Love your videos, Mac! I hope that you and all the other FreeSpace enthusiasts will consider dropping by our channel where Red Mage Joe streams FreeSpace Open campaigns every Sunday!
Absolutely, I do try to drop in from time to time but my schedule usually ends up preventing me from watching for very long. Seriously, anyone who want to see some good game streaming of the Freespace Games & Mods should check out Joe's streams on their channel.
I love this game I remember getting it in like 99 when my dad took me to a media play that no longer exists by my house. Still play fs and fs2 at least 3x a year. Simply the best space shooter possibly ever made.
Am still waiting for no-commentary, hard difficulty, completionist walkthroughs/playthroughs of the games. Think the playthroughs of the likes of LPhoenix, with his videos of X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and XWvsTF.
I find this comment simultaneously hilarious and terrifying. I have been playing this game on and off for the last 24 years either through joy stick demos, full builds that I did not have the time for. failures to complete due to Pc problems (later solved thanks to the modding community), and a number of other things. I have finally got the time and dedication to go through with this and the farther I get the more surprised I am with the world building. Its so damn good lol. Thus this comment has now just made me wary as I know of one major plot point but If I'm not mistaken its only the first half of the story.
This was the first space flight game I'd ever played. Purchased a joystick just to play it with my saved up pocket money. I'll never forget the dumb kid feeling of awe I had when the Colossus was first revealed, jumping in to save a space station. I loved the freespace mission editor, FRED, and the online multiplayer experience was my first ever. Making online missions in FRED became a hobby for 12 year old me and while some were trash, a few got a lot of praise. It was just a great game all around. I miss it.
Jeez...the GTVA used a couple of corvettes as bait for the Ravana? That's a pretty high level of 'callousness', though I shouldn't be surprised. Oh and I'm always surprised how the size classes in the game are 'inverted' from real life: cruisers are small, corvettes and frigates are large, but the Destroyers are the 'big' ships.
@@MacsLore A theory I like for explaining the backwardness is that the first (and by extension smallest) space faring warships were comperable in size to Naval cruisers, so thats why small ships are cruisers, and then they decided to go with the backwardness from there.
If they instead sent a warship of comparable combative power and size... would the Ravana have even engaged it? Is it not more likely to attract a big fish with a meal that it could eat, rather than an opponent that could bite back?
My take away was: Just give up now, there is no hope, no chance at victory, only a desperate, impossible struggle against the inevitable fall of night as the unstoppable tide of darkness comes crushing down on us from out of the realm of nightmares.
@@Jsay18 my take was that the hubris of the GTVA led them to believe themselves superior to their great war nemesis. the universe then brutally disabused them of this naïve notion. murphy's law & all that.
Of course it would be back office studio drama that prevented a Freespace 3 from ever being made. It always comes down to money with these people, doesn't it?
In fairness. Freespace 2 was a complete and utter finical flop. Only managing to not be a negative, because the cost to develop might as well have not existed. (Probably the cheapest game to have ever been developed. A modern indi titles costs more.) The rise of FPS games, and console gaming basically killed FS2 before it even had a chance. Interplay exploding to due poor leadership and management of its studios and IP. Many of which thrived afterwards at least for a time on their own didnt help the issue
Incredible job, you should be proud. FS was a masterpiece and one of first big PC games I played in my life. During last 20 years I think I played FS1/2 at least 50 times, if not more. I don't know who did that intro animation for FS1, but damn... each time I watched it I got goosebumps all over my hands :) The story, animation and technical (programming) execution of the game was 10/10. Freespace SCP community did great job modernizing the game, but at the same time I also wish some professional studio took over the license and continued the development. Such a wasted opportunity.
@@SimpMcSimpy Indeed! I've been playing and watching this game since FS1 came out waaaay back in 1998. How many other games/sims can we say that about? Except for my favorite WW2 fight sim (IL2 Sturmovik), and the AvP2 from 2001 I can't think of that many.
I think it was a marathon infinity reference to blow up the sun to free their version of the wr'ckacnt'r. Since the shivans are just that mysterious and it was a popular game at the time.
By "further developed" you're only correct when talking about official canon. The creators themselves may not have made another game, but the FS Open community has made a few noteworthy titles: The Blue Planet series and Derelict to name 2.
Honestly, I'd always wondered why the GTVA didn't start strapping Meson bombs to the drive-sections of mothballed capital ships. (Or, even a single-sortie 'attempt' to damage the (1st) Sathanas with a Meson Bomb/Mine.) Seems like a coordinated strike by bombers to destroy point defenses, followed by an escorted "Meson Cruise Missle" could devastate The Sathanas-class (without the need for a super-capship's main beams). I suppose the in-universe excuse would be how few Meson Bombs had been produced up until that point, and that the entirety of 'stock' was used for the gambit to collapse the jump nodes in Capella.
I still think the GTC Vigilant was ordered to guard the Gamma Draconis because they knew the Trinity jumped to Gamma Draconis and they were waiting for it to return eventually, instead of chasing it.
