Rating: 
Summary: Amazing game in unlimited space.
Review: Freelancer is a space flight game. It's not quite a sim, but it's not arcade. Many people have addressed the No Joystick issue, but let me tell you, it's not an issue. When you hear "Flight game with no Joystick," you probably scoff, but you shouldn't. The game isn't controlled like most other flight games. It's hard to explain, but if you're interested, download the demo and see for yourself. But I will say that given the interface, I don't see how it could have possibly worked using a joystick.
The interface is great by the way. You can see which guns are selected, enemy status, your status, and it all looks nice.
The single player mode has an engaging, interesting storyline. I won't spoil it, but has it's share of twists. The missions are diverse and CHALLENGING. It takes more than a basic understanding of the controls to succeed at them. While not super long, the game takes up a substantial amount of time. Plus, when you're finished, you can roam about the universe completely freely and continue playing with your ship. One thing I should mention, is that by the end of the storyline, you won't have the best ship, guns, or be the highest level. If you want to be the best, you still have work to do. Plus, the story has good replay value, giving you hours upon hours of singleplayer fun.
Multiplayer is possibly even better than the single player. There are many servers to play on. Each server is just a duplication of the same universe as in the singeplayer mode. No story, of course, but there are other players to trade and group with, so you can take on missions together.
The game has some RPG elements, but they aren't blatant. You don't earn XP or have skills. You earn money, and when you have a certain amount of Net worth you gain a level. Higher levels allow you to purchase better guns and ships, and you improve by purchasing those and other improvemnts for your ship. The guns aren't simply on a bad, better, better, basis. Each has advantages and disadvantages, as do ships. Some guns use less, some shoot faster, and some do more damage. There are also significant differences in ships. There are different kind of ships as well, like light fighters, heavy fighters or freighters. Plus, there are missles, torpedoes and mines to get. You also have access to better shields and thrusters.
Who you can or can't take mission from depends on a great reputation system. Kill a certain type of guy, and they won't like you. Your reputation also greatly affects where it is safe to go and how you travel. If you're bad with the police, you'll have to take jump holes instead of the registered jump gates. And some sytems you'l get murdered in if you don't have a good enough rep.
You can make money by many different ways. You can buy and sell goods from bases, or you could be a pirate and loot other trading vessels and sell that. Or you can take missions, which there are several different types of.
You should also know that there is a substantial mod community for this game. You can download new guns, new ships, new parts, mods that change your speed, or enemies, or reputation. It's great, and they're easy to use, too.
The universe you're in is huge, and they actually managed to make outer space diverse from place to place.
The graphics really depend on your computer. You can change the graphics settings to accomdate most computers, and the lowest to highest settings have a wide range of beatuy, from "Look, I'm in space." to Awe-inspiring "WOW, I had no idea space was so pretty."
The only downside to this game is that when you're at the top, there's not much to do, except start over. In single or multi player, it's not too hard to get to a point where you have the best ship and guns, and millions of dollars, and nothing to spend it on. But starting a new character always lets the gameplay keep flowing.
I love this game, and I reccomend it to anyone who's even remotely interested in a space flight game.
Rating:
Summary: forget star wars
Review: How did they do it? How did they manage to cram an entire UNIVERSE (the manufacturers are not kidding)into less than 2 gigabytes???? Whoever designed this went to a LOT of trouble, creating eight hundred years of intrigueing history, building a believeable space economy, and generally immersing the player in a realistic, believeable, and unfortunately HIGHLY addictive game environment.
First I'll deal with the universe itself. Throughout the game, you have a map of the 'universe' which changes to show new places you have discovered. There are fifty 'systems', each of which usually consist of a few well-rendered planets, asteroid fields, gas clouds, suns, debris fields, and even shipwrecks.Each system has an unbelieveably beautiful backdrop painting of nebulas, clouds, and the occasional black hole. Systems are reached by 'jump holes' or 'jump gates', basically entries into hyperspace. The fifty systems are divided into four major races--Bretonia (Britain), Liberty (US), Kusari (Japan), and Rheinland (Germany). There are also the Border Worlds, which are inhabited primarily by descendants of the Spaniards.
Now lets deal with the ships. There are perhaps a grand total of 25 player-flyable ships, about 5 freighters and 20 fighters. Fighters come classified as light, heavy, or very heavy. The heavier the fighter, the more devestating the firepower, however, there is a huge decrease in maneuverability.
Now for plot. The plot itself is very intrigueing, with unusual twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I wont go into the Coalition/Alliance bit since so many other reviewers have, i will just stick to the main plot. i dont want to provide spoilers, so i'll just tell about the missions you will have to do.
the missions are often near impossible. basic scenarios are as follows: you will be flying to the target, with juni, one of the main characters, warning you how difficult it is gonna be. well, thats no big deal, you say, it cant be much worse than the LAST mission. besides, you just bought that nifty anubis fighter. you will be in the middle of the last sentence when you burst out of the cloud or whatever youre flying through, and the sky will simply teem with rheinland heavy fighters, battleships, gunboats, and the dreaded nomad fighters. for a brief second they and you will just sit there, with your heart skipping beats and your mouth scraping the keyboard. then all hell will break loose. if by a miracle you make it in less than three tries, i take my hat off to you. as you desperately weave, duck, and just try to stay alive, juni will be angrily asking you why aren't you taking out the fifteen battleships. your reply will be through gritted teeth: after i take down this nomad, YOURE next. when you finally win the plot, you will feel infinitely happy. Your reward? An eternity of freelancing, going where you want, doing what you want, and no annoying juni to tell you what to do.
ups with this game:
excellent sound effects
i REALLY like the other pilot's conversations. they will talk amongst themselves as well as to you.
the 'virtual space economy' is, with its transports and pirates, very realistic and enjoyable.
detailed and interesting history
good weapons
realistic ships
like hte 'commodity' thing, where you buy (or loot) commodities, and sell em for a profit.
likable characters--except for juni, i HATE her.
