I randomly found this game at the Dollar Store somehow in my late teens. I'd never heard of it but I had no money at the time and this was way before the days of Humble Bundles or ridiculously discounted Steam sales. I ended up stumbling upon one of the best games of my adolescence.

Freespace captures the thrill of space dogfights and sends you on missions that feel like story beats from an epic action space movie. Missions that begin simply are upended by surprise attacks that require you to adjust your expectations and strategy. You go on missions to protect friendly frigates or capture enemy warships. Nearly every mission in this game ends in some very awesome battle with high stakes.

The combat is thrilling:
The targeting mechanics are simple and effective. Larger ships can have their various subsystems targeted and disabled, depending on the mission or what is most threatening. You can choose in your loadout to have ion weapons instead or regular ones to disable systems. You can control power allotment between shields, engines, and weapons. You can adjust the direction your shield is protecting you from. You can tell your squad to focus on certain targets or to protect you.

This may all seem pretty straightforward now but it was incredible when I was experiencing it for the first time and I have yet to find another game that does all of these features as effectively, if at all.

Anyone reading this: if you know of a game that features all these mechanics but is better or as good as Freespace, send me a message or comment below. The closes I've found is Star Wars: Squadrons but it wasn't as exciting and was way too short.