Makes sense. It's *heavily* implied in-game that the GTVI was well-aware of Admiral Bosch's true goals, and were more than willing to 'keep up apperances' while letting Bosch commit the resources on ETAK. One could even argue that elements within the GTI that saw The Hades Rebellion 1st hand, moved into the GTVI and could not deny the potential utility of communications with the Shivans; thus, were part of a sort-of 'sanctioned conspiracy' to allow ETAK's development while 'purging' the GTVA of anti-Vasudan sentiment. Can't say that prosepct doesn't seem like a 'win-win' for the GTVA...
I have mixed feelings on the Freespace games. On the one hand, they are amazing starfighter games and an amazing experience to play. On the other, the setting and story are so soul crushing and hopeless. The Shivans are this Lovecraftian leviathan, baring down on humanity from out of the darkness and every time we think we've caught a break or that maybe we could just win this fight, its revealed that what we were struggling to hold back was just a small scouting force. There is no hope or real chance at victory, just a desperate, impossible struggle to hold back the inevitable fall of night.
I think that's what makes it special actually. It's not a case of the heroes win in the end and egg on the face of the bad guys. It's gritty and hard hitting and me likes.
It's part of what makes the Shivans such a great antagonistic force. They seek to destroy with no explanation as to why, and aside from ETAK, communicating with them to learn any motives or purpose is out of the ordinary. So, one would assume that fighting them off would be the only solution, but just like a horror film, trying to kill the monster only makes it come back stronger, or in this case, in greater and more powerful numbers. Plus the "death black ships" both look amazing and intimidating. The red/black is a good combination to represent them, which is interesting because I remember reading there was a plan to make the shivans green instead.
@@Eltrotraw While it's not officially cannon, there is still the Blue Planet trilogy, which serve as a continuation of the story. I've played through parts one and two, but not the concluding part, because part two is so emotionally draining, the story being one massive gut-punch after another.
@@MacsLore 4 months late but is it possible that the colossus suffered a critical reactor failure? damage from the sathanas could have caused a chain reaction, after all.
Not just a great space shooter but also an epic storyline. By the end we figured/theorized the Shivans were likely an ancient race that made their home in the nebula, and were constantly seeking to expand it by causing stars in the surrounding area to go supernova. Presumably this was only possible with certain stars, and Capella happened to be one of those stars. So in the future decades, the result of it going nova would be felt in the surrounding systems, and eventually the nebula would cover most of the systems that the humans and vesudans called home. The GTVA would either have to evacuate their worlds to another sector of the galaxy, or find a way to live in this new reality. Too bad we never saw a third game in the series, all we can do is theorize and speculate as to the actual nature and motivations of the Shivans.
I don't want to know the motives of the shivans. That's what makes them interesting. A sequel would destroy (I guarantee it) any questions by delving into their motives, making them a very less threatening enemy as a result. The ending was perfect. No sequels.
For an ambiguous cliffhanger, FS2 sure made the Shivans keep their mystery and horror nicely unexplained, unlike the Reapers from the Mass Effect trilogy. With that in mind, I'm really OK with it not getting a sequel, even if fanworks will try to rectify that. Say, Mac's Lore, any plans to check out Farscape, Sliders Seasons 1 and 2, and Babylon 5?
I heartily salute you, sir. I felt like i was the only one who doesn't want a 3rd freespace, plus loving the fact that the shivans are still kept a mystery. It does wonders to the imagination. It was a bittersweet, yet not cookie cutter ending, and I loved that.
Aw yes! This is exactly what I've been waiting for. I eagerly await the next video! (Star/Freelance maybe? Or Battletech?). These videos are very informative and help with things I've forgotten over the years.
The loss of Capella happened due to the arrogance of Allied Command and their failure to think long term. After the fall of the first Sathanas, they should have sealed off Gamma Draconis right then and there in case of more Sathanases or in case the Shivans had something worse than the Sathanas. They would still have Capella, many would be alive otherwise, and there wasn't anything in Gamma Draconis anyway besides the portal.
I believe the writers were purposeful here. However, it plays-out that while the GTVA was enthralled in their own hubris, even pragmatic plans would've failed. It's more than implied that the Sathanas creates or modifies jump nodes; there was no 'sealing off' Gamma Draconis. (A head-canon of mine is that the surviving Sathanai Juggernauts that 'jumped out' before Capella went nova, created a jump node to Sol, and proceeded to complete The Lucifer's directive.)
i just love this dedication.. i love it... i watch this every day... i love freespace, no more games like this are coming.... thank you for your awesome work!!!!!!!
What an amazing level of quality in every aspect of these. Thank you so much for sharing your work...! The poster got me there -- I kinda imagine the narrator from Korra partaking.
Imagine all the Orions and Demios that could have formed a wall and unleashed all Beam cannons with support for the Colossus if the NTF didn't split the GTVA Terran forces. Love the Orion has more Antiship beams. Disappointed on the Hecate placements. At least make the front TWO direct beams...
What if the Gnosos ring was what kept the Shyvan Juggernaut out of Gamma Draconis and by destroying it they allowed the shyvans to bring their super capitals into the GTVA systems
That goes against what was established by the game itself. They explained it that the portal stabilized the jump node, so destroying it wouldn't have changed that in the long run.
Yes, eventually. I still want to cover Silent Threat before getting to the mod scene though. But I have been going through General Battuta's mod thread on the HLP forums for potential candidates, as my only experience with a Freespace Universe mod has been the Blue Planet series (which was also a long time ago).
