Freelancer

Rating:
Summary: A Good Game for the Price
Review: I wasn't to sure about this game when I first tried the demo version. Actually, I played all of about 5 minutes and said "not for me"!! Well, I heard some good things about it and decided to drop the bucks and give it a try. Definitely, glad I did. Most of the game info is noted in the other reviews so I won't bore you with that. One note, there is a story line you can follow or you can change it around some by deciding on who you want your character to be--the basic good guy or the villian type. The graphics are great--and I only have a PT 3 900 with a Nvidia G-force 3 game card. The universe is worth the buy. I'm not finished with the game yet, and I have flown through some spectacular space scenary. The missions get a little slow at times, if you keep the same type of ship--ie. fighter or cargo. However, I have found taking on the roll of pirate, and blasting away at certain cargo ships fun. I have chosen who I want to be friends with and who I want to tick off. The next time I play, I intend on changing roles again. Hope this is somewhat helpful. I say it's worth the dollars to buy the game.

Rating:
Summary: Great Expectations
Review: Let me preface this by saying that I am a die hard Privateer & Wing Commander fan. No other series of games has ever captivated my interest as much as the 2 prior versions of Privateer did. Obviously, I have been waiting a long time for Freelancer to arrive and I had great expectations that this installment would be better than both of the other versions. Well, it is.... almost.

The story line is excellent. However, you must complete certain elements of the story line to open up the huge universe beyond the starting system of Liberty. Unless you are very careful, your actions will force you into a certain side of good vs. evil and this will limit your options very quickly. Random combat missions are similar in feel to Privateer 2. The trade system is better than before (it is imperative to have the Freelancer Strategy Guide to plan your trade routes).

The graphics are decent, but a bit dated. Space is an improved version of WC: Prophecy. Minor tweeks on the ship HUD display are better than the Wing Commander series. Dirtside graphics are ok. The interface system is very good and simplified, but NO joystick option. The mouse works very well in controlling your spaceship, but the "feel" is not right for any space sim fan. The music and ambient sounds remind you of Privateer and are of excellent quality.

The lack of the joystick for flight control and the somewhat dated graphics are my only reservations for a very polished and entertaining product.

Pros: The look and feel is still reminiscent of the old Privateer. The story line grabs your interest and makes you want to carry on to the end. The number of systems to explore are simply incredible. There are enough equipment options to make everyone happy. No apparent compatability issues with my computer.

Cons: Somewhat dated graphics. No Joystick option!

Rating:
Summary: Fun and incredibly annoying at the same time
Review: This game is beautiful to look at and really makes a strong effort at being an open-ended space combat/exploration game. A literal universe of planets, space stations, debris fields, wormholes, ships, and other encounters wait to be explored. Docking areas are all fairly interchangeable, typically comprising a bar, store, supply depot, and ship dealer. You can talk to people for gossip or side-missions, load cargo for trade, upgrade weapons and equipment, and buy new ships.

Now, I say 'effort' because hidden beneath all the trappings of a free-range space game is a very restrictive main mission. Following the main mission of the game is fun and its elements are interesting, but in order to shoehorn you into it, Freelancer made the extremely poor choice of tying it to your pilot's progression. In other words, if you ignore the main quest and light out on your own, you won't ever get any better. Sure, you may win a thousand dogfights or earn a million credits from trade, but you won't advance.

For example, my current character is a mere 5th level pilot. In order to progress to 6th level, he has to complete a certain mission tied to the main quest. This character, however, has already completed over 50 side quests, blown up over 250 enemy warships, and earned about $300,000 in trade and resold looted equipment. None of that affects his level. Now without going up another level, he cannot buy a better ship, nor can he buy better weapons. Ship equipment, like the ships themselves, is tied to one's level..hence he is unable to buy anything that requires level 6 or higher. So he, despite being wealthy and highly experienced, can not get the many advanced ships and weapons he's already encountered in his explorings.

This scheme makes absolutely no sense. It generates innumerable Catch-22s where one must complete a mission in order to fly back to the base you *just came from* in order to get a better ship, yet completing the mission is nearly impossible with the crappy ship you're currently stuck with. It also makes side-missions nearly pointless unless you've already gone up a level and just need some money to outfit your new ship, or perhaps want to alter your standing with a particular faction. I could, using any number of clever tricks, take my weak ship and explore hidden planets, gaze in awe on their awesome vessels and equipment which I can already afford, yet unless I cleave to the main plot I will never be able to get one.

Thus while the game theoretically lets you explore however you want, that exploration is almost meaningless if you're stuck up against one of the level-requirement missions that happen pretty much in succession for the entire game. Even the fight-induced nausea of 10 swirling enemy fighters attacking you (they always all attack you, ignoring even anyone else you may be traveling with) pales in comparison with the knowledge that you'll be back to fight that particular group over and over and over again if you ever want to go up a single level, without the ability to upgrade your ship or equipment until you do.

