[SypheDMar]

For some reason, I felt

Spoiler:

the ending was very anti-climatic

. But definately a classic Campaign, great to play and will again.

I have to agree to the ending. As for the rest of the campaign, I think it's at best okay. I've never played the original, but I feel that this campaign compared to more recent works has shown its age. The TTS for the Vasudans fits pretty well initially. Some Vasudans are missing the Vasudan speech, and one particular mission briefing has the Vasudan speech lasting extra long.

I'm not at all pleased with the writing, but that's not the fault of the FSRCP. My biggest complaints with the campaign are the patrol missions. They're too long, too boring, and feels pointless. The "Wait-for-leader-to-finish waypoint-then-engage-hostiles" is not fun nor rewarding. The biggest FRED gripe that can be easily fixed is hearing the victory theme every time a primary goal is completed and listening to the "somber continue mission" music even when the mission was mostly a success.

Spoiler:

For the mission with the cloaking: I think that mission can be better improved since post-processing allows ship to decloak better. Using the Ship Select effect would look very convincing. There's even an effect named Decloak! (Doesn't come with mediavps by default, however)

[fightermedic]

you people are aware that you CAN win the last mission right? it is really hard but possible to save the pandora
thanks for the feedback
i too think that pandoras box is a medicore campaign at best, with a few strong moments

[SypheDMar]

That's not it. Saving it feels anti-climactic. It was basically, "Destroy the bomber wings as they respawn","disarm the giant flak that's being annoying", and "kill everything to pass time while the transports are inching towards the destroyer". And then the debrief talks about getting the transports beer. 

Anytime!

[Macfie]

As for the rest of the campaign, I think it's at best okay. I've never played the original, but I feel that this campaign compared to more recent works has shown its age. The TTS for the Vasudans fits pretty well initially. Some Vasudans are missing the Vasudan speech, and one particular mission briefing has the Vasudan speech lasting extra long.

I'm not at all pleased with the writing, but that's not the fault of the FSRCP. My biggest complaints with the campaign are the patrol missions. They're too long, too boring, and feels pointless. The "Wait-for-leader-to-finish waypoint-then-engage-hostiles" is not fun nor rewarding. The biggest FRED gripe that can be easily fixed is hearing the victory theme every time a primary goal is completed and listening to the "somber continue mission" music even when the mission was mostly a success.

I think you have to consider that the campaign was written 12 years ago and was written for retail.  At the time it was considered very innovative.  It was one of the first user made branching campaigns.  You have to remember that the FSOpen project has added many capabilities that didn't exist when this campaign was written.  The campaign is a classic and part of the history of FreeSpace user campaign development.

[mjn.mixael]

As for the rest of the campaign, I think it's at best okay. I've never played the original, but I feel that this campaign compared to more recent works has shown its age. The TTS for the Vasudans fits pretty well initially. Some Vasudans are missing the Vasudan speech, and one particular mission briefing has the Vasudan speech lasting extra long.

I'm not at all pleased with the writing, but that's not the fault of the FSRCP. My biggest complaints with the campaign are the patrol missions. They're too long, too boring, and feels pointless. The "Wait-for-leader-to-finish waypoint-then-engage-hostiles" is not fun nor rewarding. The biggest FRED gripe that can be easily fixed is hearing the victory theme every time a primary goal is completed and listening to the "somber continue mission" music even when the mission was mostly a success.

I think you have to consider that the campaign was written 12 years ago and was written for retail.  At the time it was considered very innovative.  It was one of the first user made branching campaigns.  You have to remember that the FSOpen project has added many capabilities that didn't exist when this campaign was written.  The campaign is a classic and part of the history of FreeSpace user campaign development.

Classic does not mean it has aged well. It may have been 'wow mad-awesome' when it was released... but if it bores someone who was introduced to things like BP.. then it bores. The fact that it's classic has nothing to do with it. It's place in the history of FS/HLP is still the same... but it's ability to impress has likely diminished.

[Kon]

The mission NTFCampV3.fs2 in the second Vasudan arc is broken.

Spoiler:

The Iron Fist's escape pods spawn too soon and too close to the Iron Fist. All 8 are always destroyed in the Iron Fist's explosion, leaving the mission a failure. I just Guardianed half of them to complete the mission. It's been too long since I touched FRED, so I'm not sure how to protect the pods from the explosion without permanently Guardianing them. Is there an SEXP for timed invulnerability?

As for the campaign, I'm almost done and it's been fun if somewhat frustrating at times. Too often, I kept retrying for objectives which were revealed to be impossible. This led to a few  moments. I also would have liked more control over my ship and loadout selection. I do think there are too many missions where Alpha wing's configuration is locked, sometimes even when able to fiddle with other wings. But I do enjoy how the loops were used, and getting back at the NTF after those early underdog missions was a great payoff for the first arc.

[Govenator]

I liked the campaign.  There were some pretty good battles and cool ideas like the

Spoiler:

cloaked ships. 

However it did leave me wanting more story so I can see why many people consider it "not one of the best" freespace campaigns.