@@MacsLore Blue Planet is one of the best mods, but I also highly recommend Between the Ashes. It takes place between the events of Silent Threat and FS2, and has great story telling, gameplay, and world development. It is a unique and excellent mod.
@@MacsLore You may want to give a play to Vassago's dirge, a short but masterful campaign. It picks up a story thread on the seeming campaign briefing error, showing a Shivan Ravana entering Gamma Draconis through the Knossos, which was apparently never intercepted...
There is actually kind of part 3, it is fan-made sequel mod called Blue Planet. It consists of 3 parts (Age of Aquarius, War in Heaven 1, and WiH 2) and is basically a set of full-fledged new campaigns rivalling FS2 in scale, length and number of missions. It has a really great character-driven story, and starts a couple decades after the Capella destruction, when GTVA builds an artificial portal to Earth based on Knossos tech, and sends a battlegroup to re-establish contact.... But without spoilers, let's just say this does not go as planned. I really recommend to give it a try. It is a great mod, which is effectively a separate game in both size and quality. It even has voice acting which, while unprofessional and sometimes janky, still holds up quite fine to immerse you in the story. I discovered it hy accident when learning about Freespace Open project and absolutely loved every second I put into it. Also it made shivans were even more terrifying in cosmic-horror sense.
The SD SHATANAS can wipe out any space sheep of any SF and the fleet of these well fuck. This is the one of the best games ever made so far the true master peace. Where is Chris Roberts we know?
Hey does anyone saw this guys i need to check the username, he create a incredible remake for all the cutscenes for FS1 and some of the FS2. The Intro for FS1 is incredible. SOMEONE TALK TO THATS GUYS
**sighs** Why can’t they just make a 3rd Freespace Game? This is really hanging on a cliff for far too long. Again this is why I use the Mission editor now.
i have a theory: the shivans are like the kilrathi from wing commander. they dont want to co-exist with any other species and they operate the exact same way all the time: look in a system for any threats and then use the sthanas class ships to turn the systems sun into a supernove so it turns into anebula so it produces the ressources the shivans need. and the portal leads to a former system of the ancients the shivans destroyed. so i hope that someday a game comes out where the real origin of the ancients and the shivans is explained.
The only flaw with this is that once Kilrah was destroyed by Colonel Blair in Wing Commander 3, the Kilrathi had no choice but to surrender to the terrans. Would we see the same thing happen with the Shivan Homeworld? Perhaps... perhaps not... only time and fans will tell
The answers by the end of your video get u in Freespace Blue Planet:) The destroying of the Star of Cappela was a show of power and a counter-reaction to the intrusion into their territory. And u will meet Admiral Bosch too. He is now part of the cypernetic Network of the Shivans th-cam.com/video/lKcSBKNGrIU/w-d-xo.html
Still a bit over-the-top cartoonish on the side of Shivan's -- apparently fielding numerous 80+ juggernaut fleets with massive interplanetary production capabilities and super-futuristic technology all while being unable to "communicate" in plain language with the Terrans/Vasudan/Ancients folks (even the Terrans figured out Vasudan communication lol) and without a single Shivan "world or planet" (or production facility?) ever being discovered as well.
I find it not cartoonish at all. Shivans have an unknown agenda, destroyed the Ancients, refuse to communicate or parlay with the GTVA, absolutely nothing is known of their motives or origins. I find it extremely fascinating. Having Shivans talk or have some goofy plan to take over the world would be pathetic. Their mystery is perfect and should be left alone.
@@Amp661 But even mysteries still have to have a decent "possible" explanation when it is unknown too. However at this point the only way to explain the Shivans' over-the-top capabilities is merely "just more magic", which is utterly boring and nothing but a cop-out for writers who simply can't think of anything at all whatsoever with more substance. At least let the Terrans magically "clone" hundreds of Colossi out of nowhere or pull other magical feats from time to time too to give the Shivans at least some sort of challenge lol. Otherwise this is just the boring equivalent of "some magical deity magically came from somewhere magical and used some magical holy power that magically no one else has to magically reset everything. The end! Now pay me $$$ and get off my case". Well, so I guess maybe you would find that kind of plot "captivating" -- I'd still say most folks would find it way too lazy and boring 😏 (the writers could at least put in a little more effort to give the human side at least something that could significantly challenge the Shivans like in Freespace 1. But, on the other hand, since Freespace 3 was probably unlikely to be ever released, I guess there was ultimately never a need to do so anyway). Still a good game gameplay-wise, just a little "light" and weak on the plot ; )
@@MikeSmith-vb8ul Thank god that you were not a writer. You may say that omnicidal race is cartoonish plot, but the very fact you believe the inability to communicate with them is something made wrong speaks a lot about what kind of quality would be your taste of writing. If the species was established as omnicidal civilisation, what could be seen indeed as lazy, the last thing it needs is communication and talking with their victims. In fact, they do not need to gloat how pathetic humans are before burning their planets to the ashes. If they are confident of their power and want only to destroy, being interested only in the others to be dead, they should just shut up and do their job - and in this game they to exacly that.
