Freelancer

I've long been a fanatical Wingnut (Wing Commander fan) even to the point of actually enjoying the WC movie, a characteristic that will probably get me flogged by other Wingnuts:). Because of this rabid love of all things WC I was anxiously awaiting Freelancer, and planning to upgrade my computer solely for that reason, since this was the last game that Chris Roberts initiated before leaving Digital Anvil and it was touted, at least in the Wing Commander community to be the new incarnation of WC Privateer.

Anyway the fateful day arrived when the game was released and I quickly snatched up a copy.

My reaction was: Not too bad.

When you start a new game you do have to sit through the opening cinematic that brings you up to speed on events. You are Edison Trent one of the survivors of a surprise attack on Freeport 7. Unfortunately, your ship was destroyed with the station and you wound up riding with the other survivors to the New York system. So you are short on money, clothes, and transportation. Because of this you are forced directly into the storyline, whereas in Privateer you could cruise around to your heart's content before actually starting on the story track. This is perfectly fine since between story driven missions you can take on any combat or cargo running mission you like. Once, you progress to a certain experience level it will activate the next set of missions in the story. The story itself is pretty standard Sci Fi fair, but still enjoyable. The only problem I found with it was that the CGI actors' lips almost never moved. This was only an issue for about the first two or three conversations and then my attention was no longer drawn to their lips. This is pretty acceptable though considering there are a lot of cookie cutter conversation scenes for when you pick up jobs, gossip, or an improved reputation from people in the bars. So the CG actors come off like the old Thunderbirds series but it's not much of a detractor.

The graphics are spectacular as is the environments you can fly through. There are trade lanes available in the "settled" systems that speed up travel between planets and stations in the system but you can also explore the system just using your cruise engine, although the trade lanes do propel you faster.

After the storyline is finished you can continue exploring. There are several unsettled and fringe systems to map and quite a few easter egg ship's and systems, on one planet I found myself quoting a particular Charlton Heston film. There are derelict ships in just about every system, providing a free source for spare parts and commodities. Some of these derelicts are the only place you can get the most powerful guns in the game, although you'll probably be well past the storyline before you can afford a ship that can mount such powerful weapons.

Even if you are a die hard space shooter fan it will get a little old fairly quick, although I still find myself going back to it for a little relaxation. But the game is surprisingly easy to modify so it's just a matter of jumping on the Net and downloading one of the many Mods out there if you want to liven up.

I my personal opinion, it's perfect just the way it is. The stunning visuals of the nebulae and planets is worth the price.

While there certainly are aspects that can be improved on in Freelancer, that can be said about any game.

First off, it should be noted, Freelancer does not support a joystick even though you are flying a spaceship. All movements are supported through keyboard and mouse. While this can take a little getting used to, you are free to remap your controls to suit your style. I feel the use of mouse controls allows for greater accuracy, although some people may disagree. The game does give you the choice of flying via 3rd person view or 1st person view. I find 1st person view to be more enjoyable, and you'll find that the sounds from the ship are more distinct in this view.

One of the mistakes I think some people make is trying to 'rush' through the story in the game. I believe that the faster you try and rush the story, the less satisfying it will be. This game is designed to be peeled open like the layers of an onion. It's meant to be explored and enjoyed. Think of it like a cross between a flight simulator and a combat flight simulator. The extent of combat you face can often be dictated by your choices. Take time to explore.

Although there is no 'skill' setting, you can impact the difficulty by the choices you make. Some lasers fire at a fast speed, but do low damage, good for a player that isn't that good a shot since they can fire more often without running out of energy. Alternately, you can choose a low speed/high damage laser, but if you miss too many shots you'll find your batteries drained before your enemy has been killed.

You can also choose to play as an 'enemy of the state' by befriending outlaws and attacking law enforcement. Since the major routes are primarily controlled by legitimate agencies, a life of crime will mean more fights with the law and a greater need to find 'back routes' between locations.

Missiles are also an option in your load-outs, but this too will impact the game's pace. If you choose to use missiles, the game will progress slower because you will be spending money to restock them after a fight. If you want a 'faster' story progression, choose a load-out that sticks to energy weapons.

Overall I found the graphics to be stunning, and considering that this game was released in 2003, CPUs and video cards will render beautifully even at higher settings.

