Eighteen years have passed since FreeSpace 2 and the destruction of Capella, and the shattered colonies of man are finally ready to re-open the jump node to Earth. As the Alliance teeters on the verge of total social collapse, the Security Council deploys the elite 14th Battlegroup to re-establish contact with Earth, and young pilot Samuel Bei finds himself once more under his estranged father's command. Age of Aquarius describes the journey of the 14th Battlegroup as its mission to the Blue Planet goes shockingly wrong. War in Heaven takes place eighteen months after the events of Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius and details the final stages of the civil war between Sol and the rest of her colonies: a war without good or evil, only shades of gray. Built at the cutting edge of the FreeSpace Open engine, Blue Planet is a fan-made conclusion to the FreeSpace saga, a story of sacrifice, triumph, and destiny, and one of the most beloved FreeSpace mods of all time.
Of all the Freespace mods I have played, none has been able to draw me in quite as much as Blue Planet. Blue Planet manages to achieve a perfect balance between the traditional Freespace action we all know from the series, and an excellent story steeped in drama and mystery.
While War in Heaven has not been voice-acted as of this review, Age of Aquarius is, and while most of the voice acting (such as that of the main character, Samuel Bei, and his squadmates) is very good, some of it ranges from slightly over-acted to unintentionally hilarious. However, most of the bad voice acting is not enough to affect my opinion of the AOA much, since it's mostly from minor characters that you only hear from once or twice.
The new ships and weapons introduced in both War in Heaven and Age of Aquarius are every bit as fun to use as the ones in the vanilla Freespace games. All of them manage to be strong in their respective roles without being gamebreakingly overpowered (with a few intentional exceptions).
The soundtrack is also amazing in a way I simply cannot put into words. All of it manages to capture the moment in a stellar manner that simply must be heard to be believed. Downloads for the music can be found on the Hard-Light forums, and I highly recommend them.
All-in-all, Blue Planet is an absolute gem of a Freespace 2 mod, with a level of quality on par with games I would easily pay full price for. Any fan of Freespace or space sims in general must, I repeat, MUST play this one.