[Goober5000]

I like this thread.

[Cyborg17]

Ancient-Shivan War

Chronology: Ancients

Quick impressions: Stylized, atmospheric, primitive

Short Description: This campaign is the first two parts of the story of how the Ancients fell to the Shivans.

The good: The writing style of the campaign has a lot of unity and works well to create a culture for them.  You more or less feel like you are actually being spoken to by the Ancients.  It also references to the Ancients Monologues from FS1.  The campaign also shows a lot of polish, including command briefing animations and solid sound design.

The meh: The Ancients don't adapt to the shivan's technology, and so you never get shielding, but they handled shockwaves pretty well (by getting rid of most of them).  Most of the weapons will deplete your energy stores pretty quickly, so you have to plan around that.  The story was never completed, as well, and you will not have any real moments of triumph.  At some point, hopefully someone will complete Acts 3-5.

The bad: The story is somewhat rushed, unfortunately.  To have a few more missions to flesh out the stories would have been perfect.  If this is my biggest complaint you're doing well, and is more just a consequence of Freespace modding. Le sigh.

What else: Some missions can be difficult at higher levels.  The modpack is rather complete, though.  You can make a lot of different missions with what they created.  Yes, it would be nice to have nicer looking Ancients ships with less tile mapping, but it's better to actually have them and be able to use them.  Well done.

Campaign length: Long

Credits:
FSF - Team leader, jack-of-all-trades
Droid803 - FREDding, model converting, general modding
ShadowGorrath - Ex-team leader, effects, general modding
Starwolf1991 - FREDding, effects, general modding
Stormkeeper - FREDding, website works
FreeSpaceKing - Texturing
Tantalus53 - FREDding
Bigchunk1 - FREDding
Esarai - Modelling
Former team members:
Snail - Original tech descriptions
Maelstrom0511 - FREDding
Mobius - Testing

Special thanks to:
Hunter - Providing a space for ASW to exist: this website, our forum, and all the FTP space we ever needed
Aldo - The Achladia, Odigitria, Vassago and Kythera concepts, as well as the Tylisos model
The Shadow Genesis team - Super Cannon effects
The Blue Planet team - Bugfixing the Akrotiri
The Inferno team - Exclusive Ancient models
Flaming_Sword - Effects, interface templates
Alex Navarro - Gathering sound effects
Nighteyes - Explosion effects
Freeplaymusic.com - Music
Earth Defense - More music
Blackhole - Even more music
Ryan Main - Intro cutscene music

Release Thread: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=82887.0

[Cyborg17]

Bem Cavalgar

Chronology: Great War

Quick impressions: Desperate, difficult, polished

Short Description: Probably the most difficult campaign out there.  This is a campaign about defending the Vasuda system as the Lucifer attacks.

The good: A lot of work went into it. There is a map mission where you can pick between two different types of missions. Enemies feel challenging and objectives worthwhile. The intro cutscene is pretty amazing.  The ease with which your allies and civilians are wiped off the radar makes it feel like the end of the world.

The meh: Weapons don't feel powerful anymore.  Avengers especially are just not worth it.  This campaign literally forced me to use the flail for the first time in more than 10 years.  The author provided ways to get more powerful weaponry for you and your wing men, take those opportunities when possible.

The bad: Trying to do well on medium (which I am trying to play all these campaigns on) feels like fighting a heavyweight boxer.  All the things that you've tricked the ai with in the past you are now suddenly on the receiving end of.  Basilisks, for the first time, are ridiculously overpowered.  And at the end of the campaign, you don't feel as rewarded as is warranted from the effort you put into the campaign.  Even some sort of, "You saved _____ lives." would have been nice, honestly.

What else: The author decided that the shivans in the original Freespace are truly under-powered.  Here they will have beams, strong primary and secondary weaponry.  It can be jarring, but I like the decision.  It makes more sense in the long run.  A few tips: you need to micro-manage your wing men.