SUPERB graphics
considering the amazing graphics, you dont really need a supercomputer to run this.
the reputation thing is fun. you can seriously annoy one group, and be good buddies with another. and if you get bored, its not too hard to change sides...
downs with this game:
missions are near impossible oftentimes.
the 'level' thing--you cant buy cool ships or parts unless you advance to the next level--usually by completing the oh-so-annoying missions.
the size proportions are ridiculous. planets are 20 km in diameter--barely the size of a large asteroid. distances between solar bodies are rarely over 80 km--they would be pulled into each other by gravity. oh well, this saves for long boring distances to travel.
although being done with the plot will be nice for a while, not having any cool missions will make it relatively boring. i livened things up by attacking transports and becoming a pirate (besides, they have better ships anyway).
oh i have just scraped the surface of this game. all in all, very enjoyable, and i cant wait for the sequel.
one more thing. all the very distracting women look like supermodels, and the men are all built like the terminator. must be all that genetic engineering.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad but not stellar
Review: I'm a fan of the work of the Robert brothers all the way back to wing commander days. I like how Freelancer takes off were Starlancer ends (The Alliance is fighting a losing war against the Coalition *no more spoilers*). I'm not crazy about using the mouse for flight and the interface takes a little getting use to. This game would be real nice if the joystick and/or keyboard were open options for flight control. Pros, awesome flight graphics but I think a little extra work could have been done on the character models though even though they do look decent with good shadowing (characters in Starlancer looked better even w/o shadowing). I havn't finished the game yet but the story is good so far. I would recommend this to anyone into space-sims but not hardcore players.
Rating:
Summary: So many things to do, I can't decide!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: First, before I get to storyline, lets get to the basics. The graphics are above-par, and so is the sound. My only beff is the AI. every time you talk to a non-mission relted charachter it always starts like this (unlessyou have alredy spoken with them). "Can I help you?" "I'd just like to know what's going on around here" "Your first time here?" "yeah" "Well, I work for THE BOUNTY HUNTERS GUILD. We don't feel the need to run things around here, but we do have a sizeable stake in its operation. Card? Everything seems to be in order. I have heard a rumor." then they tell you. The faction Hostility/freindliness meter is unique, because some corporations will be hostile as soon as you see them. It is difficult in the missions to maintain a good rep. with the bounty hunters.
The gameplay gets relatively tedious, until you get to about level 8. then the missions get interesting. The game, though extremely short, is high in replay-ability. Also, the posibilites after the game for exploration is endless. find hidden bases and a planet inhabited by monkeys. Shoot wrecked ships (marked by a red X on the map) to get their equiptment. Unfortunately, most of the time, they are in Minefields or radiation zones. Also, if you sell a unique weapon to a base that doesn't normally sell it, by your next visit to the equiptment dealer, it is gone. you cannot attach wepons that are tractored in until landing on a base and selling it and then rebuying it for more money. Some problems arise in the Omicron systems. Fighting Outcasts gets your rep. up with Corsairs and Vice Versa. If you are on good with Corsairs, you can fly through Omicron Gamma and Theta just fine, but Alpha and Beta are nearly Impossible to navigate, even with Diamondback, Jade, Silver Fire, Archangel, and Bloodfire guns and a Titan ship. Overall Rating: Excellent.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than average
Review: The main plot is somewhat repetitive, but it's entertainng. The open-eneded nature of the gameworld is really unlocked only when you finish the main story in that at several points along your advance,ment you're required to complete specific missions. That means if you're tired ofplaying themain storyline and just want to go cruise on your own, you're stuck under a ceiling until you advance themain plot. Once you've finished the storyline advancem,ent's no problem.
What makes this game appealing is that it's a great space sim with enough role=playing to keep it out of meiocrity and does NOT need a joystick nor do you miss it: a mouse and keyboard work perfectly.
The graphics are nice, the combat is fun and varied, and shipping goods between systems is fun too. Not the best game in the owrld, but definitely not one to be written off too soon.
Twenty bucks? Yeah, I think it's worth it. Overall, not a bad game at all.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing 'Free' about Freelancer
Review: The game makers declare the game to be open-ended and you are free to go and do as you choose. Nothing could be further from the truth. You MUST do EXACTLY as you are told or you are not allowed to buy better weapons or ships. ( YOU MUST BE LEVEL 16 TO PURCHASE THIS WEAPON. .. YOU MUST BE LEVEL 26 TO PURCHASE THIS SHIP.) And how do you achieve these levels? Well, in the minds of the corporate clones who designed this game, by being funneled into desperate and ridiculous scenarios with inadequate weapons, shields or resources. You are not allowed to break from the 'missions' and go make money or improve you gear as you were allowed in Privateer ( a FAR superior game) and you are FORCED to sit and watch embarrassingly lame little movies with laughable dialogue, none of which has the tiniest significance to the game, because after all, you will be TOLD what to do and when to do it, and you must repeat the sorry little chore until you are successful. It is impossible to divert for better weapons or resources, such as sheild batteries. (Absurd .. a spaceship that runs out of sheild batteries like a weak flashlight) The difficulty factors of the game are as simple minded and cliche as are the huge asteriod feilds and drifting junkyards. This is what happens when game makers should have been accountants. This game should be scrapped. It's junk.
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