@@secondaryfront Lol you don't have to be a writer to point out a crappy plot. Just like how you also don't have to be a chef to point out rotten food. In any case, the problem is simply how over-the-top cartoonish the capabilities of the Shivans are relative to those of the Terrans/GTVA. It's pretty bad plot-writing to simply just let one side do literally anything they want. At this point what's stopping you from letting the Shivans simply "wish" some Terran system out of existence, and then having everyone there magically commit mass suicide as a result? (Although magically summoning a cartoonishly large fleet of spaceships to blow some sun or something like that would traditionally sound more "sci-fi" like lol)
@@MikeSmith-vb8ul Capabilities of a race that was killing other civilisations long before humans evolved above primitive clubmen are IMO rather too small in comparison to GTVA. Technological gap between what Terrans and Shivans show in FS1 is barely bigger than between year 1950 and today, and we speak here about the species that had thousands-to-milions of years headstart to spread across the galaxy. Starkilling for example is a standard soft S-F technology of a highter tech spieces, just like things like teleportation, Dyson spheres, antigravity, energy shields or whatever. Freespace never actualy pretends to be hard S-F in being scientificaly accurate, instead being realistic in things like, for example, humans giving vasudan individuals codenames because their real names would be unpronouncable to the humans because of our anathomy. Do you know what are bad writing examples in Freespace? Here you have: deux ex machina being ancient's relic found in the most critical moment of war. Vasudans being able to decypher/decoding it having no previous samples and no previous contacts. Humans being able to reverse engineer anything from shivans or ancients while lacking the specifications how this shit should even work. And you know what are good writing examples in Freespace series? Evil extraterrestials who don't make contact with their prey. Evil extraterrestrials that are not another rubberheads but looks like something completely unearthly. Who even communicate with non-verbal means, because in vacum of space, what is their assumed ecological serounding, there is no sound (in-universe, not the gameplay, lol). Do you want realy cartoonish extraterrestrial villains? Reapers from Mass Effect are perfect example. The same: Halo, Starcraft, Wing Commander and practicaly every other game in existance.
The fake boxing poster I made up for the Colossus vs. Sathanas Fight can be found here: twitter.com/MacsLore/status/1427084318074150915 . Just ignore the part about it not being final, I never went back to it before finishing the video.
Love your videos, Mac! I hope that you and all the other FreeSpace enthusiasts will consider dropping by our channel where Red Mage Joe streams FreeSpace Open campaigns every Sunday!
Absolutely, I do try to drop in from time to time but my schedule usually ends up preventing me from watching for very long.
Seriously, anyone who want to see some good game streaming of the Freespace Games & Mods should check out Joe's streams on their channel.
I love this game I remember getting it in like 99 when my dad took me to a media play that no longer exists by my house. Still play fs and fs2 at least 3x a year. Simply the best space shooter possibly ever made.
Am still waiting for no-commentary, hard difficulty, completionist walkthroughs/playthroughs of the games.
Think the playthroughs of the likes of LPhoenix, with his videos of X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and XWvsTF.
The endgame of this game gets just totally insane.
I find this comment simultaneously hilarious and terrifying. I have been playing this game on and off for the last 24 years either through joy stick demos, full builds that I did not have the time for. failures to complete due to Pc problems (later solved thanks to the modding community), and a number of other things. I have finally got the time and dedication to go through with this and the farther I get the more surprised I am with the world building. Its so damn good lol. Thus this comment has now just made me wary as I know of one major plot point but If I'm not mistaken its only the first half of the story.
I played this game years years ago but I remember two things, the Yamamoto and the lucifer.
@@Soth021I'm pretty sure there is no Yamamoto in this game.
@@Yora21 :-( maybe I am mixing some old games up.
I remember thinking it was rather predictable and clichéd when I played this as a teenager.
This was the first space flight game I'd ever played. Purchased a joystick just to play it with my saved up pocket money.
I'll never forget the dumb kid feeling of awe I had when the Colossus was first revealed, jumping in to save a space station.
I loved the freespace mission editor, FRED, and the online multiplayer experience was my first ever. Making online missions in FRED became a hobby for 12 year old me and while some were trash, a few got a lot of praise. It was just a great game all around. I miss it.
Ronny Cox is extremely underrated as Adm Aken Bosch. One of my all time voice acting performances.
Jeez...the GTVA used a couple of corvettes as bait for the Ravana? That's a pretty high level of 'callousness', though I shouldn't be surprised.
Oh and I'm always surprised how the size classes in the game are 'inverted' from real life: cruisers are small, corvettes and frigates are large, but the Destroyers are the 'big' ships.
I've always wondered about that too, in all honesty.
@@MacsLore It makes the Navy folks I know a bit loco...but we 'roll' with it.
@@MacsLore A theory I like for explaining the backwardness is that the first (and by extension smallest) space faring warships were comperable in size to Naval cruisers, so thats why small ships are cruisers, and then they decided to go with the backwardness from there.
If they instead sent a warship of comparable combative power and size... would the Ravana have even engaged it? Is it not more likely to attract a big fish with a meal that it could eat, rather than an opponent that could bite back?
@@kadeonines5178 Interesting line of thought. Thanks for the feedback
Without survival, there can be no victory. This is the lesson of the Shivan wars.
My take away was: Just give up now, there is no hope, no chance at victory, only a desperate, impossible struggle against the inevitable fall of night as the unstoppable tide of darkness comes crushing down on us from out of the realm of nightmares.
