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Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War

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FreeSpace
Developer(s)Volition Inc
Publisher(s)Interplay
Platform(s)Windows
ReleaseNovember, 1999
Genre(s)Space simulation
Mode(s)Singleplayer and Multiplayer
File:Fsshot0037.jpg
Descent: FreeSpace Screenshot.

Descent: FreeSpace is a space simulation computer game series developed by Volition Inc., one of the two companies (along with Outrage Entertainment) that formed when Parallax Software, the creators of Descent, split. For contractual reasons the game was called Conflict: FreeSpace in Europe. After THQ acquired Volition Inc., the source code for the game was released to the fan community and the FreeSpace engine has continued to develop under the FreeSpace Source Code Project.

History

The original title, Descent: FreeSpace - The Great War, was released in mid-1998. It had one expansion pack in the form of Silent Threat. FreeSpace 2 was released in 1999. While FreeSpace 2 did not have an expansion pack, it was later re-released twice: the first time as FreeSpace 2: Game of the Year Edition which included several user-made missions and the second time, in 2004, publisher Interplay released the GotY edition as a limited edition of 2000 copies with the title "20th Anniversary Edition", celebrating Interplay's own 20th anniversary. In reality however, this second re-release was considered a fairly obvious attempt to capitalize on the shortage of copies of the game, which were going for upwards of $50 at the time on auction houses like eBay, and would have generated a quick hundred-thousand dollars for the ailing Interplay. Although the FreeSpace saga was officially exclusive to Windows, it was ported to Linux after the source code to FreeSpace 2 was released in 2002. A Mac OS X port has recently reached a playable beta status.

FreeSpace was heralded by game reviewers, having assimilated the best points of other space combat simulators like Wing Commander and adding its own features. FreeSpace offers intelligent wingmen the player can order around, an intricate storyline, multiplayer and capital ships nearly 6 kilometers in length. It also includes the FRED (FReeSpace EDitor), a mission editor used by the game designers themselves, allowing users to produce many of their own campaigns and missions.

FreeSpace 2 is a polished successor to the original with practically identical gameplay and interface but featuring enhanced graphics, nebula effects and beam weapons for larger ships that radically alter the battlefield. Even though FreeSpace 2 was lauded by the gaming press, it failed to sell very well, effectively marking the end of the era for this style of the space simulation video game. After FreeSpace 2's release, Volition broke away from publisher Interplay Productions and joined THQ where it went on to design Red Faction and Summoner. As of 2006, the future prospects of a FreeSpace 3 appear bleak.

Still, the FreeSpace saga lives on in the work of mission designers and "modders", some of whom have become veritable experts and are training younger members of the community. New, user-made campaigns sport custom ships and weapons, detailed storylines and decision-based mission branching. Another project, the FreeSpace Source Code Project (also known as "FS2Open"), was started after Volition released the FreeSpace 2 source code, which has elevated the features of the game far past its original capabilities. Although many improvements are graphical in nature, there are also a number of beneath-the-hood improvements for modding the game. This has helped spur the development of mods for other sci-fi universes, such as Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, Wing Commander, and Star Fox. An active developer and modding community is gathered at the Hard Light Productions Forums.

Backstory

Template:Spoiler

Descent: FreeSpace is set in 2335. At the beginning of the game, the Terrans (humans) have been at war with the Vasudans (an alien species) for fourteen years. Without warning, a third species, known as the Shivans, appears on the scene. The Terrans and Vasudans are directly threatened by their massive fleet, led by the flagship, designated Shivan SuperDestroyer Lucifer. As a result, the feuding races formed an alliance to defeat the technologically-superior Shivans. A group of zealous Vasudans called the Hammer of Light would interfere with the alliance, believing that the Shivans were gods. A fourth, unseen race is known as the Ancients, whose lore detailed their war with the Shivans and thorough knowledge of subspace portals that linked the universe's systems together. These portals are a natural phenomenon that are used to connect planetary systems to each other and allow quick transit between them through the use of "jump nodes".

File:Vol2-10.jpg
FreeSpace 2 Screenshot.

The final mission of Descent: FreeSpace takes place in subspace, after the Lucifer enters a jump-node on its way to Sol. Due to the Lucifer's inability to use shields in subspace, a small strike force of fighters and bombers are sent through the jump node as the Lucifer enters. The strike force is able to wreck the Lucifer's five main reactors, thereby destroying the flagship just as it exits through the Sol jump node. The resulting explosion destroys the Sol jump node, severing Earth's connection with the rest of the Universe.

Silent Threat is set around the same time as the Descent: FreeSpace. It chronicles the fall of Galactic Terran Intelligence (GTI), a rogue faction within Terran Command that specialized in secret operations and research.

