Rating: 
Summary: This is the greatest space shooter since Tie Fighter
Review: ... This game rocks. I've spent hours playing this and it never gets boring. You can trick out your space ships with tons of weapons and anihilate enemies. You can also attack captial ships but you'd better get your hide out of there after you do. You can go scavenging in junk fields and mount assaults on Rebel outposts. They could of made the interations on the planets and stations a little better but it's that that big of an issue. I need to play it right now after writing this. If you buy this you won't be sorry.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing
Review: As I play through Freelancer's all-too-short campaign, I cannot stop thinking that this game could - and should - have been so much more. This game does a lot of things right, and most of the elements for a good game are there, but they don't come together into an enjoyable gaming experience.Ok, let's get to the bashing, shall we? Ahh, yes... my favorite part. First of all, the interface. In a word: UGH! Joystick control is not available, and the mouse control is so slick and so simple that it really takes the fun out of playing this game. MOST OF THE GAME IS SPENT CHASING A LITTLE DOT ON THE SCREEN WITH YOUR MOUSE CURSOR. To make matters worse, the AI is overwhelmingly stupid. You can just steer towards you opponents and shoot - they don't have a clue how to fly. Oh, and did I mention that you can instantly repair Hull/Shield? Well, you can. Congrats, you'll never die! My second biggest gripe is the repetitiveness of it all. Most missions consist of 3 waypoints with a few bad guys in each. You do several of these missions, accumulate enough dough, then do a story mission, then go back to doing these. Rinse, lather, repeat... The voice acting is terrible. I could do a better job, and I speak in a monotone with a thick Russian accent. Humor is non-existent, the writing [is bad] and none of the characters have anything interesting to say. The story seems cobbled together from every other space sim out there, and when the... well, when the "big surprise" comes in, I thought "yawn... well its about time". So what does the game do right? It looks good, that's for sure, and even on my modest rig it ran without a hiccup. It's stable, the universe is large, there are plenty of ships/guns (though they are all like), and there is multiplayer, though it feels more of an afterthought. So, in conclusion: this is not the sequel to Elite and Privateer that you were hoping for. It doesn't have Privater II's style, nor Elite's open-endedness - and the gameplay is pretty weak. If you want to play an Elite-esque flight sim, I SINCERELY recomment Tachyon: The Fringe, and if you want to see some excellent gameplay, try Independence War II: Edge of Chaos. Just don't waste time/money on this. Final rating: **1/2.
Rating: 
Summary: Good...but
Review: This is a good game that could have been much better. The story line is tedious and I wished that they would just leave me alone! I was having fun, trading and exploring and whenever that started to get good here comes Junko! If you are looking for an updated Elite this is not it. It may look like it and contains all of the pieces but the game is not well put together. The multiplayer is weak and crashes often. You have no way to escape the first person story line. The list goes on...Vintage MicroSoft. Wait until it hits the bargain rack!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent game for those new to Space Sims and open-ended
Review: Wow, I read the other reviews, most were critical. This reminds me of how much Battlezone II was slammed by the gaming press, its one of the best 3d RTS games, except for Homeworld & Catyclsm I have played X-BTF, X-Tension, IWar2, and Battlecruiser Millenium. All are good games and more open-ended than Freelancer. I-War2 is closest to Freelancer, and graphically was ahead of its time. I admit, Freelancer should of been out in late 2001, but I won't ring my hands over it. Freelancer brings this genre, open-ended space to the Mortal Man. Mortal meaning most people don't have the time to invest in the aformentioned games, esp. BCM. Gameplay
Like in Battlezone II, this game introduces the gamer to the game "during the game", no optional tutorial. I am a big fan of this type of introduction. Freelancer allows you to run your own server, mine is "Salt Lake City - Lancer Reactor". It provides players with cooperative gameplay much like NeverWinter Nights. NWN is a superior game, but for a space-sim, Freelancer gets an A for gameplay.
