*spoiler alert*
Both games were also unique in simulations as you could never really win the game, you just barely managed to survive with great losses.. The excellent story is that , in the first game you are at war with an alien race called Vasudans, when another seemingly invincible one (Shivans) appears and kick both races butts so hard that you have to work with your ex-enemies against the common threat. This is your basic space story, however, things get a lot complicated along the way; resulting in a great last mission where you manage to destroy the Shivan Armada's capital ship, the Lucifer (DL are you there?), though not without losing connection with Earth itself, so it is a no one wins situation. The second game's two alternative endings are both even more tragic than the first, but I won't spoil it for you in case some of you want to try it out... However, I can say that Shivans never lose their worth as an impossible enemy, and this is a rare achievement..
*spoilers over*
In one of the most clever marketing tricks of the industry, even before you install it, the second game humiliates you so bad that you may not even want to run it.. Somewhere on the box it says something like "32 years have passed and Shivans got very curious about what happened to their scout party." So, the fleet you so desperately tried to destroy in the first game was only a scouting fleet!! Holy S..T was what I screamed when I saw this
, though after experiencing the scope of the second game it wasn't nearly the only time that phrase came out of my mouth, for Freespace II made you really believe that it was just a light fleet the first time.. The game had absolutely awe inspiring space combat with capital ships that took a minute to fly from one end to another 
, employing countless laser cannons and missile launchers, not to mention flak cannons that shook your ship violently, and the best of all, huge beam cannons they fired against enemy capital craft.. It was a feast for the eye to watch two ships cut each other with beams larger than your tiny fighter (it is usually instant death when you are caught by one), and that feeling that you are just a worthless space fly scrambling between two dinosaurs can hardly be explained 
...Descent games were awesome, and deserve another thread by their own, but their offspring, Freespace space sim games, were so grand in all aspects that it is safe to say you haven't seen all of the crème de la crème if you haven't played those modern classics..