In short while this game can be a lot of fun, don't be fooled into thinking it's even half the open-ended 'freelancer' game it makes out to be.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent... but understand where it's coming from
Review: Picked up this gem on release day. Have only played for a total of 4 hours, so I'll give my initial impressions here. (The other reviews sum up the feature set nicely.)

Understand that FREELANCER IS NOT A SPACE COMBAT SIMULATOR (as I believe the Amazon reviewer pointed out). It really is more of an action RPG set in space.

There's little micromanagement here, which, in this setting, is a blessing. There's enough going on without having to account for shield facings, energy management, and Newtonian mechanics. It's no Independence War.

(But I am annoyed that YOU CAN'T ROLL YOUR SHIP. At least I couldn't find a way to do it. Stinks not being able to do a break maneuver. I do like the "strafe" feature... adds a fun element to combat.)

Combat is fast and furious and fun. So far, it seems almost too easy. Perhaps that's because ship guns aren't fixed forward, allowing you to train firepower on targets even if they're not dead center in your HUD.

....

My hope for the game was not its simulation aspects but its dynamic universe. The key to making this work is adequate feedback to the player, and Freelancer does this superbly with news items (available at bases/planets), radio chatter, conversations with NPCs, and "reputation meters" with various factions. This was a major failing in the BattleCruiser titles (well, those currently available anyway), where it was much harder to get a sense of who's zooming who. Derek Smart take note (that is, when you can take a break from puffing yourself up).

Oh, and for those wondering if it will run on their system, here's my subjective benchmarking: I have a 1.4GHz Athlon and a GeForce3 card. Looks absolutely beautiful in 1024x768 with superb frame rate.

Sounds great, too. The music and SFX add much to the experience. (The occasional appearance of non-professional voiceovers detracts, but I've encountered them only in bars--where you pick up jobs, hear rumors, etc.)

Hardcore simmers will probably avoid this title, but they'll be missing one hell of a ride.

Rating:
Summary: The fun is in the exploration...
Review: ...and that gets old pretty quick with the relatively small universe. I think everyone should just face what this game is. It's a repetitive, boring, gameplayless wreck. You spend more than half the game flying from place to play hitting the F3 key to jump in trade link after trade link. Calling this open-ended is a total joke. There really are only three things you can do, you can be a fighter, trader, or pirate. The most interesting, of course, is the fighter. You get missions to do, but unfortunately, every. single. one. is go here, and fight these ships, and possibly a base and turrets. You can always buy better ships and the ludicrously powerful hidden ships, but doing missions nets in a pitiful amount of cash, so you'll be forced to start the game being a trader. Being a trader defines mediocrity. You travel from place to place clicking buy, then clicking sell at another place. This nets the easiest cash so you can buy a better ship of your choice later. The next step up to a flying joke is being a pirate. Choosing this occupation serves no purpose. The point is to destroy other ships, preferably trading ships, and taking their cargo. The cash you can receive this way is pathetic, and if you choose this, everyone will hate you and you won't be able to dock many places. Since the whole idea is to destroy trading ships and hit that button that tractors in cargo, this gets old reeeaaaal fast. You can't even dock on the other ship and hijack it, even when disabling them. If they decide to make a sequel, there absolutely HAS to be a more personal ship, something you can wander around in, and for heaven's sake it has to be bigger than the teeny-tiny ships you get, even the supposedly massive trading ships are pathetically small. I would also love to see multiplayer done better, it would be a godsend if you could board and hijack other ships as a pirate, or just to climb aboard someone else's ship or dock on a trading ship to get a free ride somewhere, and to act as a deployable fighter escort. Rather than acting as a ship, it should be more as acting as a player, one that can contribute to other players. Anything would do. Being able to assign roles to people on ships, particularly trade ships, would be wonderful. A deeper systems management would be great, someone to worry about the engine powers and to fix any malfunctions, someone to worry about the weapons and the power they sap up, and someone to worry about steering. To think about the huge amount of things they could've done with this game, it's sorry to see how short they sold themselves, particularly considering the development time. Next to worthless.

Rating:
Summary: ELITE it ain't! 2 1/2 stars....
Review: Elite was the best space combat/trading game ever. Many have tried to create an updated version of this game; Privateer was the best effort so far in my opinion but there have been others (X-Beyond the Frontier and Independence War 2 are good ones). The latest attempt, Freelancer, looks good but really misses the mark in a lot of spots.

First off, why no joystick? I really tried getting use to flying with the mouse but it gets silly, especially when I got into a dogfight with the lightweight enemy fighters in the game. If I could use a joystick they would not last 5 seconds, the enemy AI is that bad. It makes the whole issue of combat in the game seem like a side issue.

Plus the game starts getting jittery in spots. I have a P4 with a Gig of RAM and it still slows down when there is alot of activity on screen.