So, the new gamer gets a good introduction to open-ended space games. This genre just got a shot in the arm, a badly needed one. Freelancer is open-ended, just not as open as Morrowind.
When you run your own Multiplayer server, you can play the game totally open-ended. I love to play it in short bursts, do 2-3 missions, then logout. I like it when outside people join in my small server and work with me. Graphics
Some say the graphics are dated. Not sure what other space-sim games have better graphics, EVE possibly. I enjoy the graphics and with my Athlon 1700+ and ATI 8500 128MB, runs smoothly in single player, and gets a little choppy sometimes in Multiplayer. This is fine with me. When I played Battlezone II in 1999, it was choppy with a 16mb TNT and Athlon 500. Not till I built this machine that Battlezone II runs without any chop, and this is 1 year old. So I am glad Freelancer is a bit ahead in terms of graphics requirements. Sound
Voice acting is superb, the best since Homeworld. In fact, not since Homeworld have I been so drawn to a game. Microsoft, my hat is off to you. Compare the voice acting here to Hegemonia, which was a joke of a game, and I am a Imperium Galactica II fan.
Hegemonia was a waste...BR>Space music is not as good as Homeworld, but still good. I am a fan of Morrowind, Homeworld, Battlezone II, I-War2 and NeverWinter music. Summary
Including Freelancer, those games I just listed are the best I have played, along with Half-Life and Imperium Galactica II.
I like open ended games, like X-Tension(good music too), but
Freelancer brings those hauty open-ended games down to the level that most people won't loose interest. So, if you are a total newbie, I recommend Freelancer..... Freelancer deserves to be ranked with those games.
Rating: 
Summary: Great game -- lousy reliability
Review: Okay -- having spent about 50 hours playing this game -- I think it's great -- I have just logged my 30th hour trying to stop it crashing :0( minimum specs say..
Windows 98/Me/XP/2000 -- I got XP 600 MHz equivalent or higher processor -- I got AMD XP2100 128 MB of system RAM -- I got 1Gb pc2100 DDR RAM 16 MB video card -- GForce2 900 MB available hard disk space -- 40 Gig spare 8x speed or faster CD-ROM drive -- 52x So my spec blows this away -- great. Sadly -- not so great.
I can guarantee that within an hour of play the screen will freeze, the game will stop responding, or the computer will reboot itself...
I have tried ALL the advice on the MicroSoft website from disabling EVERY background application ("clean boot") to updating my BIOS, graphics drivers, sound drivers, even my modem drivers (which shouldn't affect it anyway).
No dice. My second PC (P4 2G CPU, graphics 8x blah blah) works better -- this one will go for two hours without crashing. Oh yeah -- forgot to mention that the only way to reboot after a crash is by hitting the power button.
Buy this game and say "bye bye" to your hard drive.
I have replaced mine due to op/sys corruption caused by this error ($...for the game, $...for a new drive + days of aggrivation trying to salvage important files).
Played one more time to see if this cleared the problem.
No chance. I am now waiting for the patch -- I suggest that you do likewise.
By the time it comes out the game will probably be half this price... Great game -- lousy reliability.
You have been warned.
Rating:
Summary: deserves 1 for some things and 5 for others hence 3
Review: The game is excellent and poor in different ways, its quite strange actually the way it comes across to me in that way. Expecting a lot is a mistake i made, after playing on and being a huge fan of Morrowind TES, i hoped that when they say open ended and the game was called freelancer that it would be similar and a truly open ended RPG but in space, not so. It is in fact quite misleading when they say its open ended (not that they said it was an RPG, but don't think it is because it isn't), you get taken down different routes, but they end up in basically the same place, and the so called 'freelancing' is no more then repetitive missions no matter where you go in the galaxy. Okay so that's the first point that deserves one star, the misleading or disappointing way that the game runs a linear route over a roughly disguised 'open ended idea' (though it isn't really)is poor to say the least.
