Got both of them off gog. Should I play through Freespace before starting on Freespace 2? Also, I want to take advantage of the work done by the Freespace Open project on FS2. If anyone has experience with it, is there something I should keep in mind?
Start on Freespace, then go to FreeSpace 2. FS2 is undeniably better all around, but FS is still badass and helps you understand the plot.
This is the 100% correct answer.
Will do. Thanks! Any judgment/tips on the FS2 open project?
I only messed around with FS2 open a little bit, but if you find yourself hankering for more Freespace after you finish FS2, it’s not a bad way to get more content, I think.
I’m not sure what they’ve done with it lately though.
TBH I’ve never checked out any mods/addons for FS2.
To be honest, FS2 is a truly remarkable game and is, IMNSHO, pretty much the perfect fighter sim game. It’s flawless and everything it does, it does excellently. It’s got more than enough meat to sink your teeth into and I suppose if the thing you’re talking about adds extra missions or something it might be cool, but there is absolutely nothing that needs to be added or changed to the core game.
Actually, FS2 open apparently updates the game files to bring the visuals closer to more modern games. It also adds mods/missions etc., but that is secondary. A little bit of digging tells me that you can apparently even play the original Freespace campaign on the FS2 engine! I was hoping someone on the dope would have tried it out. Ah well. Looks like I’ll be taking one for the team 
I played a little of the original FS in the FS2 engine via the FS:open project, but truthfully, I didn’t really notice that it made any difference. I guess the resolution was higher, but that had the side effect that all the cutscenes played in tiny little boxes.
So… meh.
Eh… graphics are nice, but they don’t make the game. The game is awesome enough and we’re not talking about TIE Fighter level awfulness in graphics after all.
Starting with Freespace will make you a much better pilot in Freespace 2. I know it seems obvious but a lot of the tactics I picked up in FS really helped me not get slaughtered during FS2s more challenging missions.
Both of these games are awesome though. The Freespace series is tied with the Elite series for my favorite space simulator games. Enjoy!
That first mission in FS where you’re flying in a basic, unupgraded combat ship and you first encounter the Shivans… if you’re able to smoke one of the shielded fighters, you’ve learned the skills you’ll need for dogfighting late into FS2.
Uh, shouldn’t you have spoilertagged that?
Nah it’s no spoiler. The Shivans are the enemies and you run into them in the first game.
To clarify, the OP bought the games at GOG. The page for FS at GOG starts by saying:
I haven’t given any specifics away.
Thanks for the response guys. Started with freespace. I was about 10 missions into the game when it started crashing on me so I decided to play the port on the FS2 engine. Now I agree that graphics don’t make games (I’m a huge fan of Elite 2), but it was astounding how much better the experience was on the FS2 engine. The lines were crisp and clear, the performance was snappy and I’m quite glad I switched. It’s basically exactly the same game with much better graphics and performance.
And yeah, I agree the Shivan mention isn’t a spoiler, but
I tried to kill them, and their shields seemed to prevent them from taking any damage at all from the laser, so I figured it was a scripted event and gave up. That’s what I’m having the most trouble with in fact. I fail an objective and keep replaying the mission only to look it up later on the net to find that there was no possible way for me to have succeeded! For instance there’s the mission where you have to capture a Vasudan ship(Ramses). I must have replayed that 20 times trying to kill the Shivan cruiser that shows up. There should be an easier way of telling how well/badly you did.
The Shivan fighters during that mission can be destroyed, it’s just really, really hard. You need to manage acceleration/deceleration and position almost flawlessly so you can always keep your guns on 'em, and you will crack their shields eventually. There’s no real reward but they do give you kudos during debriefing and point out that you’ve raised morale by showing that the Shivans can be killed. Dunno if there are any real in-game ramifications from that, but I don’t think so
Here’s a hint, since you seem to have some sort of perfectionist streak that is causing you problems.
If you fail the mission, you CAN’T continue. Otherwise, you succeeded enough. So try actually finishing a mission from time to time even if things didn’t go according to plan instead of just going “Oh god, I messed up, I must quit and restart immediately.”
And yeah, as has been pointed out, it is POSSIBLE to destroy those ships - it’s not a “scripted event” but your laser does garbage damage against shields, so it’s essentially impossible to protect the ship you are escorting. If you’re really interested in trying for it (Note: There is no special reward, branching mission path, or whatever. You get a line in the debriefing that basically says “Good job.” for your trouble.) then load out your ship with dumbfire missiles. They won’t do a LOT of damage to the shields, but they’re much more effective than your lasers. Using them in tandem with laser fire will eventually wear down the shields.
I bought both when they first came out. I remember that in FS2, having more than one Sathanas on screen (add-on missions only!) used to kill the frame rate. I wonder how that holds with modern CPUs and video cards?
Heh. Thanks. Yeah, the perfection streak is just me putting effort into trying to get everything done on my first play through, because I rarely, if ever, replay a game once I finish it. Which I have now done. It was a pretty cool game. Didn’t get me addicted for ages like Elite, but definitely fun. On to Freespace 2!
I’ll let you know, although my CPU and video card are in a circa 2006 laptop (It was mid-high end at the time)