"They say our people have no present Only a past filled with horror And a future they can only dream of." Immediately followed up by the Colossus slowly coming into view and i knew right that moment the game was going to be a masterpiece. Gave me such goosebumps when i first played it back when i was 9 years old and i still have fond memories to this day.
I thought the actual line was "...only a past filled with harm" (probably reference to aftermath of Great War, as Shivans overran few terran star systems destroying colonies and killing countless numbers of people).
People who say that video games aren`t form of art obviously didn't saw this intro and didn't play this game. It was released 17 years ago and this is still my favrovite game of all time.
I remember stories of a glorious civilization, Of cities with spires that reached the sun, Of a blue planet with vast seas, Of people with myths of humanity everlasting, Of children who saw in the embers of dying stars, The destiny of their race. One of the best games in the space-sim genre ever made, and a fantastic intro.
This is my personal example of best storytelling in a sci-fi genre ever: The archenemy is a mighty and competent foe, surrounded by mystery, powerful tech and is geniunely scary. The Vasudan allies are one of the most respected alien races in sci-fi from my personal point of view, their courage and self-sacrifice while fighting alongside humans is well portayed. The GTVA although being the underdogs, put one hell of a fight against a vastly superior enemy. Best part is that you don't know that you are the underdogs until you get very well ahead in the storyline. The game ending doesn't end the story itself, leaving the fans to desire more for over 20 years. Most movies and TV series don't even get close to such awesome quality of storytelling.
Pedro Portela This game is running in FULL HD with OpenAl and a lot of new effects thanks to a great community. Such a awesome game, just found it again, and the Open Source Project!;)
When Freespace2 came out, it won " Game of the Year for its cinematics and game play. When my niece's husband visited, he would literally take over my computer system, and do "all nighters." It was a really cool game on the ancient Intel Pentium III system.
The Battle Deneb was problably the most heated engagement that happened off-screen in the game. Basically the GTA and PVN tried to pincer the Lucifer and destroy it with Harbinger bombs launched by Ursa bombers, which were the only weapons that could even scratch the Lucifer's hull beyond it's nigh-impenetrable shield and so they succeeded in disabling one out of the five reactors, but it was overall too slow as the SD Eva jumped in, which later we do hunt down in the campaign (that said there's inconsistency between FS1 and FS2 on the Eva's timeline).
this is from the time people had visions of what they wanted to make how they wanted their game to be, they put so much in it the story, the writing, the voice-acting the overall feel as if every battle you wage might be worthless because no matter how many enemies you kill they'll always have the weapon you cant destory but you fight on against all odds in the face of an unwinable war this is what made this game great because you dont destory your enemies completely as they are stronger then you, you only hope that somehow you you'll survive...
That moment in the early campaign of FreeSpace 2 when you begin to understand that the Great War was only barely won against a scout fleet from the Shivans..
I'll never forget the first time you encounter the Lucifer in Freespace 1 or the Colossus mission in 2, both resonated far deeper than most any other game I've played
@@DaveDexterMusic actually, yes it did Look at games from the end of the nineties, early 2000s, each one is unique and rich with story characters and world building Now look at games today, where a company like ea thinks the notion of single player is overdue for the grave and loot boxes and robbing your customers is the norm, the notion of being seen as a respectable company no longer exists just the extortion of whatever poor sod that fell to your manufactured hype train
all in licence rights.. one day... someone will redo this awesome game... but until space sim combat becomes a thing again.. we will all endlessly wait ....
I love how this game takes its inspirations from all the ancient Mediterranean myths and seamlessly blends them with a far future sci-fi space adventure. There is so much artistry in this game; it's a shame it didn't get more traction. Best space fighter game I've ever played.
It also uses the history of World Wars in pretty cool way. WW1 was known at first as the Great War, and the generation of young men that were killed, mutilated and traumatized in the trenches the Lost Generation. In both cases a rabidly xenophobic group exploits the damage to seize power, and another war ensues. NTF are basically the Space Nazis, but while they are definitely an enemy, the devs didn't go the easiest route and turn them into moustache-twirling cartoon villains. I agree it's a damn shame the game didn't sell better.
The fan expansion of FS2's FSPort, Silent Threat: Reborn makes this cutscene far more deeper than it seems. For one the Orion-class destroyed in the battle is deemed the GTD Legion of the Galactic Terran Intelligence command fleet, while 2:46 shows us what appears to be a Shivan Demon-class, but is actually the rogue GTI warship Hades, which was destroyed during the Hades Rebellion.
@@RennieAshThat is so, but as I've mentioned, the crashed ship is no Demon. Gotta love it when a fanmade game actually fixed up a flawed expansion pack.
Been years since I've played, and watching this, my teeth grit, my eyes water, and my hatred builds. A game that can make you passionately hate a non-existent enemy is exceptional, indeed.
That's the GTD Legion being destroyed by the Lucifer in this video. Which, by the way, is a semi-canon ship name: back in the days fans proposed "Legion" as the name of the Orion seen in this intro, and Volition turned out to be fine with it.
Unpopular opinion: Freespace 1's intro was so much more powerful. Not knowing what the _hell_ he was talking about made me want to play the game even more.
I don't think that's a unpopular opinion; many consider the FS1 intro to be one of the best in gaming - that voicework is so intense. FS2's intro is pretty much ideal for what it is though, so it seems unfair to compare: FS2 is a story about the aftermath of the great war and is heavily soaked in nihilism, it's intro sets the tone perfectly. Not to mention how neatly it contrasts with the ending cinematic: disenfranchised young man talking about looking for salvation among the stars VS wise old man longing to return home to earth.
