missed by any sci-fi fan.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: August 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is addictive. I've been late for work every day for 2 weeks straight from playing this game all night! The production values are so high I've almost been killed several times by being distracted with the action going on around my ship. Anyone who was ever thrilled by a Sci-fi movie simply must get this game!

Possibly THE Best Game I Have Ever Played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: October 14, 2000
Author: Amazon User

When I got FreeSpace 2, I thought it was going to be another one of these space sims like Independence War. I was far off. While I-War is a great game, FreeSpace 2 tops it indefinitely. The graphics are the best I have yet seen in a space sim. The gameplay is frantic and action-packed. The capital ships are enormous, with their beam cannons, and laser and flak turrets. Just don't look away from your screen while playing, because your ship will probably be blown away. My advice to any sci-fi fan is to buy this game immediately, and prepare to be amazed.

Raises the bar for sci-fi flight sims...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: December 23, 2000
Author: Amazon User

If you're looking for a short review: "Amazing, if you've played Freespace 1 and enjoyed it, buy Freespace 2 now!"

But if you're like me and critical about buying computer games, here's more info for ya. Freespace 1 was an amazing game, and while Freespace 2 betters it in every aspect, it isn't a large technological leap forward.

The Good: Ambience. Sound, speech, and music are important to immersing the player in the game. When you get to the first mission in the nebula, you will understand EXACTLY what I'm talking about. While there isn't as much of a storyline as say, Wing Commander 3, the information contained in the pre-briefings and briefings is enough. The chatter of wingmen keep the missions interesting and the dynamic music ensures that you're getting the right background music at the right time. If you are a fan of explosions and action as I am, you are going to love the new capital ship battles. In the previous game, capital ships stood idly by, not necessarily interacting with the mission much. FS2 changes that drastically. Cap ships aren't going to sit there and let you get a target lock anymore. They are equipped with death-dealing weapons such as flak turrents and anti-ship beams. After you die once from them, you will be conditioned to fear the next time you hear them charging up. Much like the end-battle sequence in Return of the Jedi, multiple capital ships will jump into the fray, and the result is pure, beautiful chaos.

The Bad: If you're expecting character interaction akin to the Wing Commander series, you're going to be terribly disappointed. But surprisingly, without an actual main character like Christopher Blair from WC3, the plot moves along fairly well. Instead of watching a character talk and choosing what to say. You actually feel like you're the pilot, moving along the campaign.

Final Thoughts: Like I said before, if you played the first Freespace and liked it, don't have ANY doubts about buying the second, it just gets better. If you're a Wing Commander has-been, download the demo if you have any doubts, all it will take to make you a believer is one mission.

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