Blue Planet: War in Heaven

The second installment of the Blue Planet saga, War in Heaven was released in August 2010 to great critical acclaim. As with the previous installment, Age of Aquarius features a character-driven story. The campaign was praised for its immersive storyline, gameplay innovation, stunning visuals, mission design and expert use of Source Code Project features. Its divided into five Acts, the first three are already released (Chrysalis, Apotheosis, Tenebra).

General Info

Project Lead: Darius

Other members:

• Dilmah G - Mission Designer, Military Advisor
• Dragon - Texture Artist
• Esarai - Modeller
• Fury - Tabler, AI lead
• General Battuta - Writer, Mission Designer
• HerraTohtori - Skybox Artist
• Rian - Script Content Redundancy Axe-Man, Character Writer
• Steve O - Model Contributor, Paternal Figure
• The E - Codework, Mission Work, Model Work, Writer
• Zacam - Testing, Mod pack management, SVN manager

Missions: 16 (Part 1); 8 (Part 2); 30 (estimated total)

Mods included:

• An additional Terran faction, the United Earth Federation, with ships and weapons
• New GTVA ships and weapons to reflect the next generation of technology
• Head ANIs
• New custom soundtracks
• Skyboxes for many locations in Sol
• Functioning SSMs
• Mid-mission checkpoints that can be loaded once unlocked
• An AI Betty voice to report your ship status in combat
• New voice acted personas
• Next-generation Fury AI

Status: Acts 1 to 3 of 5 released

Required:

• MediaVPs 3.6.12, in mediavps_3612 folder
• FS2_Open Inferno 3.6.14 (for Acts 1 and 2 pre-December 2012 patch)
  • As of the Act 3 release, FS2_Open 3.6.17 dedicated build for Blue Planet (requires a graphics card capable of running FS2_Open's new shadow effects) OR an FS2_Open 3.6.19 Nightly Revision with compatibility patch files (if unable to handle the new shadows/lighting code)

Part Two of the Blue Planet trilogy

Description

A young pilot tries to find meaning in a meaningless conflict. A nation struggles to unite its people in an era of peace and prosperity, despite being beset on all sides. Two powerful alien races watch from afar, waiting to see if humankind will fulfill its potential as the Great Creators.

War in Heaven takes place eighteen months after the events of Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius and details the final stages of the civil war between Sol and the rest of her colonies.

"In the future, it will not be said that the Earthborn fight like Vasudans, but that Vasudans fight like the Earthborn." -- Emperor Khonsu II, 2386

Player Comments

"For me, the best Freespace2 Mod so far." - WolfMaverick

"Too much text! We did everything we could to make it flow well, including dialogue skips and checkpoints, but ultimately this campaign is written as if it's voice acted and it's not." - General Battuta

"Epic campaign is epic and, if i may be so bold, the BP team raised the bar for excellence even higher." - pecenipicek

"The expansive, exquisitely detailed setting and the brilliant writing and dialogue combine to elevate this from merely campaign to cinematic experience of epic proportions." - Scotty

"The least expected thing happened, a space shooter made me sobby, or atleast gave me a runny nose and a trembling lip! This isn't just a campaign, this is an interactive novel and the best interactive novel I have ever played." - Sara

"Was this what I was looking for? Don't know. Enough parts of the plot I detest. But I think you (whoever you is) came really close." - asyikarea

"I did not care too much for AoA and I was skeptical that I would enjoy WiH any more than I did AoA. But let me tell you this. WiH is the best thing this side of sliced bread. (And sliced bread is freaking awesome)." - MjnMixael

"I did not enjoy this as much as AoA. Got no drive to keep playing from the story, and has too much QQ not enough PewPew...It was good. Not "go tell your grandkids" good like AoA, but solid, and recommended. For me, it didn't really live up to all its hype." - Droid803

"Usually, (and by usually I mean 90% of the time) sequels fail to meet their predecessors expectations. WiH on the other hand not only matched but exceeded AoA in every way (And yes, believe it or not I did have my gripes with AoA)." - Hellstryker

"This is the best campaign I have ever played." - M!M

"This is the finest FSO campaign I've ever seen. Full stop. No quantification." - IronBeer

"WiH is a really good, polished campaign, that put its focus a tad too much on military tactics and capital ships (and imho, a bit too much on the emotions of the characters) and seems to forget at times at it is a game instead of a semi-interactive novel." - Spoon

"War in Heaven defies any adjective I can attribute to compliment it. Story is wonderful, the ships are gorgeous, the fredding is near perfect, the missions themselves are exciting."- Cpt. Ritter

"THIS is gaming. An interactive novel, a work of art, creating emotions in the player (despite lacking voice acting for now). Tense, exciting, big and a blast to play. War in Heaven dwarfs everything released for FS or its TCs so far." - Vidmaster

"Where Aquarius was Mystery in the air, Heaven Part One was Combat Space Opera in the air, and the developers did a damn good job at it. If you needed a mod that did its best to focus the balance between story and action, and at least demonstrated what the standards should be in making a mod, Heaven is a mod for you. If you're turned off by [semi-]frequent dramatics, quit now. My only itchiness in it was a lack of a badass bombing mission. A Plus (I'd be willing to give another plus)." - Black Yoshi

Related Links

Release thread | Hard-Light Productions.net

The Blue Planet site