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Freespace for anyone interested in space simulators is an old fashioned dog fighting game with an immense story and cinematic scenes. Not to mention the incredible voice acting some of which are renowned actors.
Freespace 2: The nail hitter
Critics and fans loved this game but perhaps it didn't sell well enough to warrant and easy Freespace 3, after all the space sim had slowly died but recent years thanks to the likes of Star Citizen is fast reviving. Maybe it's time to bring up more dog fight simulators that bring story and action other than standard shooters.
So why was it popular?
Story
Believe it or not, there wasn't many games at the time that gave us real end of the world storylines. You would have the good vs evil to control territories, this though would give us a race known as the Shivans who wanted to wipe out all life regardless. There was little to no knowledge given about them. If you played the first game you learnt about the "destroyers" that had previously wiped out all known life with no communication or motif. Sound familiar? It would because a similar race appeared in Mass Effect called the Reapers.
It's that type of a story that was incredibly compelling, you had another race to deal with while also having rebels who didn't believe in an Alliance.
This story would be shown in voice actors:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289708/fullcredits/
The list of these actors is incredible, considering the time when this game was released in 1999.
Blog site/article ones like these are full of positive feedback about the next game, is it time?
http://www.gamespot.com/forums/system-wars-314159282/do-you-think-well-see-freespace-3-considering-the--33310777/
Graphics
When you are able to have multiple huge ships the size of cities blowing up (with pretty good detail as well) you know the graphics are almost hitting maximum. Considering a big ship exploding would also take out or severely damage any nearby fighter - you can imagine that the graphics at a 1999 period was pretty impressive.
Dog Fighting and Action
The controls were simple yet plenty of customisation settings, it was designed to be fun but not over complicated. Having played many games over the years a lot of space sims over think everything to provide far too much. It was easy to take down a group of fighters through dog fighting skills.
Music
The epic music in this game felt like you was in battles to real end of your kind scenarios. They were apart of the briefings, cinematic scenes and during missions. The score felt like it had been taken care of by a professional.
What they should do? In my view:
1. Keep it simple, don't over complicate the game like Star Citizen has.
2. The story is paramount, don't create one that's based on 1000 years or shall I say down the route of a sequel to Starlancer called Freelance (which BTW I didn't enjoy in any single way). Base the story on 10 years or so after Freespace 2. Don't reveal too much and always make it feel like they could make more. Also feel like each time you gain a positive story outcome, it gets turned against you. This was pivotal in stories like Mass Effect/Freespace 2. No matter what it wasn't going to be an happy ending and throughout the story even when you win it felt like a loss.
3. Continue the feeling that big ships are BIG and can hurt you either by weapons or explosions.
4. Music, again continue the feeling that music is important (as shown by other great epic games and especially movies).
5. Don't necessarily allow it to be open universe, some games have done this but they have over complicated it by far. Some of the greatest Sci-Fi SIMs have not been open universe - this also forces the company to concentrate more on details instead of massive systems.
6. Keep it military, not a miner, not a trader - military dog fighting pilot.
7. Keep high quality voice actors on the majority of cutscenes, briefings and story.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/03/17/best-space-games/5/
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