FreeSpace Open project Fate of the Galaxy, a Star Wars-based total conversion of the classic space sim FreeSpace 2, has finally made it out of the modding hangars, having first started development in 2007.
Now, if you were ever involved in modding circles, you know how many ambitious projects can sprout in a community, many of which will never make the finish line—and the bigger the project and the longer the development cycle grows, life inevitably tends to get in the way. So the folks behind Fate of the Galaxy deserve a massive, massive round of applause for getting this past the finish line.
To underline how ridiculous this timeline is: FreeSpace 2 itself was released eight years prior, and Fate of the Galaxy was not even the first attempt at making such a mod for the game. (I see you, Star Wars Conversion Project! I was there!)
As the total conversion’s page explains, the “goal is to deliver starfighter combat that captures the look and feel of the movies.” It certainly got the look and the sound right, based on the trailer:
Eagle-eyed readers are likely flabbergasted by the fact that this nifty little thing is running on the engine of a space sim first released in 1999. I will for sure revisit the story of this incredible title and the community that it sparked someday, but the short version is that Volition made what is still considered to be the best game of its kind, but Interplay’s poor marketing decisions led to poor sales, the developers were spun off to THQ while they kept the franchise rights, and their subsequent financial collapse left the series in limbo, with studio itself closing its doors in 2023.
However, the game’s source code was released for noncommercial use, and the FreeSpace Open project that emerged from the ashes of a fantastic game that would never get another sequel has kept polishing and upgrading the underlying engine, producing absolutely incredible content to this day. The total conversion is completely free, ready for you to take to the stars after just a few clicks on its ModDB page: you don’t even need a copy of FreeSpace 2 itself, though I would strenuously recommend that you give that a try too. It’s a treasure trove of great sci-fi.
I don’t think we can ever have enough Star Wars space games, and Fate of the Galaxy is filling a surprisingly large hole. I never really got the hang of Star Wars: SQUADRONS, precisely because it didn’t have the FreeSpace physics I grew up with, so I’m going to be all over this one once I have a bit of free time.
Poignantly, the work is dedicated to a team member who “tragically passed away in 2023:” to my shock, it was a fellow traveler—and fellow countryman, even—from my own FreeSpace modding days, and we even worked together on a campaign-that-ballooned-into-something-like-a-TC for a long while.
So I really hope the Force is strong with this one.
