I-War 2 (Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos) (2001)

[DesolationStone]

Steam
GOG
Since a lot of people were talking more about Independence War 2 than I-War 1, I decided to open the topic for the better known sequel. I haven't played it, so I can't say too much, but from what I've seen and heard, it seems to be a more open game, with a less simulated gameplay, but still more complex compared to other mainstream space sims of the time.
There are already a number of topics related to this game on the forum, but there is a lot of confusion about the names of the two Independence War that this one will also be useful to avoid disorder.

 

[luj1]

Was this like a competitor to Freelancer? Looks similar.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Played it ages ago, so my recollections might not be perfect.

Your granny was a pirate, real badass, now you're a pirate. After tutorial it's pretty open, but there's some story missions. Freelancer is very lite compared to this - IWar2 has newtonian flight, and is way less arcadey than Freelancer. It was a really fun game, less cinematic than freelancer, harder to master, but more enjoyable in good run. Recently some stuff was fixed. Chris Roberts wasn't involved in IWar2 so it has that going for it as well.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

Similar to Freelancer in concept, but not in execution. Hardcore controls (can't imagine playing this without a flightstick), newtonian physics and complex missions made it far more interesting to me than Freelancer ever was. Still one of the best "space simulations" I have ever played.

 

[DesolationStone]

Similar to Freelancer in concept, but not in execution. Hardcore controls (can't imagine playing this without a flightstick), newtonian physics and complex missions made it far more interesting to me than Freelancer ever was. Still one of the best "space simulations" I have ever played.

I've managed to run it on Linux (seems to work better here than on Windows), I just need the time and patience to play it.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

Recently some stuff was fixed.

Thanks for linking that. The old I-War forums were a really great community back in the day and it's awesome to see they are still going in one form or another.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

If this was easily playable with kb+mouse, and it had non-tiny font on screen, I would probably be replaying it now. I miss my youthful eyesight and good old Saitek X52

 

[potatojohn]

If this was easily playable with kb+mouse, and it had non-tiny font on screen, I would probably be replaying it now. I miss my youthful eyesight and good old Saitek X52

It's perfectly playable with a keyboard.

 

[Old One]

Similar to Freelancer in concept, but not in execution. Hardcore controls (can't imagine playing this without a flightstick), newtonian physics and complex missions made it far more interesting to me than Freelancer ever was. Still one of the best "space simulations" I have ever played.

I agree. After IWAR2 the cheesy arcade controls of most spaceflight sims are hard to tolerate.

 

[anvi]

If Microsoft weren't evil scum they could have an AI make Iwar 3 in an engine like Elite Dangerous engine.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

Microsoft bought out the I-War IP?

 

[anvi]

No but they could, or make their own space game like it. Their gaming AIs could be amazing but they can never decide if they want to boost gaming on Windows or destroy it.

 

[Angthoron]

If this was easily playable with kb+mouse, and it had non-tiny font on screen, I would probably be replaying it now. I miss my youthful eyesight and good old Saitek X52

It's perfectly playable with a keyboard.

It absolutely is.

And I suck at space sims.

It also has some rudimentary flight assists, so docking, matching speed, lining up next to target & matching speed are all pretty simple.

I loved both I-Wars, and I think the 2nd is my favourite, and probably the space sim I've enjoyed the most.

It also used to have a nice bunch of mods.

 

[Jinn]

One of the most fun space sims to play with a HOTAS or flight stick though. Highly recommend if you have the means to.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

This was a gorgeous game, I remember it had a bittersweet ending too.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

One of the most fun space sims to play with a HOTAS or flight stick though. Highly recommend if you have the means to.

I was actually surprised that saitek hotas is quite affordable, so price isn't the problem. Lack of space unfortunately is.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

You bastards made me install it. Have it on gog, but had to jump through some hoops to run it on my box at 2560x1440. Starting with these instructions, downloading this dgVoodoo, then bloody wincdemu and mounting the first iso I found on my drive (opensuse installer btw) because my pc doesn't have a cdrom and whoever cracked the exe at gog did shitty job. It got to main menu at proper res but then crapped out the moment I tried playing single player.

Suggestions?

 

[DesolationStone]

You bastards made me install it. Have it on gog, but had to jump through some hoops to run it on my box at 2560x1440. Starting with these instructions, downloading this dgVoodoo, then bloody wincdemu and mounting the first iso I found on my drive (opensuse installer btw) because my pc doesn't have a cdrom and whoever cracked the exe at gog did shitty job. It got to main menu at proper res but then crapped out the moment I tried playing single player.

Suggestions?

Idk
I suggest to install also the community patches from the I-War 2 forum.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

You bastards made me install it. Have it on gog, but had to jump through some hoops to run it on my box at 2560x1440. Starting with these instructions, downloading this dgVoodoo, then bloody wincdemu and mounting the first iso I found on my drive (opensuse installer btw) because my pc doesn't have a cdrom and whoever cracked the exe at gog did shitty job. It got to main menu at proper res but then crapped out the moment I tried playing single player.

Suggestions?

Idk
I suggest to install also the community patches from the I-War 2 forum.

You mean the one that I linked or all of them? I only installed the latest one.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Got it running, and inside the first mission! I had to put the GOG shortcut to it into Win7 compatibility mode. Game looks great, except the whole hud is tiny. No mods can fix that apparently. I played for 10 mins with xbox360 elite and it was actually quite nice. Will defo give it a longer go over the weekend.

 

[anvi]

Got it running, and inside the first mission! I had to put the GOG shortcut to it into Win7 compatibility mode. Game looks great, except the whole hud is tiny. No mods can fix that apparently. I played for 10 mins with xbox360 elite and it was actually quite nice. Will defo give it a longer go over the weekend.

Is it worth a play?

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

I played the crap out of it waaaaay back when it came out. I think I had some early GeForce, Saitek x45 hotas and a very nice 19" crt. It's a fantastic game, way more fun than any other spacesim bar FreeSpace 2. Newtonian motion might be difficult to get used to, but once you grok it, it feels fantastic.

Unfortunately I couldn't play over the weekend, family requires my attention :D

 

[GreyViper]

It has a nice Newtonian combat mechanics, so you could RP some combat scenes from Babylon 5. As the story goes, its so so with a cliffhanger since they expected to make a sequel that never happened. Id say in a way it harkens back to Privateer rather then Freelancer. You have limited selection of ships you can use unless you mod the game. Still, the ships you do have access are interesting can play differently. Also, an honorable mention goes to turret fighters for their gimmick.
Overall the game played you flying to L-Range point scanning incoming cargo ships until you spotted one that had the most goodies. Then you take out the escort and get the freighter to drop the cargo, bonus points if it's using AM fuel and blows up.
Then you call Jax to collect the cargo that is left and rinse and repeat while doing some quest missions on the side.
Ill give them this much the volatility of Antimatter is done well in this game.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

It would be nice if some upscaled the textures for this game. It's looking a bit sad these days.