Campaign length: Medium (Branching Campaign)

Credits:

Blaise Russel
Freespace Port - all Freespace 1 content
Freespace Upgrade Project - strategic map ships based on their models
Black Wolf - Abydos installation
Trashman - Vasudan corvette
Blue Planet - fonts
Ben Prunty - Faster Than Light music (Federation and Last Stand)
Admiral Nelson - Patch to version 1.1
FreespaceFreak - Vasuda Prime bitmap

This campaign owes additional debts to:

Blue Planet
Goober5000
Ransom Arceihn

Release Thread

[Cyborg17]

Silent Threat: Reborn

Chronology: Great War

Quick impressions: Impressive, needed, fun

Short Description: ST:R is a re-imagining of the GTI rebellion, told in a way that fills in the holes left by the original, with an impressive addition of missions.

The good: Varied mission structure, voice acting, well-balanced, fun, sensible pirates, and more!  A certain mission where you have to protect a trio of science cruisers is probably the best single addition to the fanon that Hard-light has put forward, IMO.

The meh: The mission where a demon gets emp'ed doesn't make sense.  Why not do this all the time, GTVA???

The bad: Very little to complain about.  If I had to nitpick about something, it would be that all the built-in messages had to get rewritten for the voice acting. It was a little weird.  Necessary but weird.

What else: This is a no-brainer campaign, a must play.  Why are you still here?  Go!

Campaign length: Long

Credits:
Core Staff:
Galemp - Project Co-Leader, FREDder, Story Writer, Render Artist, Vasudan Voice Mixer, Cutscene Artist, Quality Assurance
Goober5000 - Project Co-Leader, FREDder, Story Writer, Programmer, Voice Manager, Promotional Manager, Quality Assurance
Admiral Nelson - Background Manager, Beta Tester
Tolwyn - Voice Post-Producer
Associate Staff:
Ace - Promotional Artist
Blaise Russel - Pinch FREDder
chief1983 - Promotional Artist
Dan Wentz - Outro cutscene music and sound
kv1at3485 - Beta Tester
mjn.mixael - Cutscene Artist
NGTM-1R - Beta Tester
Ransom Arceihn - Promotional Artist
Sesquipedalian - Interface Artist
Spicious - Model Editor
Steven Trauger - Promotional Artist
Tom Fetterolf - Logo Design
Vasudan Admiral - Cutscene Artist
Voice Talent - Voice123:
Robert Bair - Einstein Escape 1, Kappa 1 (str05), Minelayer 1
Pat Caporuscio - Lambda 2 (str06), Lambda 1 (str13)
James L. Collymore - Admiral Glaive
Dave DeAndrea - Vasudan Translator
Matt Forrest - GTC Adamant, GTSC Moreau bridge officer
September Day Leach - GTI Holonet Monitor (Phoenix)
Kevin Lowney - Talus Particle Accelerator, GTSC Ratna
Dina Monaco-Boland - GTC Challenger, Lambda 1 (str05)
Brian Peck - Einstein Escape 2, Lambda 1 (str06), Lambda 2 (str13), Alpha 1
Sarah Pesek - Captain Larson (Phoenix)
Kevin Renshaw - GTSC Moreau lab officer, GTC Lone Wolf, GTC Minotaur
Eamonn Riley - Admiral Scott
Steve Royal - GTC Monitor
Peter Sandon - Jotunheim Commander
Blake Williams - Admiral Po, GTC Orff
Voice Talent - Voice Acting Alliance:
Jennifer Alyx - Wingman 4 (*****)
Betsy LaPolla - Admiral Tess, Decoy Kappa 1 (str05), Theta 1 (str07)
Voice Talent - Voice Acting Club:
Aramek - Wingman 1 (Veteran)
Rina-chan - Wingman 3 (Vixen)
Shard-Spider - Wingman 2 (Buddy)
Voice Talent - Game Warden:
Daniel Rodrigues - 82nd Nighthawks Squadron Leader, GTSC Einstein, GTC Iapetus, Terran Soldier (str13), GTC Gladiator
Voice Talent - Hard Light Productions:
Ted Alexander - Terran Command
Ryan "Sphynx" Anderson - Wingman 5 (Rookie)
freespacegundam - 91st Phantoms Squadron Leader
Galemp - GTSC Hinton, Iota 1 (str05), Frank (Phoenix)
Killfrenzy - GTSC Giordano
Mike Krcil, GTSC Herschel, Captain Montgomery (Phoenix)
Ransom Arceihn - GTI Pilot

[Goober5000]

I really like this thread.