Have you ever had one of those days where you wake up and look at yourself in the mirror and say "Why am I here?". Independence War 2 is one of the reasons why. After you play this game you can die a happy man/woman.

Introduction
You are Cal Johnston, a recently orphaned boy who is thrown into the vastness of space and all of it's dangers. You become a "Space Pirate" and have to handle everything thats involved, from stealing freight, to stealing lives. It sure is the prosperous life.

Gameplay: 4
The gameplay is very excellent in this game, sadly, it's also the most lacking aspect of the game. I will be honest and say that I haven't beaten the game yet, but am pretty far. The game is very deep, it has quite a few FMV and also has a non-linear(yes, NON LINEAR!) story. The game, so far, involves you in stealing various cargo from freighters. Once you do this for awhile, certain...people in the system "E-mail" you and give you missions. One of which is stealing a top secret fighter from a highly guarded area. Let me tell you, my heart was racing as I docked with the cargo and flew the hell out of there. The game is that exciting. One of the other cool features of the game is the "LDS" drive. This is their own system of "WARP". While traveling billions of KM in this mode, you really get to understand how vast the space is. The game's area is just huge.

Sound: 5
The sound is just incredible. You can hear everything from the missiles and the ship computer, to the engines. Impacts on your ship make very distinguishable sounds, and missiles wizz by your ship, it really helps create the feel of flying in a spaceship. Everything is very easy to hear as it is nice and clear. The musical score is also excellent, as it changes depending on what is happening. When you are fighting someone it will start playing music with a fast beat that heightens the experience.

Graphics: 5
The graphics in IW2 are just amazing. The ships level of detail is also very incredible. You can see the pilot inside of the ship and different parts of the ship move. The stars and celestial objects are also very realistic looking. You can fly near a star and look into it. Asteroids are also very complex looking with textures that show craters and various shapes. It's almost as if the asteroids are made completely random to enhance realism. The stations are also very breathtaking, it's just incredible how well of a job they did. It also runs excellent on my TNT2 at 800x600.

Controls: 5
The controls in this game are so complex it deserves it's own little section. The game is fairly easy to control with just a keyboard and mouse, the ships interface makes this easy. You can activate different autopilot features(dock,pursuit,follow,form) all by using hotkeys. Unfortunately you cannot customize the keys in the game. If you could, it would be very difficult to do so as there are tons of keys. The ships also feature a computer which has communication,engineering,wingmen,and navigational sections. Each lets you do a variety of tasks which are necessary for gameplay. I played with a Mouse and Keyboard and found it very easy to master. I am sure that a joystick would have made it even easier, but the game plays excellent without one.

Overall: 4.5
Overall, IW2 is an excellent game, it's only downfall is that the gameplay seems to be missing something crucial and many times I found myself wondering what to do next. The games flight model is very realistic and inertia is very apparent and must be considered when playing. If you are a fan of Freespace 2 this is a game to at least check out.

Recommended: Yes