The heartless Shivans emerged through subspace near Earth, harboring technology light years ahead of anything seen before. They made no attempt to communicate. They did not respond to your heralds. They simply attacked and destroyed everything in their path. As a pilot for the Galactic Terran Alliance (GTA) you are no stranger to war. But when racing through space to engage your new enemy for the first time, you sense something different. Suddenly, darkness blankets your craft. Your stomach sinks as your eyes pan across the Shivan flagship's massive body. Then it begins. Swarms of fighters pour from the belly of the flagship and scream towards you. You are about to discover everything you thought you knew about space combat just changed.
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Stole this from my dad's CD folder along with M.I.A. My friend and me played it for several sessions and progressed just by clicking everything. Shooting stuff with spaceship laser cannons was cool for the novelty, but in practice that shit took ages... and we just as soon got our ship destroyed. But still, great memories. And like someone else on here said, yeah the sense of space was one of a kind. It took several full mouse sweeps just to turn the ship aroud.
Really enjoyed playing this one back then, the sense of space was fantastic. Saddened to hear about Volition being shut down after all this time.
I'd consider playing an enhanced re-release. This feels old.
I randomly found this game at the Dollar Store somehow in my late teens. I'd never heard of it but I had no money at the time and this was way before the days of Humble Bundles or ridiculously discounted Steam sales. I ended up stumbling upon one of the best games of my adolescence.
Freespace captures the thrill of space dogfights and sends you on missions that feel like story beats from an epic action space movie. Missions that begin simply are upended by surprise attacks that require you to adjust your expectations and strategy. You go on missions to protect friendly frigates or capture enemy warships. Nearly every mission in this game ends in some very awesome battle with high stakes.
The combat is thrilling:
The targeting mechanics are simple and effective. Larger ships can have their various subsystems targeted and disabled, depending on the mission or what is most threatening. You can choose in your loadout to have ion weapons instead or regular ones to disable systems. You can control power allotment between shields, engines, and weapons. You can adjust the direction your shield is protecting you from. You can tell your squad to focus on certain targets or to protect you.
This may all seem pretty straightforward now but it was incredible when I was experiencing it for the first time and I have yet to find another game that does all of these features as effectively, if at all.
Anyone reading this: if you know of a game that features all these mechanics but is better or as good as Freespace, send me a message or comment below. The closes I've found is Star Wars: Squadrons but it wasn't as exciting and was way too short.
Freespace captures the thrill of space dogfights and sends you on missions that feel like story beats from an epic action space movie. Missions that begin simply are upended by surprise attacks that require you to adjust your expectations and strategy. You go on missions to protect friendly frigates or capture enemy warships. Nearly every mission in this game ends in some very awesome battle with high stakes.
The combat is thrilling:
The targeting mechanics are simple and effective. Larger ships can have their various subsystems targeted and disabled, depending on the mission or what is most threatening. You can choose in your loadout to have ion weapons instead or regular ones to disable systems. You can control power allotment between shields, engines, and weapons. You can adjust the direction your shield is protecting you from. You can tell your squad to focus on certain targets or to protect you.
This may all seem pretty straightforward now but it was incredible when I was experiencing it for the first time and I have yet to find another game that does all of these features as effectively, if at all.
Anyone reading this: if you know of a game that features all these mechanics but is better or as good as Freespace, send me a message or comment below. The closes I've found is Star Wars: Squadrons but it wasn't as exciting and was way too short.