Yeah, I read a ton of them, and they're part of the reason I don't think subjectivity is the only valuable metric of artistic worth: I loved them! But they're really, really, really bad, and going back to them I can see that now. I think FS1 is a story that gets less interesting the more you think and look at it, and FS2 is the opposite.
Agreed. There's more to a story than just how we see it - and the less value it tends to have the more we see it. We could, in fact, take any story and by employing a bit of critical thinking, take it apart piece by piece and find all of it's flaws and plot-holes (and in this case, game inconsistencies and bad mission design). But of what benefit is it now? We can't rewite either FS1 or FS2 without making them completely different games so they are what they are - warts and all.
Now think back to a simpler time, 15 or so years ago. Do you remember that very first time you played FS1 (and later FS2), before you knew what you now know about them? How did they make you feel? The rush you felt, the battle stress, the hyper-awareness? What I'm sure you
weren't doing at the time was picking the story apart - you were just enjoying it.
Sadly, it seems, if all we have left after so many years of playing this game is picking it apart, where's the joy in playing it anymore? When all we can think while playing the game is "bad mission design", "poor weapons placement", "cheap model texturing", etc... where's the fun, the wonder, the thrill coming from? Is there any left?
Seems one of the truths of getting older is that no story is ever going to be as engaging as when you experienced it the
first time. It's true in games, books, movies, love and life. And there are fewer and fewer "first times" we can enjoy as we get older. So as I get older, as far as the Freespace stories are concerned, I like to put a real effort into trying to recapture that thrill I got while playing these games for the first time, as many times as I can (with both FS1 and FS2).
So for me, I could care less about plot holes and mission design (good or bad), I just want to enjoy the game - and for that familiar fleeting second feel the exhilaration of firing that last shot into the belly of the Lucifer and watching the (upgraded) cut scene play as it breaks apart again, just outside of the moons orbit. Have I seen it happen a 1000 times now? Yes. But if this is what Luke Skywalker felt like watching the Death Star come apart (and how I felt watching him do it), well then that's a feeling a want to keep experiencing as often as possible by way of these stories (warts and all) for as long as I'm able.
Ok, so maybe I don't look at the Freespace story lines from an intellectual or critical point of view - but I'm still having
fun with them and to me that
is the point of the game.
Ok, now the thread is done.