@@weldonwin Weak.
@@Jsay18 my take was that the hubris of the GTVA led them to believe themselves superior to their great war nemesis.
the universe then brutally disabused them of this naïve notion.
murphy's law & all that.
Of course it would be back office studio drama that prevented a Freespace 3 from ever being made. It always comes down to money with these people, doesn't it?
In fairness. Freespace 2 was a complete and utter finical flop. Only managing to not be a negative, because the cost to develop might as well have not existed. (Probably the cheapest game to have ever been developed. A modern indi titles costs more.) The rise of FPS games, and console gaming basically killed FS2 before it even had a chance. Interplay exploding to due poor leadership and management of its studios and IP. Many of which thrived afterwards at least for a time on their own didnt help the issue
@@renardnoir2581 poor leadership and management counts as back office drama, does it not?
Amaizing summary mate, people like you who still cover Freespace more than 20 years after its release are pure Legends
I was on the front lines for this project. This game was finished in under a year, and a full month ahead of schedule. One of Volitions' finest hours!
Incredible job, you should be proud. FS was a masterpiece and one of first big PC games I played in my life. During last 20 years I think I played FS1/2 at least 50 times, if not more.
I don't know who did that intro animation for FS1, but damn... each time I watched it I got goosebumps all over my hands :)
The story, animation and technical (programming) execution of the game was 10/10.
Freespace SCP community did great job modernizing the game, but at the same time I also wish some professional studio took over the license and continued the development. Such a wasted opportunity.
@@SimpMcSimpy Indeed! I've been playing and watching this game since FS1 came out waaaay back in 1998. How many other games/sims can we say that about? Except for my favorite WW2 fight sim (IL2 Sturmovik), and the AvP2 from 2001 I can't think of that many.
It's a pity the studio was nuked, I heard some of the devs really wanted to make FS3, assuming you were one of them. :)
Ronny Cox, Robert Logia, Kurtwood Smith... the cast is just excellent.
I think it was a marathon infinity reference to blow up the sun to free their version of the wr'ckacnt'r. Since the shivans are just that mysterious and it was a popular game at the time.
Good video. Like your voice overs. Also its realy sad that this franchise was never further developed.
Truth. Imagine third part done now by the devs.
By "further developed" you're only correct when talking about official canon. The creators themselves may not have made another game, but the FS Open community has made a few noteworthy titles: The Blue Planet series and Derelict to name 2.
I remember my first play through, and I rather wished that the GTVA would have already been ready with meson bombs at the Capella-gamma Draconis node.
Honestly, I'd always wondered why the GTVA didn't start strapping Meson bombs to the drive-sections of mothballed capital ships. (Or, even a single-sortie 'attempt' to damage the (1st) Sathanas with a Meson Bomb/Mine.)
Seems like a coordinated strike by bombers to destroy point defenses, followed by an escorted "Meson Cruise Missle" could devastate The Sathanas-class (without the need for a super-capship's main beams).
I suppose the in-universe excuse would be how few Meson Bombs had been produced up until that point, and that the entirety of 'stock' was used for the gambit to collapse the jump nodes in Capella.
I still think the GTC Vigilant was ordered to guard the Gamma Draconis because they knew the Trinity jumped to Gamma Draconis and they were waiting for it to return eventually, instead of chasing it.
And yet things changed due to... *them* showing up.
Also, hey there, shivanSpS.
You know, I've never even thought about that.
Makes sense.
It's *heavily* implied in-game that the GTVI was well-aware of Admiral Bosch's true goals, and were more than willing to 'keep up apperances' while letting Bosch commit the resources on ETAK. One could even argue that elements within the GTI that saw The Hades Rebellion 1st hand, moved into the GTVI and could not deny the potential utility of communications with the Shivans; thus, were part of a sort-of 'sanctioned conspiracy' to allow ETAK's development while 'purging' the GTVA of anti-Vasudan sentiment.
Can't say that prosepct doesn't seem like a 'win-win' for the GTVA...
I have mixed feelings on the Freespace games. On the one hand, they are amazing starfighter games and an amazing experience to play. On the other, the setting and story are so soul crushing and hopeless. The Shivans are this Lovecraftian leviathan, baring down on humanity from out of the darkness and every time we think we've caught a break or that maybe we could just win this fight, its revealed that what we were struggling to hold back was just a small scouting force. There is no hope or real chance at victory, just a desperate, impossible struggle to hold back the inevitable fall of night.
just like reality, just one great filter away
I think that's what makes it special actually. It's not a case of the heroes win in the end and egg on the face of the bad guys. It's gritty and hard hitting and me likes.
It's part of what makes the Shivans such a great antagonistic force. They seek to destroy with no explanation as to why, and aside from ETAK, communicating with them to learn any motives or purpose is out of the ordinary.
So, one would assume that fighting them off would be the only solution, but just like a horror film, trying to kill the monster only makes it come back stronger, or in this case, in greater and more powerful numbers.
Plus the "death black ships" both look amazing and intimidating. The red/black is a good combination to represent them, which is interesting because I remember reading there was a plan to make the shivans green instead.