Its not worth the hefty price tag.

Rating:
Summary: Very Entertaining Space Action Game, not a Space Sim
Review: Freelancer is a somewhat controversial game because it is somewhat between genres. It has elements that appear to come from a space simulation (eg, you spend most of the game flying around in your ship), but in reality the game is better described as a spaceship based RPG.

The game is not completely open-ended, you need to play the missions in order to advance in levels, which opens up new systems, equipment and ships. The open-ended part really comes in being able to choose what to do to make money between missions.

The game is not a space simulation, really, because the flying and fighting aspects of the game are simplified as compared with most space sims in order to make the game more accessible. Having said that, Freelancer remains a very well done, very entertaining game if you accept it on its own terms.

Players looking for a space sim game would probably enjoy X2 more than Freelancer.

Rating:
Summary: Great but too short
Review: I have to say, this has been one of my favorite games in a while. To start with the controls, i didn't think they were so bad, but this could be because I dont play space sims too much and dont have a joystick anyway. Others have said the mouse system gives horrible aim and the interface was horrible, but its extremely simple and anyone can get into the game in several minutes.

The reason I gave the game a four however, is because the game is kind of repetitive and the game just doesn't take that long to beat. If you're no playing the storyline, then you are either exploring or doing missions for cash, which are almost the same every time, and the AI doesn't get any different. The computer always tries to rush past you, turn around, head towards you while firing like mad, and rushing past you again until the process repeats. Also, the game is kind of very easy until the later parts of the game, where it can just get plain annoying.

Although i've just said alot of negative things, this is by no means a bad game. The good far outweighs the bad, like a good flight system, an awesome and engaging storyline, and some nice rpg style elements. The main problem is that the storyline isn't long enough and i found myself finishing it after two days. Finally, the multiplayer should give the game some extra life to most of you, as it is fun, but doesnt include any of the great storyline missions.

I highly reccomend this game, but dont expect anything mindblowing and phenominal.

Rating:
Summary: Privateer and Traveller Revisited
Review: This is an engrossing and addicting game. Anyone that enjoyed the board game Traveller or the computer games MegaTraveller and Privateer will love it. The graphics of space are beautiful and the amount of space to explore is incredible. The mouse icon interface is easy to use to control the ship and your freelancer. The single player is a good starting point since it allows you the opportunity to see the lawless bases which are more difficult to visit in multiplayer without bribes on the Freeport stations.

I am still trying to find out why once I hit level 29 in single player it keeps saying Mission to advance next level but yet no indication of what that mission is or where to go to complete it. Usually you are contacted and given way points for missions in single player as required. The game has numerous wrecked ships, bases, and jump holes to locate in clouds and asteroid fields in the numerous systems. The variety of ships, weapons, and other equipment to be found on bases and shipwrecks are great and unique in their abilities. You can be a merchant and run cargo between bases and planets, be a mercenary for law or the lawless, or pirate the lanes of space.

All in all one of the best games I have seen. It was the only thing that could pull me away from Battlefield 1942 and MOH. My only complaints are you can only own one ship, and you can't store cargo and weapons off your ship at a base or planet. The downside to not being able to use base storage for great weapons you tractor in or trade for is that if they are not equipped and your ship is destroyed you lose them permanently. Hopefully these things will be addressed in a patch, mod, or expansion. Along with various races that are similar to those on Earth, there is an alien "Nomad" race that is quite deadly. So be wary at the Unknown jump hole. Check out the demo at Microsoft. I am sure you will want to buy the full version. As I said my complaints are minor compared to the enjoyment I have gotten playing this game by myself and with my friends online.

There are many mods available for this game now that you can fly ships from Star Wars, Star Trek, or a number of other movies or books. The price on it is about half what it was not so long ago. I highly recommend it since it has a great deal of playability. Even though I buy new games I still go back to this one from time to time.

Rating:
Summary: Great Game!
Review: Yay,yet another space sim. One thing:Freelancer is the best space sim I've seen on the PC.
Freelancer,as the name suggests,let's you have a tremendous amount of freedom.You can just flay around in hundreds of miles of space.It's addictive.This game also has great graphics and animation,voice acting,and controls (except for the stupid mouse control).

However,you you are going to play this game on a laptop,you'll have some problems.Not technical problems,but control problems.In this game,you have to steer your ship using the mouse.This is extremely hard when you use a laptop track pad.If you really want to play this on a laptop,then buy a real mouse (for your laptop).

One good thing about this game,is that you don't need a powerful supercomputer to play it.I ran this game on a old Celeron 767 Mhz Emachines,and it ran really well.The only thing that you might have a problem with is having a good video card.If you have a old video card,then the text in the game (of which there is a lot of) will be unreadable.

PROS:
Great graphics
Great sound
A massive world to explore
Totally addictive
Don't need a powerful computer to run on

CONS:
Totally addictive
Need a good video card