What's even better is that the Shivans were never truly shown in the spotlight. They were ALWAYS enigmatic and that made them incredibly interesting! Everything is spoon-fed to everyone now theres no mystery anymore! Freespace rules!
I haven't really seen any really dedicated space sims, in the same vein as Freespace, I-war and the like, in a lot of years. I think a dev could do really well reviving this sort of game, if they really commited and delivered a polished product
One of the best space combat sims of all. I still boot this one up from time to time just to marvel at how good a game so old can still be so good. Bravo.
The best sf game ever... 15 years after, I am coming back from time to time... just to check it out...To refresh my memory... Same goes for the first part...
I always loved this intro, the battle was cool, and moreover the monologue was excellent. Very eloquent. Freespace has some of the best cinematics I've ever seen.
"They say our people have no present. Only a past filled with horror. And a future they can only dream of." And we see the wreck of Orion-class destroyer, a massive 2.1km capital ship, killed by Lucifer as if it was a bug. The intro has so many good parts, but that really hammers home the utter trauma inflicted by that war.
Great points about this game: 1. Engaging, fun, and challenging gameplay, with a great learning curve. 2. Deep, interesting, and immersive plot. 3. Excellent musical score. 4. Robert Loggia's voice.
...and now we live in the mausoleum of history... It is a shame that this epic game was a commercial disaster. Thank you, Volition, for creating this masterpiece.
I remember getting this as a late birthday present and watching this intro and getting hyped as shit to play. I miss when games had this level of care put into them. You don't see the depth in games like you do with older ones.
+Androgeos Exeunt was either bounced or its escorts failed to protect it during a fight with a shivian ship. there a couple missions where you have to protect a science cruiser while big ships duke it out with shivians so we can learn how to kill them better.
Wow, one of the earliest YT uploads and one of the few games I can still replay without even noticing whilst playing that the graphics are quite poor compared back to when I played this in 99. This applies to FS1 too. 2 great games; as somebody else said too, a game which was more than a game. People think of 'The Last of Us' and 'The Witcher' as iconic examples of gameplay being art etc, FS1 and FS2 are right up there except the editors were probably in nappies when this game was released. I'm 35, so not exactly at end of life so I'm not sure why this game is so so underrated!
4:22 - "They say our people have no present...only a past filled with horror...and a future they can only dream of..." - I LOVE ThAT LINE it's sooo epic!
Still sad that the game never got the ending it deserves. Remember reading the forums all those years back, people had so many theories. One particularly interesting one was that the Shivans themselves were running away from an unknown enemy. One thing for sure, not many space games that actually made space seem so scary and frightening.
This game WAS my childhood, I have more fond memories of this game than I can name. I'm incredibly grateful that the Freespace Open modding community kept it alive and going strong for the past 15 years. It led to The Blue Planet mods, which is probably my favorite example of a video game story, and it wouldn't of been possible if it weren't for those beautiful bastards at Volition.
I still love this game, it shows what can be achieved if you're not trying to push an agenda or drive customers to keep buying more and more DLCs, and all the game writers/voice actors/mission planners/ etc etc wanted to do was make the best game they possibly could. It's still SUCH a shame they never made a third instalment so all the stories could be tied up, but in the end I guess it just proves the old saying of "always leave the audience wanting more". Thanks for this, great memories of an all time classic game
found my copy from 1998. kept it because it is the BEST space sim so far. decided to install it last nite and now i'm takin' a trip back to 1998. this game is the reason why i'm into pc gaming.
It will be dogshit. its a excellent and very well told story for a space shooter. It doesn't need a cinematic adaption because it will suck. Leave it alone.
did just that and wow! the graphics are awesome! a huge shout out and thank you's to the source code project team and everyone else who made it possible!!!
Volition didn't go bankrupt... their publisher, Interplay (MDK, Clayfighters) did. Volition was acquired by THQ, and they still make games today. Their most recent game was Saint's Row.
Wasn't Freespace 2 the first game to use beam weapons against fighters? And also slashing beam weapons? I was blown away when I first played that game. It had me when the beam pierced the Belisarius in the first mission!
I WILL RAGE IF THIS GAME DOESN"T GET A REBOOT IN 32years or less. Best Game of its time, sadly many didn't have a computer to play it on then and those that do now will over look it.
I remember playing FS1 and then sitting wide eyed while playing FS2, the whole game was breathtaking...I always hoped that they would bring a FS3 out but sadly, seems that dream will never be...the whole space flight sim genre is very much dead and companies don't want to back the developers of new ones, its hard to believe that they believe there is no market for this kinda game, I am dying to play a good space flight sim again.
Interplay's responsible for there not being a Freespace 3. The game was designed and developed by Volition... Volition wanted to make a Freespace 3, but that was around the time Interplay was going bankrupt. They marketed the game, Volition designed it. RIP Freespace.
the best out of the freespace series... and it took some beating with the first one! fantastic game!!! Aint played silent threat... saving that for when i'm about to get married... a week before i play freespace 1 then silent threat then the second then Deralict campaign... best way the story is played out... only way it should be played out if there is a freespace 3... if only!
this is an Epic game, with epic gameplay,epic story, epic music! one of the gratest, this game is from an age when computer games was not produced like rap songs on MTV as nowodays! I hope that if FS3 ll born with the old fashioned computer gamestyle with modern technology!
