 |
|
Capital Ships and Nebulae
FreeSpace was one of the first games to really capture the sense of scale between small fighters and huge capital ships, and FreeSpace 2 promises to push this even further. Capital ships in the game are up to 12 times larger than those of the game's predecessor, which were huge. "Some of the ships in FreeSpace 2," explains Boone, "are simply staggering in their scale."
More interestingly, the capital ships of FreeSpace 2 are far more deadly than those previously seen. It makes little sense that these massive ships would not have massive weapons, and so Volition has introduced the anti-fighter beam cannon. Seeing one of these deadly rays of light in action is not only impressive, it's frightening. They can tear through a fighter with no problem, which makes the task of escorting bombing runs all the more difficult. Capital ships are also armed with flak cannons and anti-capital ship beam weapons, and seeing two capital ships tearing into each other with massive beams promises to be quite a spectacle.
The addition of nebulae complicates things in other interesting ways. First of all, the electrically charged environment makes targeting very difficult at long range. To overcome such a compromising situation, special AWAC ships are available that increase your targeting ability but must be defended carefully. Volition has also created special TAG missiles, which let you paint a target and keep it on radar for significantly longer.
Sight range is also affected in a nebula, which promises some dramatic effects. As Boone explains with a hypothetical example, "When a player is in a nebula their visual threshold is greatly reduced, depending on the type of nebula they are in. This means that a giant capital ship could be bearing down on them from dead ahead without the player being any the wiser."
Next: Multiplayer |
