Descent FreeSpace: The Great War - PC Review - Gamecenter

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Descent FreeSpace: The Great War

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Despite the fact that the marketing folks attended The Spice Girls Academy of Business (i.e. every game they make must have Descent in the name) and aside from some minor technical glitches, FreeSpace is a shining example of the space-combat genre. Descent: Freespace--The Great War It is derivative of past games, but it refines their innovations and adds enough of its own to make it stand out as a winner.
If you want a multiplayer space-combat sim with state-of-the-art graphics, you can't do better than this game. Throw in the incredible mission editor, and you've got serious play value coming your way. Descent FreeSpace: The Great War sets the standard for features that all games (not just space-combat sims) should include, and if you must delete other space-combat sims to get some free space on your hard drive, then by all means do so. You won't regret it.
Tips
-The match speed feature is a godsend. Use it to stay on your opponents' tail, but make sure you stay there. It doesn't help much if they're coming toward you.
-For maximum effect, take out a ship's shields before firing hull-damaging missiles. This is a simple strategy, but highly effective.
-Proper shield management is your best chance for survival. Increasing your shield recharge rate is generally a good idea. Keep your enemies directly behind or in front of you (the latter is much better), and use the up and down cursor keys to keep those shields strong. Better yet, see the next tip.
-Aside from your firing and targeting keys, I suggest mapping the following keys conveniently to the joystick. I find them useful at any given second: match speed, accelerate, afterburner, launch countermeasures, augment forward shield, augment rear shield. Also, if your joystick supports a throttle (and I hope it does), you'll need to map it in the "ship" section of the configuration screen to get it to work.

If you liked this game, you might want to check out Wing Commander: Prophecy or X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter.

Hugh Falk currently owns a TRS-80, TI 99/4A, Apple IIc, Vic-20, C-64, SX-64, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, two networked PCs, and several old game systems. His goal is to someday load them all into a balloon and use the heat they generate to circle the globe. Agree or disagree with the review? Let us know.

Facts

Descent FreeSpace: The Great War
Interplay
Price: $55.00
Pentium-133 with 3D accelerator (Glide or D3D only) or Pentium-166 without 3D accelerator, 32MB RAM, 210MB disk space, 8X CD-ROM drive; Windows 95 with DirectX 5.0 or Windows NT 4.0 with DirectX 3.0, Direct Sound-compatible sound card

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Descent FreeSpace: The Great War

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