Thirty-two years have passed. The bulk of the Terran Fleet was cut off from the Sol system with the violent destruction of the mighty Shivan destroyer, The Lucifer. Most terrans that have been locked away from their home, possibly forever, have kept on with the alliance. With combined efforts with the Vasudans, the alliance fleet has become quite powerful as well as impressive. Not everyone is happy with the current situation. A terran rebel faction, which is pretty much the equivalent of the Vasudan's Hammer of Light, detests the alliance and fight to break it apart. Most of the alliances' resources are focused into putting this rebellion to rest before the tensions created threaten the alliance that holds the two races together. Although the unfolding story seems a little cliché, it still keeps the player pushing forward to learn the truth behind what drives the different sides in this ongoing battle.

The most important thing about this title seems to be the overall focus on presentation, and creating an experience. Not only do the graphics excel in current terms of 3D representation, but the sound lends a hand to the thrill-ride as well.

Freespace 2 uses some rather nice effects to represent a more detailed space environment. The most noticeable effect has to be the all encompassing nebula. A volatile area of space that screws with sensors, targeting, and visual confirmation, the player must learn to adapt to this new environment or run into the chance of being caught in the crossfire of a lurking Shivan cruiser. Other enhancements include entirely new and well-detailed ship models. Older models from the first game are still present, but also benefit from the increase in detail.

If you thought the capital ships from the first game were large you haven't seen anything yet. Huge ships jump in from hyperspace and pound at the enemy's fleet. This of course wouldn't be possible without the apparent increase in technology, which was garnered from the first battle with the ancient Shivan enemy. Most of the capital ships (including older models) have been fitted with the latest in anti-fighter and anti-cruiser weapons. Capital ships now have the ability to keep the fighters and bombers at bay with flak guns. Although this isn't fool proof, this new weapon makes bombing runs and surgical strikes against larger ships much more dangerous. The beam weapon is now the main weapon of the alliance. This weapon provides the pure force necessary to stand toe to toe with the new Shivan threat.

This doesn't spell doom for the Shivan force. This new force is much larger and packs bigger ships than the first group of attackers. What everyone experienced in the Great War was simply the scouting party of a much larger force. The fighters, bombers, and capital ships are much meaner, not to mention the great numbers they appear in. This closes the gap between the terran/vasudan alliance's apparent jump in technology in the past 32 years.

One thing that has stayed the same involves the gameplay. Although the new environment and the new weapons of war present the potential for completely new gameplay strategies, the general rhythm of the game seems to remain true to that of the original Freespace. Of course if it isn't broke, don't fix it. That old adage remains mostly true in this game's case. The title still seems to have an odd difficulty scale. Although the first missions seem easy, later on in the game a couple missions take disturbing missions into frustration. They are mainly bomber missions, which require you to take out huge ships in a time that doesn't even seem fair. The original Freespace seemed to have this problem near the very end as well. Taking out the smaller cruiser before the Lucifer was actually more difficult than taking out the Lucifer while in hyperspace without shielding.

This aside the game doesn't suffer from much else. The control is almost a carbon copy of the original layout, with a few new options. I felt the control scheme didn't need to be fixed or added on to anyway. Everything is laid out just as most of us Freespace veterans remember it, and if you have the right joystick you can map most of the most used keyboard controls onto the stick.

The most thrilling part of this title still has to be riding my damaged fighter through the many explosions in the battles that surrounded me. The main reason this managed to tickle my fancy was Volition's pure use of sound. This game packs a real punch if you have a nice subwoofer setup. Just crank it all up and become part of the action. This of course is not recommended if you live in an apartment complex.

Freespace 2's performance online isn't too bad. PXO still has a pretty good track record in my book. Space sims are just really hard to pull of well on modem. With all the information that has to be sent (far more than a first person shooter) a modem simply isn't enough. Freespace by LAN, that is another story. It performs very well and is a complete blast. Of course this can be said for really any title with multiplayer capabilities. Freespace 2 performs as well as it can over modem, but online gaming has just reached the point where modems are barely adequate.