Freespace Full Version - Initial Thoughts

by: Old Staff - June 06, 1998 for Freespace Watch

Last night, coming home from work, I stopped at CompUSA to pick up Freespace - at $55, it was a bit pricey, but I thought it was worth it. I come home, and after installing 440 MB onto the hard drive, I was ready to go. I shut down all programs and began to play. The first thing I saw was a beautifully rendered movie, one unlike I have ever seen before. Although there were some defects, for being rendered in 3D, it was quite amazing. I go on and create a pilot and begin playing. As I play the first mission (I skipped the training) I noticed a bit of frame rate loss on my Millennium II. Because that particular card sucks at 3D and I have to run it unaccelerated, I can see it. After a few minutes it runs quite smoothly, though. I breeze past the first 5 missions without problem. The graphics are amazing. Even on MEDIUM quality, its like nothing I have seen before. I play on and unravel an interesting storyline. Although at first it seems dull, it gets quite interesting when you acquire Shivan technology.

I play on, and fly several ships. The Apollo, the Valkyrie, the Hercules...and many more. They each seem to be balanced though. However, I think the Hercules is the best fighter I have seen. The Ulysses is fast, but not very strong, so I don't particularly care for it. Each mission is difficult but balanced, great design on Volition's part. Every few missions, brilliant movies appear. You even need to switch to the 2nd CD after a few missions. I let Alan (Heavenz Fire) play a few missions, as he came over that night. We both find it hard to play - its really difficult above EASY. We play for what seemed like four hours, and went to sleep soon after.

Today I sign up for Parallax Online (under 'Elemental'), and give multiplayer a kick. After getting through some traps, I finally get on. I see..what, 4 people? Not like AOE was on the Zone. But I decide to join a game. After failing to even start two games, I finally get one going. Its a 4v4 (2 humans on each side) battle to defend a Cruiser and take out the other fighters. I outfit my ship with 15 Interceptors, 40 Hornets, an Avenger cannon, and a Disruptor. I fly the Hercules, as I think its the best fighter. After waiting about five minutes for everyone to be briefed and ready, we play. I press the joystick trigger - nothing happens. I think to myself, "Damn piece of shit...." Five seconds later, I see ammo fly out. Strange. I see an enemy ship that I want to destroy. I come up behind it - with a lock - and let a pair of Interceptors fly...or at least I thought I did. A few seconds later, the ship is way high, and the missiles fly. "Damn lag," I think to myself. It only gets worse, though. The multiplayer execution - even with the 1.01 patch - is horrible at best. I have a goddamn 45k connection, set object update to low, and still can't play it. Obviously, this is a major problem. So, below, I provide the basic initial comments on the game.

Pros

Great graphics, truly great gameplay. The movies are wonderful, and even unaccelerated, it runs at 20 FPS. Not bad. The variety is awesome, the ships are beautiful, the game is balanced, and overall it is a well thought out game. Kudos to Volition.

Cons

Multiplayer execution leaves much to be desired - a slow service (Parallax Online) and lag is destroying this game. The game is quite slow, it takes 20 seconds to advance between screens at times (on a P55C 233 MMX with 64 MB RAM).