Volition Watch Archives > FS1 Review

The rating system consists of four sections (Storyline, Balance, Design, and Gameplay) in addition to an overall rating.

Each section is rated by a reviewer on a scale from 0 to 5 stars, in half-star increments. The overall rating is determined by a weighted average based on the reviewer's opinion of the mission in its entirety. The overall rating will usually be close to the average rating for the four sections, but this value is not necessarily an average of the other values.

In addition, each mission is classified under an appropriate mission type.

Storyline	Does the mission create an enjoyable scenario for the player that tells a complete story? Is there some compelling reason that encourages the pilot to complete their mission? Does the mission have some "soul" that is created using a certain tone or mood? Is the mission or the story original or unique in some way? Does the mission accomplish what it sets out to accomplish? Is the mission internally consistent and understandable from the briefings? Is the mission believable and consistent with the FreeSpace Universe? Are the mission briefings and debriefings informative?
Balance	What are the ship and weapon selections? Are the ship and weapon selections appropriate for this type of mission? How difficult is the mission on medium setting? Are there too many or too few hostiles and friendlies? Are the ships selected too strong or too weak for their assigned roles in the mission? Do the reinforcements and secondary waves arrive too early, too late, or not at all?
Design	Is the mission design technically correct using FRED? Are there any performance issues caused on lower-end machines? Does the mission accomplish what it sets out to accomplish? Does the mission designer effectively use all of the FRED Editors (Ships, Wings, Shields, Waypoints, Asteroids, and Briefing/Debriefings) and create events? Are there mission objectives and do they work properly? Do they cover all of the goals of the mission? Are the ships named? Are the ships set to the proper IFF (hostile, neutral, or friendly)? Are critical ships set to "escort" status to show their hull status in the HUD? How are the ships placed in FRED? Is there enough distance between Alpha wing and the first hostile? Are all three planes used (X, Y, & Z) to distance the ships? Do the ships and wings arrive at appropriate times or do the waves arrive too obviously and without any delay, as if everything in the mission was staged? Will they leave when there is no need for them anymore or hang around doing nothing? What are the default AI commands for ships in the mission? Do they act and react believably? Does the mission include events which change the outcome of the mission and do those events work properly? Are directives and objectives tied into these events? Are there in-flight messages tied to the events to highlight the progress of the mission? Do the sounds and personalities match these messages? Is the briefing correctly done? Does the debriefing change based on your actions in the mission? Does the mission include any unique or inventive event sexp-coding? Are there any suggestions on how to improve on the design of the mission? Are there any other relevant comments about the mission or its design?
Gameplay	Does the mission create an enjoyable flight experience in the Mission Simulator? Do you feel involved in the mission as an important part of the events, or are you merely a spectator? Does the mission react to your actions in the mission? Or is the ending inevitable? How difficult is the mission to win or lose? Is it too difficult or easy to enjoy? Is the mission memorable in any way, perhaps including an appropriate suprise? Can you replay the mission and still be entertained? Would you recommend this mission to the FreeSpace community as fun?
Overall Rating	What is the bottom line that summarizes the review? What are the high points of the mission? What are the low points of the mission? What is the overall rating of the mission?

Generally, the most expansive area for any review will be the design section. However, not every review will answer all of these questions. Some of the questions listed under each section may not be applicable or relevant to the discussion of the mission. Perhaps there is little that can be said about any one section. However, a reviewer will consider most of these questions (as well as any other appropriate ones) when writing their review. Our review staff tests missions and their performance on computers comparable to a Pentium 200 with 64 MB RAM and Voodoo 1. Performance may be slightly higher on more powerfully configured machines.

STAR DESCRIPTIONS
The best measure of any mission is to read the full text of the review. However, each section of the mission will be rated on a scale from 0 to 5 stars, in half-star increments. The mission also receives an overall rating. The following descriptions explain the meaing of the stars used in section ratings and the overall mission rating:

0.0	Horrible. Indicates a lack of effort, knowledge and/or fatal bugs.
1.0	Flawed. Serious design flaws that require some work to be acceptable.
2.0	Rough. Some large design flaws, but roughly acceptable to those who don't demand high quality.
3.0	Good. A decent job that is generally effective and does what is necessary. Definitely playable, as the highs outweigh the lows.
4.0	Polished. An excellent job with extra work done to make playing extremely enjoyable.
5.0	Exceptional. Indicates an instant classic - a preferred mission with precise crafting and thorough testing. Meets or exceeds Volition-quality.

MISSION TYPES
Missions generally fit into one or two of several mission types. When a misison is reviewed, it is assigned a mission type for the archive. Our intent is to assist pilots in choosing those missions which they enjoy the most. These mission types are explained by category:

Dogfight	Player's main objective is to destroy all enemy fighters in the mission. There must be more than the usual amount of fighters in the mission, and there will usually be no enemy capital ships.
Escort	Player must guard an unarmed or very lightly armed vessel (a transport or science vessel or light capital ship) from one point to another. The guarded ship could easily be in grave danger if left alone while the player engages the enemy.
Defense	Player must protect armed ships (destroyers or cruisers) or objects that cannot move under their own power (cargo containers and Installations). The guarded ship can be safely left alone to defend itself for a while as the player engages the enemy.
Attack	Player must destroy an unarmed or very lightly armed vessel (a transport or science vessel or light capital ship) which requires an escort for defense.
Assault	The the player is required to eliminate a base of some sort with defenses in place, such as a cargo depot or Arcadia with a fighter defense. Or the player has to kill a large ship (a cruiser or destroyer) capable of being dangerous that also has an escort.
Recon	Player must scan something, either a ship or cargo container, as a major objective. These missions are fundamentally about intelligence gathering.
Strike	Player must rush in to complete an objective, and then immediately retreat. The key is speed. The player is not at all expected to engage any enemy fighters for a length of time unless it is vitally necessary to success. Similar to the "Pandora's Box" mission in the main FreeSpace campaign.
Capture	This means that the player must disarm and/or disable a ship so that a friendly ship can fly in and tow it away. This usually means that there are no other major attacks on other capital ships.

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