FreeSpace 2 takes place 32 years after the events of Descent: FreeSpace. The alliance between the Terrans and Vasudans is sealed with the foundation of the Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance (GTVA). The GTVA campaign in this game is three-fold. Their first priority was in stopping the Neo-Terran Front (NTF) led by Admiral Aken Bosch. Bosch, a veteran of the GTI, united a group of rogue Terrans under the banner of hatred of Vasudans. Initially, he threatened to destabilize the Alliance and destroy the Vasudan race. The second priority was the discovery of the Knossos, a massive, ring-shaped device believed to have been constructed by the Ancients. In essence, the Knossos appeared to be an artificial portal generator. This obviously interested the Terrans, who were still searching for a way to return to their homeworld. The third, and most dangerous, was the return of the Shivans. This time, the Shivans have a fearsome new array of ships, including the Shivan Juggernaut Sathanas that is over 5.5 kilometers in length.

During the course of the campaign, the player learns about the truth behind the Neo-Terran Front and the nature of the Knossos Device. The NTF insurgency is quelled near the beginning of the campaign when the Knossos Device is activated; this opens access to a nebula that is discovered to be filled with Shivan forces. The eventual retreat and destruction of the portal is not enough to stop a second Shivan incursion, and as hopes for victory slowly disappear, humanity takes desperate measures in order to secure its survival. The most daring of these include the introduction of the GTVA Colossus, a 6 kilometre long super-destroyer and the use of the GTD Bastion (one of the players carriers from the original game) loaded with "Meson Bombs" detonated in the threshold of a jump node in order to seal it in the same manner as the Lucifer's destruction at the end of the first war, which sealed the Sol system off from the rest of the universe.

Despite these desperate measures, the Shivans continue their assault and show no signs of stopping. The Colossus, thought invincible by many, is eventually destroyed. Its destruction causes Terran morale to plummet, as the Shivans grow closer and closer to finishing what they started 32 years before. In a cutscene near the end of the game, the player is shown the last recorded log entry of Admiral Aken Bosch. By this point in the game, it is already known that Bosch has been attempting to make first contact with the Shivan forces (Up until now, contact has never been successfully made with Shivan forces; they do not reply to hails). While listening to the log entry, it is revealed that Bosch was apparently successful in his attempts. Furthermore, he and several of his crew were actually brought on-board a Shivan transport for reasons unknown. It is never revealed whether the Shivans are actually interested in contact with the Terrans, or if their communications with Bosch were further attempts to destroy the Terrans.

In the final mission of FreeSpace 2, the player is tasked with evacuating Terran civilian and military personnel from the Capella system, where the Shivans have been inexplicably congregating. At least eighty Shivan Sathanas-class juggernauts have surrounded the Capella sun. In the final minute of the mission, the Capella sun begins to go supernova, and the player is presented with a choice: stay behind to help the last civilians escape (which will invariably result in the player's death from the blast of the sun), or flee to the jump node and escape. Both options are acceptable, and the game will be completed either way.

The final cutscene displays the Sathanas fleet in the process of detonating the Capella sun. Just before it goes supernova, about half of the destroyers enter subspace and flee to an unknown location. Those remaining continue, apparently finishing the process of detonating the sun. Why they were detonating the sun is one of the major questions still on fans' minds.

Unfortunately, due to Interplay going out of business, the story may never be officially concluded. Template:Endspoiler

Races

Terrans

In the FreeSpace universe, Terrans have spread across some of the galaxy thanks to their development of subspace technology, through which humanity has laid claim to many star systems. The expansion of their sphere of influence eventually put them into conflict with the Vasudans, which became a 14-year-long war. Terran factions are organized under the Galactic Terran Alliance (GTA), which later evolves into the Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance.

Vasudans

The Vasudans are a tall, bipedal race evolved to thrive in the harsh environment of their homeworld Vasuda Prime. They are a civilization of philosophers, artists, and scholars. They immerse themselves in the teachings of those who came before them, perceiving history not as a linear chronology of events but as a space inhabited by both the living and the dead. Their name may have been taken from the Hindu name Vasudeva.

To the Terran outsider, Vasudan society appears convoluted and ritualistic. The Vasudans themselves may seem arrogant, treacherous, and superstitious. On the other hand, Vasudans tend to view Terrans as aggressive, paranoid, and stupid. Thirty years of peaceful interaction between Terrans and Vasudans has helped to deconstruct these stereotypes.

The crowning achievement of the Vasudan civilization is its language. For the average Terran, the formalities governing its usage are beyond comprehension. Syntax and vocabulary are dictated by such factors as the speaker's age, rank, and caste, the time of day and the phase of the Vasudan calendar, and the relative spatial position of the speaker to the Emperor. This is further compounded by the existence of several alphabets, dozens of verb tenses, and thousands of dialects. It is thought that a mishandling of this language by Terrans was one of the factors that caused the 14-year-war. A translation device is now standard on all GTVA communications systems, enabling Terrans and Vasudans to understand each other.

