Top Secret Magazine Descent: Freespace

WOW! The graphics on this game are amazing, and the game itself is super realistic. Unfortunately, a great portion of this game's features were coppied from Wing Commander: Prophecy. If you have ever played Prophecy, you will immediately see how these two games are alike. When you are sighting an enemy, they both lock similar, and both games bear a striking resemblence to each other...You'd almost think they were made from the same company.

Descent: Freespace is totally different From Descent 1 and 2. It does not continue the storyline, or have anything to do with Descent. So why is it called Descent then? The only reason why it's called 'Descent:Freespace' instead of just 'Freespace' is because 'FreeSpace' already has a trademark for a disk compression tool. Rather than renaming it to something else, they just put 'Descent' in front of it. :) Well anyway, back to the game. You have Wingmen like in WC:Prophecy, and have tons of different missions...an example of a really cool mission is when you have to destroy a cruiser...The cruiser just floats along space, minding it's own business, you launch your anti-cruiser bomb, and BOOM! The explosion looks awesome!

Descent: Freespace - The Great War has top notch graphics. These graphics are really awesome. The shield effects are wonderful. If you shoot a ship's shields, they will absorb the damage and the shields will flash around the enemy ship. After their shields are gone, they have the ship's hull, and your weapons make a "Crack" sound when they hit it. It's pretty cool. Another thing I like is that Freespace allows you to custom make your ships...you can add nuclear fusion warheads, different kinds of blasters, and more!

During the game, I loved the little movie screens with people talking to you, and I love the comments that your wingmen and enemies say. This is really a fun game once you get truly enveloped in the storyline. The planets & asteroids in the game are true 3d and are really realistic, and the lighting effects are quite good.

Overall, this game is pretty cool. It is addicting, and every time you play it you want to play it more. If you are a great fan of the Wing Commander Series, or just like Simulation games, give this game a try. It's clean, smooth graphics, awesome shield effects, and great sounds make this a great game.

Company:
Interplay www.interplay.com

Category:
Space/Simulation

NOTES:

Interest: 94 %
Maniability : 85%
Graphics: 98%
Sound : 95 %
Originality : 70 %

TOTAL : 89 %

Requirements:

Operating System:
Windows 95/98 with DirectX 5.0
or Windows NT 4.0 with DirectX 3.0

Processor:
Pentium 166MHz or Higher
(Pentium 133Mhz with 3d accellerator)

Memory:
32MB RAM

Hard Drive:
43MB For Demo,
At Least 210MB For Full

Video:
2MB SVGA Recommended
With 3d Accellerator

Michael Pieczynski

DEMO