@@Eltrotraw While it's not officially cannon, there is still the Blue Planet trilogy, which serve as a continuation of the story. I've played through parts one and two, but not the concluding part, because part two is so emotionally draining, the story being one massive gut-punch after another.
@@weldonwin I didnt really like the direction blue planet took regarding the shivans, felt like mediocre fanfiction territory.
I always hated that, despite the fact that you can successfully defend the Colossus and destroy the Sathanas attacking it, it still explodes.
Maybe the Colossus was going through a severe-depressive episode and thought it wasn't worth it anymore.
@@MacsLore 4 months late but is it possible that the colossus suffered a critical reactor failure?
damage from the sathanas could have caused a chain reaction, after all.
I found it interesting that the Colossus starts the mission disabled, with no acknowledgement of the fact in briefing or in the mission
Good one, Mac's Lore.
Not just a great space shooter but also an epic storyline. By the end we figured/theorized the Shivans were likely an ancient race that made their home in the nebula, and were constantly seeking to expand it by causing stars in the surrounding area to go supernova. Presumably this was only possible with certain stars, and Capella happened to be one of those stars. So in the future decades, the result of it going nova would be felt in the surrounding systems, and eventually the nebula would cover most of the systems that the humans and vesudans called home. The GTVA would either have to evacuate their worlds to another sector of the galaxy, or find a way to live in this new reality. Too bad we never saw a third game in the series, all we can do is theorize and speculate as to the actual nature and motivations of the Shivans.
I don't want to know the motives of the shivans. That's what makes them interesting. A sequel would destroy (I guarantee it) any questions by delving into their motives, making them a very less threatening enemy as a result. The ending was perfect. No sequels.
For an ambiguous cliffhanger, FS2 sure made the Shivans keep their mystery and horror nicely unexplained, unlike the Reapers from the Mass Effect trilogy. With that in mind, I'm really OK with it not getting a sequel, even if fanworks will try to rectify that.
Say, Mac's Lore, any plans to check out Farscape, Sliders Seasons 1 and 2, and Babylon 5?
I heartily salute you, sir. I felt like i was the only one who doesn't want a 3rd freespace, plus loving the fact that the shivans are still kept a mystery. It does wonders to the imagination. It was a bittersweet, yet not cookie cutter ending, and I loved that.
Aw yes! This is exactly what I've been waiting for. I eagerly await the next video! (Star/Freelance maybe? Or Battletech?). These videos are very informative and help with things I've forgotten over the years.
Man, I sure hope Freelancer gets out of abandonware hell nowadays.
The loss of Capella happened due to the arrogance of Allied Command and their failure to think long term. After the fall of the first Sathanas, they should have sealed off Gamma Draconis right then and there in case of more Sathanases or in case the Shivans had something worse than the Sathanas. They would still have Capella, many would be alive otherwise, and there wasn't anything in Gamma Draconis anyway besides the portal.
They thought that just as they had the one Colossus, the Shivans only had the one Sathanas.
I believe the writers were purposeful here. However, it plays-out that while the GTVA was enthralled in their own hubris, even pragmatic plans would've failed.
It's more than implied that the Sathanas creates or modifies jump nodes; there was no 'sealing off' Gamma Draconis.
(A head-canon of mine is that the surviving Sathanai Juggernauts that 'jumped out' before Capella went nova, created a jump node to Sol, and proceeded to complete The Lucifer's directive.)
i just love this dedication.. i love it... i watch this every day... i love freespace, no more games like this are coming.... thank you for your awesome work!!!!!!!
What an amazing level of quality in every aspect of these. Thank you so much for sharing your work...!
The poster got me there -- I kinda imagine the narrator from Korra partaking.
Fantastic work, I play this game to this day still and it's such a fantastic experience
Freespace was so epic. I wish this could be turned into a show.
I haven't played through Freespace 2 since its release in 1999? This was awesome to relive. I will go back to the game eventually.
Freespace is now opensource. You should check Freespace SCP project. They modernized the game with latest graphic enhancements.
It's incredible.
20:20 There it is! - FreeSpace 3 : The Search for Bosch ;-) lol
I do still have hope that someday someone will make a good third part.
Blue Planet is as close as we'll get I think
Silent Threat : Reborn is excellent.
I wish Blue Planet came up with better story. It's too depressive.
@@SimpMcSimpy Never played any of it. You say it's worth a shot?
@@ShingenNolaan
To me Silent Threat (Reborn) is almost like never released Freespace 3. Give it a try.
My 15 year old self decided Boche did something crazy and convinced the Shivans to blow up the star and lock humanity up for its own good.
I’m so mad they didn’t make more of these
Another great video, with some beautiful screenshots 👍
I've been waiting for this!
Love your videos, this was an amazing game, its a true tragedy that we'll not get a sequel to this.
There's always Blue Planet though :)
Honestly, I prefer the fact we never get answers to these questions. the lingering mystery is just...way cooler to me.
I 100% agree with you. Less is more. Mystery is more threatening than knowing the truth on the Shivans
Imagine all the Orions and Demios that could have formed a wall and unleashed all Beam cannons with support for the Colossus if the NTF didn't split the GTVA Terran forces.
Love the Orion has more Antiship beams. Disappointed on the Hecate placements. At least make the front TWO direct beams...
