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Freespace 2 is a space combat simulator game from way back in 1999, it may be old, but it has an official open source engine and you should really give it a run. It’s a real blast from the past, and a game that has stood the test of time surprisingly well.

I remember playing Freespace 2 as a teen and simply falling in love with it, the mix of intense space combat mixed in with cutscenes, interesting missions and now being open source and still developed is fantastic.

In 2002 the game was officially open sourced by Volition, this then spawned the FreeSpace 2 Source Code Project and my love was found again. You can actually install the launcher directly from the repository in Ubuntu if you search for “Freespace 2” in the USC, it’s likely to be found in other distributions too. The name of the launcher is “wxLauncher”. Alternatively you can use the Freespace 2 installer located here. You do need a copy of the game data linked below.

I recently bugged Samsai enough to buy it on GOG.com. Now I know buying a “Windows game” is a big sin, but for playing it on an open source engine from a site that supports Linux is fine in my books.

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Samsai had this to say about the game

I never really got to play Freespace 2 before buying the game after Liam’s recommendation, so I didn’t have any nostalgia for the game. I was initially a bit sceptical but Freespace 2 was positively surprising to me, regardless of its age.

Naturally Freespace 2 won’t win any modern beauty competitions but on other areas the game shines brightly. The missions are well thought out and feel realistic with some interesting twists that will turn routine missions into a fierce battle for survival. Missions can also have multiple outcomes which affect the missions after that in some ways.

Another quite surprising finding was that the battles actually feel like battles, which is quite interesting considering there are only about a dozen of enemies on the battlefield simultaneously. The missions are cleverly designed to hide this fact and new waves of enemies are warped in just at the right moment so that the fight will continue basically uninterrupted. In all of the missions you will be flying an interceptor, a fighter or a bomber of some kind, but the missions have plenty of bigger capital ships for you to defend and destroy. These capital ship versus capital ship fights were in my opinion one of the best parts in the game because it’s where I truly felt like I was just a tiny part of a huge battle.

The game also makes sure that you don’t get bored by throwing all sorts of missions at you. First you might be escorting a group of transports and next you are attacking a supply depot to create a distraction or a bait. You even get to fly some optional stealth missions as part of the Special Operations Command. The game also doesn’t try to “storify” these missions too much, you are ordered somewhere to complete a task and you will complete that task. Not that there isn’t a story here, there most certainly is, but the story follows the war that is raging all over the place and not some personal vendetta of a single pilot or some other stuff like that.

In addition to the low-ish level of graphics there was another sign that said “1999” pretty clearly and it was the control scheme. Freespace 2 obviously attempted to be more of a simulator than a casual shoot ‘em up. Nearly all of your keyboard has been bound to some control or another and you will have to use quite a few of those controls to complete your missions properly. There are keys for various targeting modes, engine controls, power allocation controls (to redirect power to and from shields, engines and weapons) and communication controls to do a bit of strategizing on the battlefield. Luckily the game doesn’t expect you to know the whole control layout immediately and guides you through them in very good tutorial missions along the way. However, if you happen to have a keyboard that doesn’t use the US or UK layout you might need to rebind some of the controls to keys that actually exist on your keyboard.

As you might imagine, a game this old doesn’t really take that much resources to run, unless you mod the crap out of it of course. It ran just fine on my R7 370 with RadeonSI and it probably wouldn’t be much worse if I tried it on my Intel HD Graphics 3000 laptop. There were some crashes though so the stability wasn’t quite perfect. However, I didn’t lose too much progress in those crashes and there were only a couple during my full playthrough so I don’t mind them too much.

Overall, I found Freespace 2 to most likely be the best space game I’ve played. After getting used to the controls it was a blast from start to finish and offered just enough difficulty for me to have to work hard to complete the missions but not too much to make me frustrated. Apart from a couple of technical issues, such as flickering cinematics and occasional crashes, the experience was smooth and fun. My second playthrough is already in progress. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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scaine Oct 21, 2015
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So is this is a bit like DXRebirth, where you download the engine, then throw the paid-for assets in and it runs a high-res version of an old game?

I love playing Decent again through Rebirth and while I never played Freespace 2, the video alone has tempted me to try it out. Looks excellent!
Liam Dawe Oct 21, 2015
Quoting: scaineSo is this is a bit like DXRebirth, where you download the engine, then throw the paid-for assets in and it runs a high-res version of an old game?

I love playing Decent again through Rebirth and while I never played Freespace 2, the video alone has tempted me to try it out. Looks excellent!

The HD packs are a separate (free) download to the paid game, but essentially yes.
DrMcCoy Oct 21, 2015
Back in the days, I played it with my Gravis Firebird joystick. :)



It used the normal gameport stuff for the axis and the two fire buttons, and then it also hooked up to your keyboard, via a male and a female DIN connector. I.e. you plugged your keyboard into it, and then the gamepad to the usual keyboard port on your computer. It relayed the normal keyboard key presses, but also fired keys for all the buttons. It came with a DOS program where you could configure which keys would be pressed for each button.
tuubi Oct 21, 2015
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Seems fun. Someone less lazy should ask GOG to package a custom Linux version using the open source stuff so we won't need to buy a Windows game. With any optional HD content included of course, because why not?

Quoting: DrMcCoyBack in the days, I played it with my Gravis Firebird joystick. :)
I just recently gave away my trusty old Logitech Wingman flight stick. Much simpler than your monster--just a couple of buttons, a rudder and a throttle--but it served me well in Red Baron II, Tie Fighter, Terminal Velocity and many other classics. Alas, who has gameports anymore.
HunterZ Oct 21, 2015
Just played thru both freespace games using Freespace Open. They look gorgeous with the community produced graphics mods!

I wanted to play via my Logitech extreme 3D joystick, but I actually found the mouse to be way, way more accurate for aiming.

I should mention that the ending of the second game is very sudden and disappointing. I'm not sure why it is better remembered than the first game.
Mnoleg Oct 22, 2015
Quoting: tuubiSeems fun. Someone less lazy should ask GOG to package a custom Linux version using the open source stuff so we won't need to buy a Windows game. With any optional HD content included of course, because why not?

Desura did it. I miss Desura :(
http://www.desura.com/games/freespace-2

WARNING: Read this before considering any purchase in Desura.
http://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/desura-owner-bad-juju-games-files-for-bankruptcy.5485
calle Oct 22, 2015
I played the original many years ago. Does the MP work?

"You are firing on friendly targets, pilot."
tuubi Oct 22, 2015
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Quoting: Robert
Quoting: tuubiSeems fun. Someone less lazy should ask GOG to package a custom Linux version using the open source stuff so we won't need to buy a Windows game. With any optional HD content included of course, because why not?

Desura did it. I miss Desura :(
http://www.desura.com/games/freespace-2
Hmm. If Desura simply packaged the game with Freespace Open without any original code/scripting, shouldn't it be perfectly legal for GOG to resell their work or use it as a base? :P Assuming actual IP holders give their blessing...
Kanoniermeister Oct 22, 2015
Quoting: calleI played the original many years ago. Does the MP work?

"You are firing on friendly targets, pilot."

Yes it works. You just have to register with the network to login in game.

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Portal:Multiplayer
nifker Oct 22, 2015
Is the game content free(as in freedom)?
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