Here we go:
I play games because I want to become immersed in a different role for an hour or so between my two jobs. I don't care if the game has all the bells and whistles, although it is nice. I prefer a game with a good, fresh (the first time around) storyline. Good character developement, and it has to give me a reason to keep playing it.
Wing Commander had all of these. A continuing story of the human race struggling in a 30-year war, coming out on top by your heroic actions, then a few years of peace, during which you manage to stop a war before it begins. Then you take on a new role in WCP, as the son of a Confed Ace, long dead, fighting a new unknown alien menace, who's only clues come from a thousands of years old prophecy.
Freespace...well start off at Prophecy. Replace "son of a Confed ace, long dead", with Son of some guy known as "Alpha 2"....maybe. Keep the unknown alien menace part. Also, the Vesudans or whatever....how long have we been fighting them again, and who exactly are they?
Wing Commander had quite a few characters I liked, Vaquero, Maniac, Hawk, Dekkar. Also some I didn't like, Thrakkath, Tolwyn, Rachel Coriolis (yeah, I never liked her).
Freespace...Let's see, there's Alpha 2, Gamma 1, and my Commanding officer what's his name.
Finally, In WC you follow the actions of a campaign where each victory and defeat paves the way for the next sortie that will get you to your final destination, Kilrah, Eath, Kilrah again...whatever.
Freespace had a semblance of this, but not quite enough to keep me interested. It almost seemed like one big string of unrelated events. As soon as there was a breakthrough in weapons technology, the entire ship was outfitted immediately, regardless of faltering supply lines and disrupted infrastructure. They must've been using Fed-ex.
My opinion:
Freespace had some nice graphics, but it just wasn't my groove.