What if the Gnosos ring was what kept the Shyvan Juggernaut out of Gamma Draconis and by destroying it they allowed the shyvans to bring their super capitals into the GTVA systems
That goes against what was established by the game itself. They explained it that the portal stabilized the jump node, so destroying it wouldn't have changed that in the long run.
@@Eltrotraw Plus, we saw the Shivans using two other Knossos Portals to move forces towards GTVA space.
Great video. GOD we need this franchise given love.
GLORY TO THE GTVA, I WILL DIE FOR EMPEROR KHONSU II
So will you cover fan campaigns? I hope this would include Derelict
Yes, eventually. I still want to cover Silent Threat before getting to the mod scene though. But I have been going through General Battuta's mod thread on the HLP forums for potential candidates, as my only experience with a Freespace Universe mod has been the Blue Planet series (which was also a long time ago).
@@MacsLore Blue Planet is one of the best mods, but I also highly recommend Between the Ashes. It takes place between the events of Silent Threat and FS2, and has great story telling, gameplay, and world development. It is a unique and excellent mod.
@@kadeonines5178 I'll add it to the list for consideration then.
Which version of the Silent Threat the original or the later modded one ? Or even both.
@@MacsLore You may want to give a play to Vassago's dirge, a short but masterful campaign. It picks up a story thread on the seeming campaign briefing error, showing a Shivan Ravana entering Gamma Draconis through the Knossos, which was apparently never intercepted...
This is amazing - this game was brill.
Amazing game. I still remember the end taking me by surprise
Great video. Hopefully we haven't seen the end of Freespace.
There will never be an end as long as the community of FS Open exists :)
robert loggia, ronny cox, kurtwood smith - 3 fairly recognisable actors, all voiced characters in this 😀
With it's production value, BP might as well be FS3
Epic work
wish we would get a part 3 and with earth rediscovered but as enemy because they forged a alliance with the shivans survivors.
Just think, the resources that went into the recent Saints Row reboot everyone was ragging on, could've gone towards Freespace 3.
Still waiting for that proper PC port for Saints Row 2. Really hope it hasn't gotten canned by the passing of one of its makers.
There is actually kind of part 3, it is fan-made sequel mod called Blue Planet. It consists of 3 parts (Age of Aquarius, War in Heaven 1, and WiH 2) and is basically a set of full-fledged new campaigns rivalling FS2 in scale, length and number of missions.
It has a really great character-driven story, and starts a couple decades after the Capella destruction, when GTVA builds an artificial portal to Earth based on Knossos tech, and sends a battlegroup to re-establish contact.... But without spoilers, let's just say this does not go as planned.
I really recommend to give it a try. It is a great mod, which is effectively a separate game in both size and quality. It even has voice acting which, while unprofessional and sometimes janky, still holds up quite fine to immerse you in the story. I discovered it hy accident when learning about Freespace Open project and absolutely loved every second I put into it. Also it made shivans were even more terrifying in cosmic-horror sense.
Ally with Shivans? Absolutely not. They stand on their own. I'm EXTREMELY glad there is no part 3......
did u ever play colony wars / colony wars vengeance?
One and two were absolutely fantastic!!!
DW Mecc, here. Did some modding, some other stuff, FS3 by V asap
Did we ever find out what Boche's plan was?
He wanted to ally with the Shivans as he believed that was the only path to survival.
Am I the only person that played this with a mouse? Everyone talks about joysticks, but I never had one...
Ive been using the mouse for the last 25 years.
The only/best way to play FS is by using a mouse.
The SD SHATANAS can wipe out any space sheep of any SF and the fleet of these well fuck.
This is the one of the best games ever made so far the true master peace.
Where is Chris Roberts we know?
Still trying to convince people that scam citizen will ever be finished
Here's to hoping the hype for that inevitable failure actually allows for Freelancer to get out of abandonware hell.
Hey does anyone saw this guys i need to check the username, he create a incredible remake for all the cutscenes for FS1 and some of the FS2. The Intro for FS1 is incredible. SOMEONE TALK TO THATS GUYS
Very nice
Freespace blue planet?
The very same....eventually.
I disable the 4 of those beam cannons..
**sighs** Why can’t they just make a 3rd Freespace Game? This is really hanging on a cliff for far too long. Again this is why I use the Mission editor now.
game is in copyright hell and the developer has changed a lot since internally
@@zorn2017 yeah
Give Blue Planet a try, i think you will be pleasured
@@nickcher7071 people seriously overhype Blue Planet, its not actually that good. Try Between the Ashes instead.
i have a theory: the shivans are like the kilrathi from wing commander. they dont want to co-exist with any other species and they operate the exact same way all the time: look in a system for any threats and then use the sthanas class ships to turn the systems sun into a supernove so it turns into anebula so it produces the ressources the shivans need. and the portal leads to a former system of the ancients the shivans destroyed. so i hope that someday a game comes out where the real origin of the ancients and the shivans is explained.
The only flaw with this is that once Kilrah was destroyed by Colonel Blair in Wing Commander 3, the Kilrathi had no choice but to surrender to the terrans. Would we see the same thing happen with the Shivan Homeworld? Perhaps... perhaps not... only time and fans will tell
merci :)
all voliation had to do, is make freespace 3and they would have been spared from bankruptcy,
Even better, someone should buy Freespace license and build a new game studio around it.
