Wings of Dawn

Wings of Dawn is a free, standalone anime-flavoured space sim and visual-novel hybrid, built by KingSpoon on the FreeSpace 2 Open engine. It started as a total conversion released in 2010 and was rebuilt into the standalone that exists now: same characters and setting, new story, and, in the developer's words, a restart from a semi-blank state because the first version's ending left little room for a sequel. The current release is the Dec 29, 2018 build containing Episodes 1 and 2, with 10 and 17 missions respectively.

You play Dawn, a girl who is swept into a war that spans the galaxy. The factions are the self-serving human governments, the long-eared and arrogant Cyrvans, and the lumbering Hertak with their many thralls. Missions are the dogfights and escort or assault jobs that the FreeSpace engine is known for, joined to visual-novel cutscenes and character conversation between them, so you spend as much time talking with people as shooting at them.

The developer lists several unusual features: multi-lock aspect missiles that can track more than one target, weapon crafting that lets you build your loadout, and an events system that carries some of your choices into later missions. Difficulty works differently from FreeSpace 2: from medium upward your numbers stay fixed and the game simply spawns more enemies, so veterans can safely push to Hard or Insane. Joystick input is supported alongside keyboard and mouse.

The practical side is demanding in disk space and light on hardware. The archive is about 4.89 GB, the developer asks for 8 GB free, and recommends 4 GB of RAM and a 2 GB OpenGL 3.3 video card; the weakest machine it was tested on was a laptop with an i7-2670QM and a GT 555M. It runs on Windows and Linux, with no official macOS build. The FAQ is candid about content, too: mild swearing, fantasy violence, and some lewd pictures hidden away, plus an optional 18+ patch that is a separate download. It is distributed free, but non-commercial use only, as with all FreeSpace 2 engine conversions.

For PlayBound it is exactly the sort of project we want to keep findable: a huge, free, single-player campaign made by one person on an open-source engine, with art and writing most paid games would envy. It is not a quick install — the official routes go through Knossos or a multi-part archive — and the game has been quiet since 2018, which we say plainly. It is complete in the sense that Episodes 1 and 2 are playable start to finish.