Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War
"Descent: FreeSpace" was well received as a single-player space simulation that integrated all the desired features of its genre, from competent AI wingmen, to the presence of large capital ships that not only dwarf the fighters piloted by the player, but also explode spectacularly when destroyed. However, the game's multiplayer mode was criticised, as it was plagued by lag and inaccurate tracking of statistics. An expansion for the game, which was less well received, was also released in 1998 under the title of "Silent Threat", and focuses on events after the main game's campaign with the player working for an intelligence branch of the Terrans' armed forces that later attempt to overthrow the Terran government. A sequel to "Descent: FreeSpace" entitled "FreeSpace 2", was released in 1999 to critical acclaim.
Civilization (video game)
A 1994 "Computer Gaming World" survey of space war games stated that "the lesson of this incredibly popular wargame has not been lost on the software community, and technological research popped up all over the place in 1993", citing "Spaceward Ho!" and "Master of Orion" as examples. That year MicroProse published "Master of Magic", a similar game but embedded in a medieval-fantasy setting where instead of technologies the player (a powerful wizard) develops spells, among other things. The game also shared many things with the popular fantasy card-trading game "". In 1999, Activision released "", a sequel of sorts to "Civilization II" but created by a completely different design team. "Call to Power" spawned a sequel in 2000, but by then Activision had lost the rights to the "Civilization" name and could only call it "Call to Power II".