The best Space Sim by far
Freespace 2 is just great. Set three decades after the first Freespace, this took it to the next and last level of the series.
Gameplay was absoluetly awesome. Starting out as a rookie like pilot, doing your training, and going all the way up to destroying capital ships, and taking on huge squadrons of Shivan fighters. You had a arsenal of fighter/bombers to choose from, and handfuls of weapons to load them out with.
The storyline was in-depth and epic. It was presented very professionally and clean. Always a briefing before most of the missions, never leaving you in the dark on what is going on in the game.
Graphics and sounds were top-notch for it's time, and still is. Awesomely detailed ships. From fighters to capital ships with individual turrets, missile launchers, lights and whatever else you could throw in. Backgrounds with nebulae, stars and planets made it that much better. Great sound effects from ship engines, capital ship beam cannons, explosions and others wer all great.
I have to say there were some flaws. Campaign was a bit straight line and long, only being a couple places to take special missions or off storyline missions. AI wingmen collisions would get irritating when commanding them. Logging in to the PXO lobbies to play online was a bit tedius, sometimes taking a while to get in.
All in all this game was great. My all time favorite over any game I have played so far, and none so far have come close to it. If you like Sci-FI or space sims that are straight action with great stories, this is for you. It is a game that has aged greatly since it's release. And with the Open-Source revamp that has made everything look/sound even better, it is great to play again and again.