Recently played Blue Planet. I installed everything down to the advanced visual unlocks.
Even in the first mission I was convinced that this was going to be a high quality treat. Starting just outside the Orestes and her super detailed turrets and shaded edges followed by that amazing Skybox background which is almost as good as the looking at the real thing, I got that giddy chill one gets when one thinks to oneself “the next few hours of your life are going to be good”.
The presentation in the first few missions was very good as well. I did not feel ‘thrown into’ the story and most everything was well explained. The messages were carefully crafted and all written work; down to the mission debriefings were clear and full of interesting information.
The original music was professionally done and I was surprised how well it fit the mood I was in at any given moment in the campaign. In addition, I thought to myself how some of its music would stand pretty well on its own.
Voice acting was very good. I could not get enough of certain characters such as Al’Faddil and I also think I heard the GTD Agamemnon’s command brief master from the campaign “cardinal spear” as GTVA high command in the last mission.
As I started to get into the later missions I found myself actually caring about Cory, Taylor and the rest of the fleet. In the final combat mission I wanted to make sure every ship survived the engagement. It was interesting to see the theme of friendship and trust play through this campaign only to find out that the GTVA was planning on betraying whatever government they happened to find at Sol.
Interesting to note that there were no Vasudans in the expedition, I think it was intended that this campaign have a ‘human’ feel with themes of kinship and emotion. Perhaps the Vasudans would have made things complicated. Also perhaps the Vasudans felt like it was not their place to be ambassadors to Sol which makes sense.
While the campaign delivered an entertaining atmosphere, an engaging story, deep characters and larger than life visual effects, I grew weary hearing phrases such as “we need you to destroy the forward beam cannons on that Shivan warship”. Without sugar coating what I am about to say, the variety of things the player is expected to do in the campaign is low; escort warships and chase down turrets. I think this campaign's goal is to provide an immersive experience for the player and was less focused on giving Alpha 1 gameplay variety. It’s not a bad direction to go in, the missions do a good job embodying massive and tense battle scenes and everything flows smoothly. Gameplay campaigns such as PI for example I think are exclusively for veteran Freespace pilots looking for a new challenge. (I died a lot trying to get through PI.) Props to Procyon Insurgency though even though it made me shout at my computer a number of times. 15 out of 15 turrets just in time, and then the Saturn collides with my ship and kills me as it warps out!
At any rate, I don’t want to understate how much I enjoyed this campaign. It was a wildly entertaining ride that kept me at the edge of my seat. With all the in-mission messages flying back and forth and the interlaced web of story elements slowly unfolding itself on a minute by minute basis, there was rarely a time where I was not 100% hooked. I imagine that the missions were well tested because they appeared very polished and were filled with ‘purpose’.
I really enjoyed Mission number 10 “Forced Entry” and was intrigued by all of the friendly ships coming one at a time, each with an individual personality, situation, and system of defense. I thought of it as the ‘get to know the fleet’ mission. Perhaps it was good that I enjoyed this mission, because I ended up having to replay it several times due to losing the GTC Duke, death by beam fire and death by torpedo explosions. For the torpedoes, It took me two missions to figure out what was killing me. I learned to like the idea of capital ship based torpedoes once I learned to stay away from the impact zone.
However, what got my stomach to twist more than anything else is the nature and background behind the Vishnans. They have somewhat of a religious air about them and carry with them the implication that they are at the end of discovery, the source of all the answers. Also the Shivans are labeled with a motive, connected to finding some Brahman or ‘worthy’ race. I would interject a soft criticism and say that one of the things that I like about the Freespace universe is that some, or perhaps many, things are not explained to keep the player in a state of wonder; to always give the idea that there is something more to what is happening and perhaps the ‘answer’ might be in the next mission. The Vishnans have all the answers and if they were to become the centerpiece of the campaign, I feel things would have gone south. I chuckled when hearing that the Shivans and the Vishnans were going to debate each other in some kind of ‘parliament of the universe’. It reminded me of “Space Odyssey 2010” when the movie explains the motives behind the monoliths. Perhaps there is a profound implication that even the fabric of the universe is not above democracy, but it’s a bit shocking to try and swallow. Fortunately for me, Blue Planet is not all about Vishnans and the main purpose of finding Sol came back into realization in the last few missions.
Later in the campaign after hearing about the GTVA betrayal, the addition of the Vishnans makes a bit more sense because it shows that the Shivans may have been right in saying humans know nothing but to cause war and destroy rather than create. I felt moved by this realization and more sympathetic to the cause of Earth as a result. Perhaps that was the intent. Another part of me would prefer the Shivans to remain an unknown adversary.
I can’t think of any reason why Vishnan ships are re-textured ancient models other than the obvious that the models are expertly made and featuring them in this campaign makes good use of the work. Seems sensible, but I just feel like it is worth pointing out, especially with the campaign Ancient-Shivan war in the works. The only story explanations I could think to explain this are that the Vishnans ‘copied’ the Ancients’ designs as they formed their will into reality. What seems less likely is that the Ancients ‘copied’ Vishnan ships or are a descendant of the Vishnans. Or perhaps the Ancients evolved into the Vishnans instead of being annihilated by the Shivans, but hey we can speculate all day.
The GTD Titan, GTD Raynor, GTCv Chimera, and GTC Hyperion classes are all really nice looking ships. I nodded to myself when Captain Iwakura said that the ships were “as beautiful as they are powerful”. Looking forward to the nature of the United Earth Federation’s ship designs. I was impressed with the UEFg Karuna design. It seems to have a non-traditional fighting style by going in close and attacking with warheads like some kind of long range massive ordinance bomber. Perhaps these are the intended tactics of a new ‘frigate’ class.
I think I will be agreeing with most people in saying that the Balor primary weapon is very fun to use. Easy to target with fast paced action all rolled into one. It gets the blood going to see a Shivan fighter fly past and get ripped to shreds by fast paced rapid fire goodness. I think this is what Volition was going for with the Subach HL-7.
Overall, very nice campaign. It consumed the latter half of my weekend and has gotten me to anticipate the next release from the BP team. I get the feeling that everything in the campaign has been thoroughly tested and thought through to produce something well polished and solid. Also I am impressed how all the elements, story, gameplay, etc. flowed together and acted as a single unit. Truly a professional undertaking. Thanks for making my weekend BP team!
EDIT: fixed use of spoiler cover (thanks to Jeff Vader)