Also and this goes for a lot of games, the slow down effect, developers do not seem to realise that more detail = slow down on particular levels, i have a 2.1 Ghz athlon and GF4, and it still slowed down when a lot was going on, granted that this is due to the impressive effects and graphics that were on the screen at the same time, its not the slow down cuz thats a computer problem, its the extreme incosistency in detail. What i'm saying is, the first 15 missions or so (3 hours playing max) the missions never see more then 7 objects on the screen at any time so you set your graphics to suit, but then all of a sudden you are defending a base and there must be 30 plus ships in an asteroid field (yes fully 3d rendered asteroids) and yep we get the painful slow down frame rate (loads) But that goes with a lot of games, i just wish they could be a little more consistent in the detail and less so in the mission designs which are very similar, blow up this, blow up that.
Okay all the bad stuff done, BUT: The game does deserve without a doubt 5 stars for the impressive story line which is interesting and well composed, the brilliant directing of the massive number of cut scenes that exist throughout the game and the brilliant intro are fantastic, the effects are brilliant especially in large battles (where it slows down but it is cool), the dog fighting maybe a little weird at first with the mouse but later on you really get an aching hand trying to dodge the lasers etc which are flying at you whilst the shield repairs itself, so the battles are generally great fun especially later on. The ship designs are original and the engine effects are good. So all in all we have a game with extremes which on a point basis cancels out to give in my opinion 3 star maybe nearly 4. But you do get huge highs whilst playing, but also huge lows like the slow downs and starting yet another similar mission to kill more rogues, which gets so repetitive (freelancing part).
So your interest and excitement may be up and down like a sine curve but all in all its a good and large game and if its atmosphere and story your into then buy this game.
Rating:
Summary: Just what I've been waiting for.
Review: In my various musings on what I would like in a game, I devised somthing so much like this one that I don't remember what it was any more. Once you get through the single player campaign you are free to roam a seemingly endless universe. Complete with Bounty Hunters, rouge corporations, pirates, and attempts at government controll. There is also a seemingly endless selection of weapons and ships to choose from, if you can find them! I have logged over 100 hours of time on one game and I suspect I have yet to discover 3/4 of the jumphole pathways and hidden bases. Without multiplayer however, the un-ending freelancin starts to get old.
Rating: 
Summary: Joysticks and Twinkies...
Review: To the Freelancer development team: My GOD - no JOYSTICK support? What on Earth were you THINKING??!!?? I just exited from playing the demo - looks great - but... no JOYSTICK support for a game with a SPACE COMBAT component!?!!? I have a Sidewinder FF 2 sitting right on my desk, and then I'm sitting here trying to use a MOUSE to fly around in 3D space (and even the darn NPC was dissing me because I can't fly!)??? Even SUNDOG on the Apple ][ (yes, I'm that old - and I've been flying in space games that long) supported a darn JOYSTICK (yes, I know I'm SHOUTING - I'm upSET!). MS Developers: NO TWINKIE FOR YOU! My GOD.... No, take those rationalizations you flummoxed the launch approval team with, and stick them back in your Scooby-Doo lunchboxes - I don't want to hear them. You're just flat _wrong_ - this game is FATALLY FLAWED without joystick support. I'm very sorry - it looked good... but it is just heartbreaking.... I can't go on. I really can't... My GOD - how can you even sleep at night?...
Rating:
Summary: Addicting, but...
Review: I bought this game, I've played most of the way through the single player, and I'm currently finding very little reason to do the multiplayer. Here's why. All the non-story-driven missions are repetetive. The story is great, the missions that are a part of the story are great, and have some pretty good range. You'll get to fly escort to ships, scan cargo of ships, run for your life... It's not bad so far. What sucks is every side quest style mission is the same: Go here, shoot down everything in sight. There might be a base to destroy or someone to capture or assassinate, but it's done in the same way, blow it up. I would have liked to see missions where you can escort a convoy, run supplies, perform reconnaissance, stuff like that. The variation is a little lacking. I don't know, maybe there's more variety in the multiplayer mode, but I just don't think it's too likely. Otherwise, this is a seriously addicting game. After work, I've been playing it almost nonstop. Check it out.