Because the Vasudan homeworld was primarily desert, the Terrans used Egyptian names to designate Vasudan warships during the Terran-Vasudan War and the Great War. After the defeat of the Shivans, the Vasudans insisted on maintaining this convention. The Emperor strongly identified with the history of Ancient Egypt, particularly the longevity of its civilization. Following their Emperor's example, Vasudans will take on what they call a Terran name from the myths and history of Ancient Egypt.

Shivans

The Shivans (named after the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration Shiva) are an ancient, destructive race that has exterminated countless spacefaring races and recently fought two destructive wars against the Terrans and Vasudans. It has been confirmed that Shivans are in fact xenocidal. Shivans have a black exoskeleton, five legs, compound eyes, and are apparently some form of cybernetic organism, with both organic and inorganic components including an integrated plasma weapon. They are physically extremely strong and well adapted to a microgravity environment, possibly having evolved in it. The typical Shivan specimen is roughly 4m to 5m long and its height varies between 2.5 and 3.5m depending on its posture. It is theorised that the integral plasma cannon, inorganic materials, and cybernetic components can be explained by the use of an artificial exoskeleton of sorts (Descent: Freespace, Disc 2, the video featuring the boarding team).

Only a handful of Shivans have ever been captured, and all research on live specimens ended with the rebellion of the intelligence branch of the GTA at the close of the Great War. The results of these studies remain highly classified.

Fan conjecture has it that the Shivans are closely tied with subspace; they apparently are native to subspace, and take notice of any species that travels through it, acting to exterminate them. At the end of Descent: FreeSpace, it is theorized that the Shivans are the Galaxy's immune system. They appear and exterminate any species that develops subspace technology. By doing so, they prevent any one species from spreading across the entire galaxy and dominating all other races. It is theorized that humans would never have developed if not for the Shivans, because the Ancients would have been allowed to spread and eventually conquer Earth. Likewise, the Ancients would not have been able to develop, as they would have been conquered by the races that came before them.

At the end of FreeSpace 2 a vast Shivan fleet destroys the Capella system's sun for unknown reasons. It is theorized that Shivans are denizens of another universe and were trying to produce some type of subspace portal in an effort to get home.

The Ancients

A species that conquered a large portion of the immediate region of the known galaxy and beyond who were exterminated just under 8000 years ago. Thanks to their advanced technology, no enemy was ever able to withstand their might, until they encountered the Shivans. All of the Ancient's weapons and technology proved futile against the Shivan's seemingly invincible shield technology, and they were eventually exterminated after a prolonged war. The Ancients eventually discovered a weakness in Shivan shield technology—their inoperation while in subspace—and developed a means by which vessels could be tracked through subspace. This was too late, however, to save the Ancients from the Shivan incursion. During the course of the single-player campaign of the first game, the records of the Ancients are recovered by Vasudan archaeologists and used by Galactic Terran Alliance to defeat the Lucifer and win the Great War. It's speculated that the GTA and the PVN were the first to defeat the Shivans.

In Descent: FreeSpace, the story of the Ancients was narrated through the usage of several in-game cutscenes showing scenes of starfields, planets, and the like, while a narrator calmly intoned dialogue explaining the rise and fall of the Ancients' empire. The Ancients apparently believed the Shivans were a race of cosmic destroyers, and that the extinction of their species was an act of retribution for striving beyond their ordained place in the cosmic order.

FreeSpace Source Code Project

File:Freespace2Open Screen01.jpg
FS2_Open Screenshot.
File:Fs2 scp deimos.png
Example of FS2_Open Upgraded Models & Textures.

In April of 2002, Volition released the source code for the FreeSpace 2 engine. This allowed coders to modify the game in unprecedented ways. However, because the source code is under a noncommercial license, it does not qualify as free software.

To prevent a plethora of different versions of the game from appearing, a single 'umbrella' project (with the unified goal of enhancing the game) was formed. The resultant FreeSpace 2 Open engine has many advantages over the old FS2 engine, including (but not limited to):

  • Hardware Transform and Lighting, allowing models of considerably greater complexity.
  • Jpeg and TGA texture compatibility, to eliminate the engine's dependence on 256 colour pcx files.
  • Glow, Shine and Environmental Reflectivity maps.
  • Dozens of additional Sexps for controlling the game.

In addition, content update packs have been developed which take advantage of the upgraded game engine. These packs include higher-poly models and higher resolution textures. The end result of this project is to create a graphically superior (and far more flexible) game engine, while still retaining all of the gameplay elements that made FreeSpace 2 successful.

See also

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