General FreeSpace > FreeSpace Discussion

FS2 is a cosmic horror story

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Rhys:
If you boil the plot down to its elements: Plot starts in the middle of a conflict with rebels/terrorists/whatever, antagonist opens a pandora's box for knowledge/insight/power and unleashes a horror that everyone vastly underestimates the unfathomable scale of the mysterious destructive aliens. At some point in the plot, they think they're getting the upper hand and are overconfident before having to come to terms with an incomprehensibly powerful force that at the end is revealed to have the ability to destroy stars. The story doesn't resolve beyond successfully sealing themselves off from what was a major population center and not being completely annihilated. The consequences of that aren't canonically explained but user-made campaigns have addressed it pretty well.

It only dawned on me when I was older that FS2 was kind of a dark game. I also liked how grounded and gritty the universe was compared to other space games.

Assassin714:

--- Quote from: Rhys on January 13, 2022, 07:59:32 am ---I also liked how grounded and gritty the universe was compared to other space games.
--- End quote ---

Such as?

Luis Dias:
Yeah... that's like... what the game is!

Rhys:

--- Quote from: Assassin714 on January 13, 2022, 08:06:58 am ---
--- Quote from: Rhys on January 13, 2022, 07:59:32 am ---I also liked how grounded and gritty the universe was compared to other space games.
--- End quote ---

Such as?

--- End quote ---

Wing Commander, X-Wing, Freelancer, etc

Iain Baker:
Yup, all of this.

What first made me sit up, take notice and take FS seriously was when I first heard a Vasudan 'talk'. After Starwars, Trek, B5 etc it was refreshing to hear an alien that didn't speak perfect English. They were physiologically incapable of creating human sounds, just as we were incapable of replicating theirs. Hummm... I thought to myself. looks like we have something that takes itself seriously, where the creators have actually put some thought and effort in and it isn't aimed at kids.

Then it had political factions, traitors who were wiser than their loyal peers, religious zealots and aliens that were truly Alien. Its notions of good and evil were a good deal more 'grey' than the childish 'black and white' portrayals in most popular sci-fi franchises of the time. I also liked how it was not at all clear until the last second if humanity was going to prevail, and even when it did, it didn't exactly 'win' it just survived at great cost. I also liked the fact you were a simple and largely nameless pilot, who wasn't special, wasn't the chosen one, wasn't the son of some military hero, and the war didn't centre around you. All these too got my attention and kept it ever since. 
 
If FS had been like most other franchises which were hard to take seriously, such as Wing Commander (Cat people, seriously???) then I doubt I would have remained interested, regardless of how well it played.

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