Freespace 2

Still waiting for Freespace 3...

Game is great, best of its kind. Even 25 years later and even without counting in strong moding community. Cant recommend it at this price. $25 spike from $10 regular to under $5 on sale. Release date is not 2014, this game is from 1999. Gabe Newell : "We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem." Pricing of this game is why he said "almost always" instead of always.

The best space sim game ever made. Worth every penny. First of all, this game and its community is incredible. Hard-Light Productions has done a lot of amazing things with the game after its source code was released to the public. For an example, check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM1YC_gK-qo To make FreeSpace Open run on Steam, you have to do two things: Install Knossos, and install the registry fix. Check out this guide to install Knossos: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=271287997 For the registry fix: 1) Go to the directory that the game was installed in 2) Go to the 'data' folder 3) DOUBLE click on the file 'FS2.reg' 4) Click 'Yes' When asked if you want 'Registry Editor' to make a system change 5) Click 'Yes' When Registry Editor asks if you are sure you want that change 6) Click 'OK' when Reg Edit says it's done After those two fixes are installed, then you can actually play the game with modern graphics. With Knossos, you can download FreeSpace Open and its associated mods. FreeSpace Open also allows you to play the original Descent: FreeSpace and its expansion, Silent Threat, as FreeSpace Port and Silent Threat: Reborn. I recommend starting with those two campaigns. After that, install Blue Planet Complete. Play "Freespace Blue" for the FreeSpace 2 campaign. If you're still invested in FreeSpace after completing the 3 original FreeSpace campaigns, the Blue Planet series is the definitive "FreeSpace 3" by the community. Play the Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius and Blue Planet: War In Heaven campaigns, along with Blue Planet 2: The Battle Captains and Blue Planet: Chanticleer. If you still want more FreeSpace after that, play Ancient-Shivan War and Between the Ashes, which explain the lore before Descent: FreeSpace and the era between Silent Threat and FreeSpace 2. Trimurti, Vassago's Dirge, and Derelict are also amazing fan campaigns that give the Shivan perspective of the FreeSpace trilogy. You can even mod the game with mods like Star Fox: Event Horizon which is a total conversion for the game and has Star Fox missions remade in the FreeSpace Open engine. There are mods for Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars, too, along with other popular Sci-Fi franchises. You can spend countless hours in FreeSpace 2, especially with FreeSpace Open. It has well-thought out campaigns that feel epic, and large battles with tons of objectives to complete and lots of ships flying around. The controls are intuitive, and tutorials are great. The game is very easy to get into with good level design and high production value. Overall I'd recommend this as one of my favourite games of all time, and the best space sim of all time.

The most immersive military space fighter sim game that makes you feel a part of the story and a part of something big as you play the different missions.

I had played the demo of this game from Digit/CHIP magazine CD back in 1998//1999, it was freaking awesome but the hardware and software prices were very hard to afford for me back then. So i bought this game about a year back and decided to give it a go now. Aiming with keyboard was proving difficult so I felt it would handle better with a flight stick. I found that my HOTAS One can be configured to be used with this game so imma try it real soon. People loved this game so much that they made FSO and Knossos and many mods although i cannot figure out how to use them and want to play vanilla first.

You need to play this with Open Source project if you want to play on modern systems. If you like space, sci-fi this game is amazing still.

I love this game it is amazing BUT it won't run normally direct from Steam you have to do a bunch of stuff just to get it to run, stuff which I don't know how or what to do. You shouldn't have to download stuff or alter stuff to play a game from the 90s with the tech we have today it should be easy enough for them to make it able to run without a problem but sadly this is not the case. If you want to play this game then expect hassles getting it to run, I personally only have it in my list because I'm a die hard fan who's loved it since it 1st came out & I hope one day that they'll fix it so it can be played easily on steam. So even though I do think this game is amazing & worth playing if you don't want hassles trying to get it to run give this a pass untill they fix the game. Same goes for Freespace 1.

One of the best games ever made. If it worked straight out of the box like the GOG version that'd be even better, but luckily downloading Knossos from hardlight isn't very hard.

First of all, this is a classic space shooter, well-known among the older space games fans, and worth playing if you like this kind of games. The game is mission-based, you pick your equipment at the start of each mission (not a sandbox game if you wondered). There are HD mods for it too (FSOpen), for something like this instead of what you see on game's original screenshots: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2293887874 But it's actually a much bigger thing. The mod community for this game is so great, you can download the mod launcher "Knossos" which will look like this: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2951017829 What's special about this one is that it's very easy to use: almost like Steam - you just pick the "game" from the library, press "install", and that's it, you can play it. No need to search the web for anything, no need to tinker with various configuration, compatibility issues, etc. Just a library ready to use. And it works on Linux too. Among the other great total-conversion stuff in this launcher, there are mods which will remind you of such things as Wing Commander, Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica. [spoiler]And, of course, Star Trek / Star Wars mods, every space game has these -_-[/spoiler] So much space in just one game :)

A great space fighter simulator even decades later (it was originally released 1999)! Freespace 2 is the sequel to its trailblazer predecessor combining a great story, impressive graphics, amazing big battles with modern controls. The plot is directly linked to Freespace 1 and continues its story about 30 years later. You can define your wing’s ships and weapon loadouts, even give orders to your squad during the mission, thus defining the tactics during the battle. You’ll need to smartly manage your weapons, engine and shield energy through the fighter system. Unfortunately, it was a commercial dud, probably due to the steep competition in PC games the same year and seems to have been forgotten by most, except the super active as well as vibrant community keeping the main games and all kinds of mods alive. Just google “Knossos”, “Hard-Light” or “Freespace Port”. Apart from the great single player campaign with an intense story, you can also compete against real players via multiplayer options. For the review, I used Knossos to play the vanilla (retail) version with the latest nGLIDE drivers on Windows 10 at 1920x1080 resolution with mouse and keyboard. The play time was about 22 hours for in total 35 missions (10 in act 1, 10 in act 2, 10 in act 3, 3 covert ops optional assignments in the first, and another 2 in the second covert ops loop). Here is my pro and cons list: Pros: + great graphics + more varied space environment including planets, etc. + the view on the Capella sun in the last 3 missions! + better effects + better ship textures + shade from ships + varied missions + dynamic music + connecting to FS1 story + weapon variety + fighter wing assembly + fighter energy system management + weapon loadouts + great dogfights + need to think of dogfight tactics + effects of great battles + varied ships + low sensor range mission in the nebula! + loosing battles + good enemy AI + covert mission loops + story with twists + great gameplay up to date Cons: - Mediocre friendly AI - Mission & story progress drags on towards the end - Some missions trail and error in tactics, ship configuration and weapons loadout - A few minor bugs Conclusion: Even today one of the best space fighter simulations you can play. Absolutely recommended for anyone even slightly interested in such a setting. Rating: 8/10 points