Creme de la creme of sci-fi sims!
Let's start with the graphics. To this day, Freespace 2's graphics are still pretty to look at, despite its datedness. The massive capital ships are a sight to behold, and when they shoot their beam weapons, well gee, you just squeal in delight like a little girl. Oh and the explosions! What colors and how satisfying it is. Even better is when a capital ship blows and you can see the shimmering shockwave expanding outwards, and towards you. You do NOT want to be caught in one of those.
Controls: As I have a force feedback joystick, I get to feel the thrill of blasting away at the baddies, feel the knock of a missile slamming into my tail, and the juddering afterburner. The controls are very smooth and intuitive, at least on a joystick that's already has a Freespace 2 scheme built in. The keyboard controls can be a bit daunting at first, as there's much to learn. After time, however, it becomes second nature.
Sound & Music: Voice acting is top-notch as is the music which fits the atmosphere of the game perfectly. It really helps to have a sound system with a subwoofer to bring out the explosions and various weapons sounds. You can tell they put a lot of work into this due to the massive amounts of diverse sounds in this game.
Gameplay: The best thing about this game, period. Sure you got the usual search and destroy missions along with "protect this escort" and other standard missions, but it's HOW these missions are carried out that this game sets itself apart from the others. There are unexpected twists and environments (the famous nebula missions come to mind) that always keep you on your toes. One of my favorite moments is when, at the beginning of the mission, upon exiting subspace (method of long-distance travel in this game), I am immediately nose-to-nose with a capital ship coming right at me and my squad leader screaming at me to dive. THAT was just so cool. Another great and fun aspect of this game is fighting amongst the capital ships. These guys have teeth, and they use it well. If you're going to bring down one of these boys, you better be packing a lot of firepower, shields, and armor, otherwise you're toast in their flak cannons, anti-ship beam weapons (deadly accurate too) and too many cannon and missile banks for you to keep track of. In general, this game will not bore you, it will frustrate you at times, but most of all, it will entertain you.
In short, there's just not enough good things I can say about this game. Just to give you some idea, I still own the game (and I was extremely lucky to find it in a bargain bin for just $5 before it went out of print) and I'm playing it again now for the umpteenth time.
There's a dedicated group of people out there who have been using the Freespace 2 source code to create their own improvements to the game as well as creating whole new ones. I haven't really looked into it too much as programming and modding is a bit beyond me. This is their website: http://www.hard-light.net/
If you're lucky, you might be able to find a legit copy at the Amazon Marketplace or on eBay, but beware of scam artists on eBay. Not sure? Just look at the item location, if it seems bogus...it IS bogus.