I wish the current mods could let you replace the ugly Hecate design with another new custom model people have made.
The answers by the end of your video get u in Freespace Blue Planet:) The destroying of the Star of Cappela was a show of power and a counter-reaction to the intrusion into their territory. And u will meet Admiral Bosch too. He is now part of the cypernetic Network of the Shivans
th-cam.com/video/lKcSBKNGrIU/w-d-xo.html
Still a bit over-the-top cartoonish on the side of Shivan's -- apparently fielding numerous 80+ juggernaut fleets with massive interplanetary production capabilities and super-futuristic technology all while being unable to "communicate" in plain language with the Terrans/Vasudan/Ancients folks (even the Terrans figured out Vasudan communication lol) and without a single Shivan "world or planet" (or production facility?) ever being discovered as well.
I find it not cartoonish at all. Shivans have an unknown agenda, destroyed the Ancients, refuse to communicate or parlay with the GTVA, absolutely nothing is known of their motives or origins.
I find it extremely fascinating. Having Shivans talk or have some goofy plan to take over the world would be pathetic. Their mystery is perfect and should be left alone.
@@Amp661 But even mysteries still have to have a decent "possible" explanation when it is unknown too. However at this point the only way to explain the Shivans' over-the-top capabilities is merely "just more magic", which is utterly boring and nothing but a cop-out for writers who simply can't think of anything at all whatsoever with more substance. At least let the Terrans magically "clone" hundreds of Colossi out of nowhere or pull other magical feats from time to time too to give the Shivans at least some sort of challenge lol. Otherwise this is just the boring equivalent of "some magical deity magically came from somewhere magical and used some magical holy power that magically no one else has to magically reset everything. The end! Now pay me $$$ and get off my case". Well, so I guess maybe you would find that kind of plot "captivating" -- I'd still say most folks would find it way too lazy and boring 😏 (the writers could at least put in a little more effort to give the human side at least something that could significantly challenge the Shivans like in Freespace 1. But, on the other hand, since Freespace 3 was probably unlikely to be ever released, I guess there was ultimately never a need to do so anyway). Still a good game gameplay-wise, just a little "light" and weak on the plot ; )
@@MikeSmith-vb8ul Thank god that you were not a writer. You may say that omnicidal race is cartoonish plot, but the very fact you believe the inability to communicate with them is something made wrong speaks a lot about what kind of quality would be your taste of writing. If the species was established as omnicidal civilisation, what could be seen indeed as lazy, the last thing it needs is communication and talking with their victims. In fact, they do not need to gloat how pathetic humans are before burning their planets to the ashes. If they are confident of their power and want only to destroy, being interested only in the others to be dead, they should just shut up and do their job - and in this game they to exacly that.
@@secondaryfront Lol you don't have to be a writer to point out a crappy plot. Just like how you also don't have to be a chef to point out rotten food. In any case, the problem is simply how over-the-top cartoonish the capabilities of the Shivans are relative to those of the Terrans/GTVA. It's pretty bad plot-writing to simply just let one side do literally anything they want. At this point what's stopping you from letting the Shivans simply "wish" some Terran system out of existence, and then having everyone there magically commit mass suicide as a result? (Although magically summoning a cartoonishly large fleet of spaceships to blow some sun or something like that would traditionally sound more "sci-fi" like lol)
@@MikeSmith-vb8ul Capabilities of a race that was killing other civilisations long before humans evolved above primitive clubmen are IMO rather too small in comparison to GTVA. Technological gap between what Terrans and Shivans show in FS1 is barely bigger than between year 1950 and today, and we speak here about the species that had thousands-to-milions of years headstart to spread across the galaxy. Starkilling for example is a standard soft S-F technology of a highter tech spieces, just like things like teleportation, Dyson spheres, antigravity, energy shields or whatever. Freespace never actualy pretends to be hard S-F in being scientificaly accurate, instead being realistic in things like, for example, humans giving vasudan individuals codenames because their real names would be unpronouncable to the humans because of our anathomy. Do you know what are bad writing examples in Freespace? Here you have: deux ex machina being ancient's relic found in the most critical moment of war. Vasudans being able to decypher/decoding it having no previous samples and no previous contacts. Humans being able to reverse engineer anything from shivans or ancients while lacking the specifications how this shit should even work. And you know what are good writing examples in Freespace series? Evil extraterrestials who don't make contact with their prey. Evil extraterrestrials that are not another rubberheads but looks like something completely unearthly. Who even communicate with non-verbal means, because in vacum of space, what is their assumed ecological serounding, there is no sound (in-universe, not the gameplay, lol). Do you want realy cartoonish extraterrestrial villains? Reapers from Mass Effect are perfect example. The same: Halo, Starcraft, Wing Commander and practicaly every other game in existance.
#boschwasright #justiceforbosch 😂
The fake boxing poster I made up for the Colossus vs. Sathanas Fight can be found here: twitter.com/MacsLore/status/1427084318074150915 . Just ignore the part about it not being final, I never went back to it before finishing the video.
This is gold!
Wasn't a fair match. Lol. Sathanas had a severe handicap when facing off the Colossus. Lol