They certainly didn't skimp on voice talent, as there are many well known actors that do voice work in the game. Here's a short list of some you may recognize:

Christopher Lee - Lord of the Rings (Saruman) | John Rhys-Davies – Lord of the Rings (Gimli) | George Takei - Star Trek (Sulu) | Kenneth Mars - Malcolm in the Middle (Otto Mannkusser) | Xander Berkeley - '24' (George Mason) | Maurice LaMarche - Futurama (Morbo/Lt. Kif/Kroker) | Tony Jay - Reboot (Megabyte) | Charles Shaughnessy - The Nanny (Maxwell Sheffield) | Michael T. Weiss - The Pretender (Jarod)

There are plenty of other voice talent actors that you may recognize from other popular games as well.

One aspect of the game that lends itself to flexibility is that the story will 'wait' for as long as you want it to. Want to do more exploring? Just avoid triggering the next part of the story. There is no time limit when the game tells you that you need to meet a character, so take your time.

Is there a downside? Sure. I found that some aspects of the game can become repetitious, especially the choices of 'job' missions. However, the jobs are not really meant to be the 'meat' of the game, they are mainly a method to make you money. I would have liked to see more done to include escort missions and such, but I can imagine this would have required more coding.

In the end it's certainly good value for the money if you like a game that you can take your time to explore.

This is a great game! Okay perhaps it didn't have some of the features it was meant to have but Digital Anvil have still come up with a good game. There is a certain similarity to Elite(you can trade, pick up weapons and cargo off destroyed ships, go on missions)however this game features a heavily scripted mission. It is a great mission. The control system is different it uses the mouse! You basically fly you spaceship around a system and work your way up! The game features some pretty good graphics even through it was made in 2003. It should run well on even a modestly specified PC. The story features some great voice acting from John Rhys Davies, George Takei, Jennifer Hale(she appears in every computer game). Stick with the story it gets better and better as it goes on. There is even a race section, where you and an opponent have to race your spaceships around a course(it involves you going through rings). This section took me a while to beat. It adds variety to the game. Some sections are a little tough here and there but overall you can beat this game. The game has an active mod scene on the Net. Pick up some mods to extend the game. I haven't played any of the mods yet.

Sadly a sequel to this was cancelled, a shame!

I bought this game on eBay having heard that it was a similar game to Elite. The gameplay is indeed very similar, and is very addictive. Once I'd played it a couple of times, I immediately went back on eBay and bought copies for all my kids so they could join in the fun too.... I have played this game right through and the storyline makes it feel as if you are actually in a movie, it's brilliant. If you have trouble feeling free to explore because of the restrictive nature of the storyline in the single-player game, simply set up a Freelancer server on your own PC (easy to do and the software is included) and play to your heart's content. There are still a huge number of Freelancer servers on the Internet, so multiplayer is no problem and is not all that threatening, because you don't often meant other players unless you want to. So go get a copy of this game, learn it by playing the single-player campaign, then set up an online presence and enjoy yourself. The depth of this game is staggering, with huge systems to explore and wrecks to find, as well as all sorts of other things to discover - hidden planets, wormholes, secret bases, the list is nearly endless. Fantastic game and especially as you can get it for a couple of quid on eBay. Get one with the full written manual if you can (blue box, not Xplosiv red box), it's loads better!

This game is very addictive, I kept playing it for hours straight until late at night but also the fact that you can't save a game when you are in space contributed to this, at times I just HAD to play on in order not to loose any game data.

So yes, "Freelancer" is addictive but also quite flawed. Also for instance, something that extremely bothered me was that you couldn't skip any of the cut scene's with as a result that at times you had to watch the same few minute cut scene time after time. A great opportunity for me to multitask to check my e-mail or have a chat with my friends and more things like that, while I had to wait for the cut scene to be over.

The story starts of promising but the further you get the more ridiculous it all gets. Also the game also ends quite abrupt, at least it did so for me. It is quite obvious that they are hinting at a upcoming sequel. I don't know if a sequel is in the works at the moment but I am sure that most likely I will pick one up once it will be released.

The gameplay is very easy! Even for those who are not familiar with flight games. To put it boldly, every fool can play this game. Yes, some levels are quite hard and require lots of effort. It took me about 1-2 weeks for me to finish this game which might be a bit too short. But thank God for the multi-player option! It allows you to keep playing short missions, just like the single player game once you have completed it by the way.

Even though lot's of mission are the same, it just simply stays cool to be in the middle of the at times massive dogfights.

The graphics are good but just not anything revolutionary or anything.

Addictive game but beware of its flaws.

7/10

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