Any FreeSpace 2 Like Games?

Hey all,

Been kinda busy so my posts have dropped a lot. My friend hooked me up with a copy of Freespace 2 the other day (yea, I know it's old as heck), but I'm really enjoying the campaign even though the graphics aren't amazing. It reminds me a lot of Mechwarrior, but in space. Slightly customizable ships/squad control and selection, weapon layouts, really complicated controls with lots of options and ways to save you .

I was wondering if there were any newer games like this, or something similar, but more of a "mechwarrior: mercenaries" feel. Where you can choose you own missions, buy your own squadrons, higher you own pilots, and customize your ships. That would be the ultimate space sim in my mind. Anyways, open to any suggestions.

 

Well, nothing was ever quite as good as Freespace 2. Excellent, excellent space shooter. Best one ever IMHO.

Another oldie but goodie is Independence War 1 & 2.

There is X2 and X3 series but they're more long winded free roaming drama space sim than action game.

Another newer option is DarkStar One. Quite similar to Freespace. I played it a little while back, and it was good, but had bugs at the time. Looks like there's been some patches since then and may run well. You can get it for $9.95 at Steam, Gog.com, or Direct 2 Drive.

 

There's a copy of X3 Terran conflict floating around the FOB somewhere, I've been trying to get ahold of it, since d/ling from steam, or anywhere, isn't an option yet. I heard the other X3 games were a lot more glitchy and very hard to use w/o a joystick.

It really seems like the quality of games is deteriorating though. They're either becoming completely sandbox or completely linear. I miss the good old days where I could do what I wanted with my ship/crew/vehicles/mechs, but still follow a little bit of a story, and have some sort of an end game. I keep going back to these old games and enjoying them a lot more than the new ones.
If steam releases anymore of the old lucas art games (tie fighter, x-wing, kotor), I'll definitely pick them up when I go on R&R.

 

I hear you loud and clear. I keep revisiting classics too. Just wish I could get MechWarrior 2 up and running. I have an old PC - AMD Sempron 2400+, 1GB RAM DDR, 160GB HDD (IDE), 6600 GT. Am tempted to install Win98SE on it and make it my retro rig. Should be more than adequate, and pretty powerful for a Win9x machine.

Funny thing is, I realized once I got my netbook, that there were dozens and dozens of games from late 1990's to early 2000's that are awesome and play great on that antiquated hardware.

Definitely give DarkStar One a try, or even Freelancer. Freelancer is kind of an RPG, but it's space based. Pretty good too.

 

Thanks for the input, I'll put those on my "to-do" list.

 

Good to see others miss the glory days of the sim's. These days the focus seems to be on making generic, boring, simplified games for the masses, no risk and certain return.

I'll have to re-install freespace 2, loved that one. Randomn, might get flamed for this, but did any of you guys ever play Battlecruiser? There's been a few released over the years. Mostly negative reviews, I played the first one and really enjoyed it. It is very open though, plus difficult to figure out, but once you have it figured out, can be very rewarding.

Again, a little off topic, but have you checked out Jumpgate Evolution? Its a new MMO being released September sometime. Looks really good, online "twitch" based space dogfights etc. I've been waiting for one of these, EVE is cool, but im a little over the clicking with the mouse control scheme that most MMO's seem to favour these days. Will be good to rely on good old hands and feet skills again

 

Hmm...Freelancer is pretty decent and much more accessible than X3 The Reunion or X3 Terran Conflict. Might as well give it a try.

 

Very similar to Freespace's gameplay but with today's graphics:

Tar Chronicles.

Now, in a different genre, more like the X series, my favorite game of all times: Freelancer.

 

Wasnt the X2 (or maybe X3) the one where the AI fighters would continually ram you? I hated that....

Do remember loving the game (as in, the overall feel and openness) but hating that I couldn't actually dogfight with the AI. (but I may be thinking of the wrong one...)

 

Derek Smart's Battlecruiser, I remember that one. I also remember when Supreme Commander Smart punched a Coke machine and told people they were too stupid to play Battlecruiser 3000!

 

Was Tarr Chronicles any good? I looked into it but it got really dismal reviews.

TBH, there is a nice little site that I've mentioned before called StarWraith Games. Independent developer and publisher that makes several types of Freespace type games, some freeware (older ones), and others payware, but cheap. From what I've played, they're pretty good. Space sims, 4x type space games (like X2/X3).

 

Tar Chronicles was good. It's just that is too similar to Freespace, and then it seems outdated in its gameplay and it seems like you have already seen that before. I mean: NOTHING original, but the graphics are pretty good.
So I'd say Tar Chronicles are great for someone that wants to play Freespace again, with today's graphics.

 

Agreed. But I believe IW2 does not work on XP/Vista w/o some hit & miss tweaks. I haven't tried myself but should because it is a great game. Good ship control physics.

 

If you enjoyed Freespace, you should try out Freespace SCP (freeware). Independent developers took the released source code and have maintained and updated it, improving the graphics and capabilities of the game. There are also some associated mods in various stages of development.

 

I have the freeware version, but only have 1 campaign mod for it. Is there a website somewhere with a bunch of mods?

 

LOL!

If you devoted some time too it (and got it too run stable), the game was really quite good. Epic in scope. I loved how no 2 games were ever the same. Conflicts would be raging all the time, planets and systems would fall. I loved flying through it all, watching and participating. Or jumping in a shuttle and flying down to a planet. I wasn't an easy game though, very unforgiving. Not too mention the sheer complexitiy of it...

I'd love to give one of the newer ones a go, unfortunately I just don't have the time these days to get involved in deep games like that

 

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/

A few mods (Wing Commander Saga, The Babylon Project, Beyond the Red Line) take place outside the Freespace universe - only TBP is finished. Many of the mods are in-universe, and vary in depth and complexity. If you've finished Freespace I and II, I recommend trying Blue Planet > The Age of Aquarius. It is a post-Capella campaign featuring a wide variety of new ships and weapons, along with a fairly well-developed story.

 

Awesome, I'll have to look into it. I just finished the Freespace 2 main story and moved onto the Derelick campaign. I'm definitely interested in checking out a few more.

 

Out of curiosity GamingACU, are you playing with keyboard and mouse or just keyboard? Default controls are really set up for keyboard. I have been toying with a good configuration with keyboard and mouse, but maybe I'll just hook up the joystick.

 

Keyboard and mouse. I can't react fast enough with just a keyboard (unfortunately mouse side buttons won't work). A joystick would be even more beneficial though.