Freespace 2

Description
Anybody been waiting for this? Yup, pure blast-stuff-up comes to Armada Files in the form of the GTVA and Shivan combined races in this one pack, designed to destroy all that comes before them, be it each other or any of the stock races, to which this is balanced to. Don't let the term balance believe that a Sovereign can go toe-to-toe with one of these battleships...because it can't. They're huge. Kilometres long kinda large. Yeah, Sovereign doesn't sound so tough now does it? Not with flak cannons, shield-piercing beam weapons and other such blistering traits that come from the Freespace 2 universe.

So, what is Freespace 2 (FS2)? It was a hit simulator game that was developed by the same people who made Klingon Academy and sufficed to say, the awesomeness from the latter was carried onto the former. A very sharp and agile game that went free-ware, the FS2 universe is littered with races all vying for power (isn't that the way) over the other, or at the least, trying to survive. Tough life, eh?

The two races bring new game-play techniques to the plate as well. The fighters for each race provide you with early defence, along with the defensive turret you can build for each race whilst later on providing fleet support for your un-shielded capital's. Don't expect fighters to do too much though in terms of offensive power, unless you have 100 of them in which case the enemy Ai, which I've been subject to it's err 'niceness', will likely have the same power to match and then some...plus a few capital's on the side.

Ship wise, models and textures and very close to their real FS2 counter-parts, so make sure you go starship spotting early on. Each of the two races does have a small supply of ships to build, including a couple of fighters on each side, but along with the stations, there isn't too much variety. There is enough for what you need and the difference does certainly play nicely into tech and resource management with lots of things doubling up, but this led me to a bit of confusion when beta'ing the Shivans. Don't let this throw you down as it is merely the first gauntlet of the mod. Overcome this and all you need to do is overcome the enemy Ai's fleet, no easy task I tell you.

Of course, one of those points is especially important. Resource management is pivotal. These ships are not cheap to build (why would be when they're double the length of a Romulan Warbird?) and if you lose focus of this, you'll be grinding your fleet to a steady halt. However, get control of the doubling-up function of certain ships and learn capital ship role's quickly and you'll be fighting the enemy Ai just as heavily as in the actual game itself.

As a mod itself though, it is fundamentally fun, which should be your main priority. The new things it adds to the plate certainly provide a fresh out-look on the game, while giving you a chance to pick a stock race and see how a few Klingon Bird fo Prey's can handle a Shivan destroyer. Content isn't missing either. Each race comes with a fully implemented interface, build button's, wireframes plus a new multi-player set-up window that is more akin to FS2's set-up. All in all, this is a recommend download for those who played and loved FS2, those who want a challenge against some hard, but perfectly balanced ships and those who want to slug it out in huge ships. There's enough here for everyone...if only I could find my Sathanas to blow the enemy up with...