It's a space sim.

The game that this is MOST like is

Xwing vs Tie Fighter / Xwing Alliance

The style of game is the older school linear single player campaign. You're playing a series of missions that tell a story as you progress. As you progress from Freespace 1, to its expansion, to/through Freespace 2 - mission by mission you'll see the technology progress via the weapons and ships being fielded.

It's of the time where power management between shields/engines/weapons was pretty much invented - you can control your shield strength by quadrant.

The missions are simple and linear but difficult and detailed. I first played these games in the late 90s when they were released and I am still loving playing through them again because the core gameplay is straight up fun. It's very much star wars style in the sense of it being ww2 style dogfighting in space (with lock on missiles).

Also, as became the standard around then, you are able to target and receive damage on specific subsystems. So like, my shields go down and I take a few direct hits that hurt bad, leaving my hull at 32% but also having destroyed my sensors and communication systems.

So I can't target enemies, see their location on radar or send a message through coms to my AI wingmates to ask them to cover me. However you can do the same thing to enemy fighters and strategically targeting subsystems is a key part of strategically taking down capital ships.

It has amazing lore though and really fun ship design. FS-one is like an appetizer, but they go all out with awe inspiring capital ships by the time you get into FS2.
FS1 they are like very large platforms filled with tons of fighter scale turreted weapons, like deathstar trench runs. But FS2 Awe inspiring in scale, and in weaponry, where without spoiling - they develop some truly epic capital to capital weaponry which was jaw dropping originally and nowadays with the remastering, is just as powerful as ever.


The number of controls are numerous though, in that sense it's a bit like Elite.

And you do control power distribution, shield quadrant power etc

And yes, you can consider it the same quality as a professional remaster. It really rises above the level of a 'mod'.

Every single texture in the game, the AI, the triggers, the mission structures have all been redone, optimized and improved.

To me, its age becomes a completely forgotten factor and I just enjoy getting lost in its universe.

By buying just freespace 2, you'll end up being able to play the fully remastered Freespace 1 - the expansion to freespace 1 which is the same length as the main campaign in its remastered version and freespace 2.

Also people use the same updated everything and have created many super high quality player made campaigns once you finish those that expand on the lore of the two games.

And if you like battlestar galactica, there are a few total conversion campaigns that give hands down the most immersive BSG viper piloting experience I've ever seen.

Defending a battlestar from multiple basestars as they launch wave after wave of nukes - not just dodging enemy fire, and shooting down nukes with your cannons, but also having to be incredibly careful not to bump into the Battlestars infamous flak wall while you do it. The community for FS2 went all out. Mainly because the entire code, barring nothing, was released a long while ago while no one owned the rights.

People have been working on and perfecting these for ten years, so it's a really great experience.

I'm not positive about this but from what I understand, you can also play through each of these cooperatively as well. But personally I just play single player because I need to be able to rage quit and come back later without inconveniencing anyone ;)