Single Player Mission 1 - the Nebula Mission "Crimson Sky"

The first single player mission, "Crimson Sky," is set in the nebula. It involves the discovery of a Shivan capital ship in the nebula near Gamma Draconis. The first thing you'll notice is the nebula's fog effect, which will cloud your vision and obscure your sensors until you're nearly on top of the capital ship. Then you'll notice a flash of lightning as the nebula storm rages around you.

The experience is rather frightening, since no longer is space so empty. Instead, it's filled with things lurking behind the next wave of nebula gas. As if hostile fighters hidden behind the nebula clouds weren't enough to worry about, you'll also have to watch out for flashes of lightning which can disable your subsystems and temporarily prevent your weapons from firing. The nebula could be even "thicker" in several missions in the game, so there should be plenty of interesting scenarios filled with surprises in addition to the lightning contained within the gaseous clouds.

Another feature pleasing to the eye is the addition of "trail" effects for parts of fighters and bombers that protrude from the main part of the ship. The tail fins of the Terran Hercules Mk. II and the Shivan Mara fighters leave smoking trails in their wake. This trail somewhat offsets the obscurement in the nebula, by providing a way to visibly track the path of fighters and bombers through the nebula.

The sun also creates a nice "luminescence" effect in the nebula, since the sun flare effect is amplified by all of those gasses and clouds. Swing around to chase a Shivan fighter and you might find yourself instantly blinded by the combined effect. It's yet another way the nebula effects gameplay by interfering with your visual cues.

The nebula also interferes with your sensor systems, so that your radar will be unreliable in the nebula. The campaign promises to take advantage of this effect to create interesting mission situations. The sensor systems aboard specialized AWAC capital ships will provide the ability to detect ships in the nebula, or you could be assigned to a fighter equipped with special "stealth" capabilities in missions where you must "tag" the Shivans with devices that will allow their presence to be tracked through the nebula.

Many reviews of the original FreeSpace discussed how it took the best parts of previous space dogfighters (Wing Commander and X-Wing/Tie Fighter) and improved them in terms of gameplay and graphics. The nebula is the cornerstone of how FreeSpace 2 promises to expand the genre even further, pushing into territory only seen before in the best classic Star Trek movie of all time: the Wrath of Khan. The impressive effects of the nebula are immersive, creating the potential for completely new mission and story concepts based on its gameplay effects.

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