Other space combat games

T

Therein

Spaceman
Its sad but ture Wing Commander is an old game. However it is still really one of a kind. WC seams to be a bench mark for all other space combat game. Out of the very few games in this genra I have found non of them come close to offering a space combat simulation with a solid story line through out.

What other games ar there in this genra which people like me (I consider my self brought up on WC since it was the 1st game I ever played and 18years later still playing) might enjoy?
 
I know it's pretty frowned upon, but I enjoyed Freespace and thought that Starlancer was ok. Neither holds a candle to Wing Commander, but they provided a fun (and all too often frustrating) diversion from Wing Commander during the dark age of 1999-2006.
 
I just loved Freespace 1&2 (very good story). I am still a big fan of Independence War (Edge of chaos is really great) - it is the closest game to what I can call a space simulator. I liked the Starlancer. Freelancer was (IMHO) very dissapointing (it was a pure shooter) and I didn't like it.

There were some other games I remember but none of them worth to mention :cool:
 
"Frowned upon" you say. Freespace 2 is my favorite space sim of all time. Big fan of the SCP work and all the fan-made campaigns too. It's true there's a "small" rivalry between Wing Commander and Freespace fans but I just ignore that. FS2 perfected the genre in my opinion.
 
Well, let's not open up that can of worms again eh? Just go onto google and type in the right keywords to find a slew of fascinating and hilarious Wing Commander vs Freespace debates... the funny thing is I actually just did this for kicks and Loaf is personally involved in most of them :D.

But I don't want to hijack this thread by bringing that here just because Freespace 2 is -my- favorite space sim ;-).

Back to topic: Outside of Wing Commander and the two Freespace's there aren't that many space sims that I really enjoy. TIE Fighter is an amazing game and one of the genre's masterpieces to be sure. Its prequel is great also but I never got far into X-Wing Alliance.

StarLancer... well like I said, it's just a good game but not great. It has a great interface and its physics/graphics engine is great but not nearly on the same level as Freespace 2. And in terms of story and characters the Wing Commander games trump it hands down. But hey I enjoyed it on my last playthrough two summers ago.
 
Falcon988 said:
Well, let's not open up that can of worms again eh?
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It's not very nice to say that and do the opposite.

Falcon988 said:
Just go onto google and type in the right keywords to find a slew of fascinating and hilarious Wing Commander vs Freespace debates... the funny thing is I actually just did this for kicks and Loaf is personally involved in most of them :D.
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I'm not sure that's funny. The fact is that you can search for message board threads that involve Wing Commander in any form, and LOAF is personally involved in most of them, so your observation should be no surprise.

Falcon988 said:
But I don't want to hijack this thread by bringing that here just because Freespace 2 is -my- favorite space sim ;-).
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I'm sorry.

Falcon988 said:
StarLancer... well like I said, it's just a good game but not great. It has a great interface and its physics/graphics engine is great but not nearly on the same level as Freespace 2. And in terms of story and characters the Wing Commander games trump it hands down. But hey I enjoyed it on my last playthrough two summers ago.
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Yeah, if you're looking for something like a mainline Wing Commander game, Starlancer's your best bet. Of that last big turn-of-the-century crop, Starlancer looks the best, plays the best and is the most complete overall package, it's just dry compared to Wing Commander. More recently there's stuff like Darkstar One, but those are almost always more like Privateer and Freelancer.
 
ChrisReid said:
Yeah, if you're looking for something like a mainline Wing Commander game, Starlancer's your best bet. Of that last big turn-of-the-century crop, Starlancer looks the best, plays the best and is the most complete overall package, it's just dry compared to Wing Commander.
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You know? I would have loved to see a Starlancer 2

It just had the right feel for me... I was almost expecting to see cats... :D
 
The thing with StarLancer is that I really missed not having -any- dialogue or story whatsoever with the other pilots in your squadron. Though you can't really fault the game since it's not as though that was a norm in any non-WC space sim (although it really should have been).

They -tried- to add an interactive element to it, a "between the missions" element if you will. You watch the news, listen to music, go on the computer... whereas in the X-Wing or Freespace series' there was little or no interactivity. You just hop from one mission to the next and the story is usually told exclusively through briefings. So I've always been a bit bummed with SL that they didn't take that interactivity a step further but that's just the Wingnut in me.
 
I liked Freespace, although it never came even near any Wing Commander.
It is sad that some WC-fans still hate it just because it was the last good game in that time and it is blamed for the bad times (which still go on, SpaceSims still aren't that popular nowadays). I'm sure that another WC would maybe have helped the genre, but, well, we all know what happened...

Btw: I liked Freelancer (but not it's end), I disliked Starlancer (poor story and very bad translation to german [played it in german]) and I like X-Beyond the Frontier and all its sequels. Good games.

EDIT: I forgot X-Wing Alliance. Was good.
 
For my part, I still play sometimes XF5700 mantis: the experimental fighter (one of the hardest games I've had). And I also have some more obscure wing commander opponents like EPIC (with a special mention as this was the first game to unclude planetary missions along with space missions) and it's sequel inferno: the odyssey continues (very good: this one). Also, I still play renegade: battle for jacob's star which is also very good.
 
Freespace 1 & 2 were two great Space Sims. They had different strengths in relation to the wing commander series. While wing commander focused in providing a really immersive experience with lots of character and characters, FS was all about what happened in the cockpit, with great graphic engines that were both good looking and provided awesome gameplay. The story wasn't bad at all, but of course it never reached the cinematic glory of WC. Sure, we didn't care much about alpha-whatever, but the sheer amount of excitement and tension to be had in any mission was staggering. The series even managed to pull off much smoother and better scripted missions than Starlancer. (starlancer was nice, but the goddamned mission scriptiong was way too heavy handed and clunky).

Freespace 2 also had a few cool things like the optional SpecOps line of missions within the main campaign. It is fondly remembered by many Space Sim fans, and is sorely missed.
 
You know when you come right down to it there wasn't -that- many good space sims made. Outside of the Wing Commander/Freespace/X-Wing franchises I don't think we've even mentioned 10 other space sims. :p
 
Yeah, the X series is nice, but it's really weak in the story side and kinda like MS Excel in Space (I do like to fool around with it, though, bought them for cheap on Steam and the last game looks gorgeous). It's kinda souless.

Darkstar one is not very good, the gameplay is way too simplified. just circle strafe a shoot. the main ship is downright ugly and you can't have another one. The economic system is bad.

The closest thing to the gameplay and experience of the classic space sims of old is, strangely enough, the Ace Combat series (ps2 and now xbox 360). They're arcadey enough to be fun and easy to start playing (but not easy to master), but they still offer some solid flying and shooting. The stories are kinda nice, very epic in tone, and AC5 has some really exciting missions. You do care about your very talkative wingmen, BTW. Edge, Blaze and Archer are all really cool. The selection of planes and weaponry in each game is really, really cool. It's almost like "airplane porn" (paraphrasing the advertisings for the console FPS "Black").

I'd be really happy with another FreeSpace or X-Wing game. But of course, the one I want most is another classic Wing Commander game.
 
Yes, Chris is right - I'm involved in pretty much every debate here.

That said, I'm not knocking Freespace itself... just the effect it had on the market (which, as we all know, is not an indicator of how good a game is or how much work was put into it). I do also disagree with the idea that it's *perfect* - or even that any piece of art could be 'perfect'. That said, I think you'd need to be a lot closer to a straight cross between X-Wing's game mechanics and Wing Commander's story and immersion. Freespace doesn't quite do it.
 
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