| Descent
Freespace: The Great War For: pc Genre: action/space sim Reviewed by: Escee (Brandon) Developer: Volition Publisher: Interplay Released:5.31.98 Freespace: The Great War kicks ass. Why? Read below. Graphics Freespace is definately strong on graphics. It has a fully-rendered intro, and great graphics ingame. The framerate was great for me, and if you use less than a PIII, you can easily adjust the graphic details to raise your framerate dramatically. Slowdown was simply not an issue in this game. The visuals are awesome, and you can easily see the massive differentiation between your fighter and the great 2km-long captial ships. The details are great - you can see the mesh impact when you hit a ship's shield. There is nothing bad to be said about the graphics offhand. Sound Sound is well done in Freespace, and the background music is good. The sound effects, for the most part, are also good, but could have been better: for example, the sound of your weapon hitting a ship's hull (not shield) is very unrealistic and bland. The sound of your weapon hitting a ship's shield, however, is very good. With a subwoofer or base, you can really hear the Gs when your ship is at top speed or using the afterburner. Gameplay The gameplay is wonderful. From the beginning, you can immediately get into the action and fight, after the optional training missions - the training missions also do a good job of getting you used to the controls, and getting you ready for the first mission. The objectives are well laid-out. The command briefings and mission briefings do a very good job of explaining the storyline and the objectives, as well as how you are to go about completing your objectives. The actual game itself is also a joy to play, and it is very fun to take out enemy ships and to command your fleet. Taking out capital ships might look overwhelming, but you are given the right weapons, and your teammates, as you need them in order to make taking out capital ships fun. You can easily see your progress as you lower a capital ship's hull. The disabling, disarming, and targeting of subsystems is an added twist that makes the game more fun. Earning medals and advancing in rank is an exciting feature. Getting a command briefing is always an interesting event, as it keeps you up-to-date with what is going on in the story beyond what you have actually taken part in, and how your successful missions have benefited command. Although you can't save in-mission, I didn't mind since the missions are short enough (but not too short) that you don't need this feature. Picking your weapons, selecting your favorite ship, and leading your fleet to victory: this is Freespace, and Freespace does it well. Control The controls are actually good! You don't have to hold down an acceleration key, as you just set your speed using the +/- keys. Steering can be done using the mouse, joystick, or even keyboard, and is fairly easy. The training missions acquaint you with the controls as you need them, and the game comes with a stand-up control reference sheet. Targeting ships is also well done, with over 5 different target commands. You can cycle through all ships, hostile ships, friendly ships, or ships you are to escort, all easily targeting the closest ship first. You can also target any ship which you point at, target your attacker, or target the ship which is attacking your escort. Very well done. One gripe I have is that I cannot tell a wing to guard another wing, only to guard an individual ship. The controls are set up pretty well, but there are few things that could have been done better. Lastability The game does include multiplayer, but not too many people are in the lobbies. The lastability would have been better if there were more people playing Freespace online. However, there is usually enough people playing to start a game and fill up the avaliable slots, but there are usually only 1-4 games running at once. There will always be other things to bring you back to play the game again, such as the extra missions, trying to get all the medals, user-created campaigns you can get online (check archives.volitionwatch.com/fs1), or creating your own missions with the included level editor. I just think that the multiplayer component, unfortunately, is not popular enough right now. Ratings
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9.13.00
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