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Space used to be the final frontier. Now it has become the battlezone for the survival of the Human race. In the future, the Terrans (Humans) will become involved in a massive battle against alien races that threaten to eliminate all others. It is up to you to pilot a variety if high speed attack fighters on a diversity of missions to try to save the human race from elimination. Over the years, a variety of space simulations have been created by various companies. The most memorable of these, and also the current champion of this genre is LucasArts X-Wing series. Volition Inc. has challenged Lucas Arts for this title, and in my opinion they have won with their release of Descent Freespace: The Great War. The X-Wing series is a collection of great games, but Volation Inc. has taken it's latest release to the next level with stunning graphics, intense gameplay, and a very compelling plot. The plot of Descent Freespace begins during the 14 year war with the Vasudans. The first few missions are fairly easy because the Terrans are evenly matched with the Vasudans. However, it does not take long for a third race called the Shivans to emerge as the largest threat to the Terrans and Vasudans. The Shivans quickly become a problem for both races due to their technologically superior equipment. This leads to a Terran-Vasudan alliance to try to defend both homeworlds against the Shivans. In the beginning, this task is very difficult due to the fact that the Shivan ships cannot be targeted, destroyed, or captured by any allied ships. It is up to you to fly into Shivan territory, and steal their technology. Once you have captured some Shivan technology, your ability to fight the Shivans is greatly improved. This is a very good thing because the Shivans are extremely powerful, and in order to defend both homeworlds, you must destroy the Shivan capital ship called the Lucifer. At one point, you fly a mission in a captured Shivan fighter and end up trying to infiltrate the Lucifer which is approximately 1000 times bigger than your fighter. Descent Freespace allows gamers to pilot a large variety of fighters/bombers and to customize any armament. Ships are recommended by the computer for individual missions, but it is very easy to make adjustments. This is one of the best features of this game because it allows players to stick to ships that they enjoy and feel comfortable with since the various ships all have different attributes. It also provides advancement in the game which keeps players interested. Volition Inc. could have put only one fighter/bomber in the game, and I still would have played it to the end (twice) due to the amazing graphics and gameplay. Sound in this game is very nice. Running the sound from my SB Live to my 250W RMS amp, and then into my towers with 12" woofers was exceptionally pleasing. It's much like Star Wars in the theatre, but cleaner and more accurate. Very nice low Hz come from the ships which is similar to the scenes in Star Trek: Next Generation where the camera is outside the hull of the Enterprise. The sound levels are all independently customizable. I could go on forever about the graphics in this game, but I will try to keep it short since you must see it to believe it. The cut scenes are excellent, but one cannot appreciate the game’s graphics until they are experienced by playing this game. I was very impressed by the rendering quality of this game since so many objects are moving so fast. Usually when a game has many moving opponents, it becomes very demanding on a system. However, this game at full detail does not make my system choppy at all (16 MB Matrox G200 using Direct 3D). The game was very smooth, and such nice graphics combined with intense action, equals an excellent game in my books. The customizable interface of this game is by far the best for the genre. Ever action and command is fully customizable. The lists are huge, but relatively easily to adjust using the Bind command. Solving conflicts between keys can be tricky at times due to the number of keys used in the game. You can also customize the HUD screen that you look through during the game. A large amount of information is displayed on this screen to keep you updated. If you don’t like or require some of the information being displayed, you can easily remove it. You can even change the color. I recommend a joystick for this game, but it is not necessary since I did alright with either setup. If you have a forcefeedback joystick, this game supports such nice features which increase the realism of the game even further. I also recommend that the brightness be raised slightly so that you can see the Shivans in the first few missions where you will be unable to target them. Descent Freespace contains over 30 single player missions, and 20 multiplayer missions. The game automatically saves a pilot’s progress through the game which leads to one of two cons that I found. The first con, which is relatively small, is that you cannot fly any previous missions over again. The second con, which is large, is that there is no way to have a skirmish or botmatch against the computer. The game does offer a variety of multiplayer connections through free Parallax Online servers, but sometimes it is nice to be able to have a match against the computer like in Starcraft or Unreal due to my slow dial-up connection. This game supports up to 12 players over TCP/IP over LAN or Internet w/ 28.8 K. If you are looking for a fast paced space flight simulation, I would highly recommend Descent Freespace: The Great War. If you only play Earth based flight simulations, I still recommend that you try this game. Volition Inc. has obviously put a lot of work into this game and the results are very impressive. Review By Matt Graphics: 19/20 CI Rating: 91% Post comments on the message board Return to www.coolinfo.com |
System Requirements:Required: Recommended: Test System: PROS: CONS: coolinfo
Update Released: If you have the US/North American or UK releases, you can hit "Update FreeSpace" in your FS Launcher to receive & apply the update. Downloadable updaters for all releases are also available on the FreeSpace Downloads page. The following items are addressed in 1.06: -Added checksum to
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