Rating:
Summary: Freelancer succeeds... mostly.
Review: Freelancer is one of those games that is too long in the making with a legendary game god attached to it. Remember Daikatana? Well this game is not it. Chris Roberts started this game several (5?) years ago as the ultimate space privateering game and a sequel of sorts to one of his most famous games, Privateer. Roberts is most famous for his immortal Wing Commander series of games of which there are five not counting expansions. With Microsoft backing Digital Anvil and several "Best of Show" awards at E3 (the biggest game tradeshow on the planet), Freelancer looked to be a spacejockey's dream come true. There was just that agonizingly long wait to deal with. One that saw creator Chris Roberts leave the game. Well, now Freelancer is finally out. Does it live up to expecations? No. But don't let that stop you. First off, the expectations were way too high to begin with, especially three years ago. We should have all known better. Freelancer provides a very fun space combat game that is accessible to just about everyone. The mouse control not only means casual players don't have to worry about buying a joystick, but is surprisingly fun to use. It's so fun, even if I could use a joystick with this game, I wouldn't (and I have a nice Microsoft Forcefeedback Pro). The game's storyline is very absorbing, and the way the story pauses between missions allowing you to "freelance" greatly enhances the game. You play through a little bit of the story, then go off and do what you want for a bit. Then the story comes back and you complete a little bit more. If your not ready to go on with the story when the time comes, not to worry, the game allows you to proceed at your pace. This allows the game to have all the aspects of being a "freelancer" without being nothing more than a bunch of boring cargo runs from one system to the other. Another great thing about the game is the level system. Players of Diablo (or games like EQ) will be familiar with this. As you progress, you can increase your level. Higher level means better ships, guns, and shields. You can also find special weapons in the depths of space if you look hard enough. This aspect greatly enhances playability after the story is over. Yep, Freelancer is one of the few games that you can keep playing after it's over. The downside is that Freelancer is over too soon. The story really should have been twice as long as it is the real meat of the game. Depending on how much you freelance between missions, you can beat the game in less than 20 hours. The other downside is that there isn't much to do after the story ends. I'd say I played about 20 hours on my own after the story, but unlike Diablo where you can seeming keep leveling and finding new more powerful items to infinity, this game definately has a ceiling to reach. You end the story at around level 23. You max out your level and items around the mid 30's. There should be more. The other problem is multiplayer. Freelancer was originally promising to be this great multiplayer experience, but ends up being practically dead to any multiplayer thanks to one of the worst handlings of a multiplayer format I have ever seen. This being that when you play a multiplayer game, you must create and save your character (and ship, etc.) on the server you are playing on. Add to this the fact that microsoft has NO dedicated servers for this forcing you to rely strictly on independent servers forces you to ask, "what were they thinking?" Imagine playing all day on a server with this new character you created, only to find that you can never log onto that server again either because it's taken down or because it's not on 24/7 and your timing is incompatible. Basically, microsoft could care less if you played this game multiplayer. The good news is, that if you have a group of friends and one can run a server, you can meet up and play with them, but random online play is virtually eliminated. All in all, 40 hours of play for a game is good. I'd rather pay for a game that lasted only 20 hours but was a hell of a lot of fun than play a game for only 20 hours because it wasn't. Fortunately, the single player aspects of the game are strong enough to warrant the purchase. Freelancer could have been a truly great game, but I'm glad that it's at least a very good game. PROS:
*Accessible to many poeple, not just hardcore flight junkies.
*Does not require you to buy a joystick.
*Engaging and exciting storyline.
*Simple interface that allows a lot of control.
*Computer does all the bookwork for you leaving you to just fly the ship and save the galaxy.
*Stunning graphics that run great on recommended specs (which are low).
*Fun and addicting level up/collect weapons design. CONS:
*Horrendous multiplayer design.
*Story too short.
*Not enough to do after story ends.
*No difficulty settings (though the game isn't too hard, some people might like to make it harder).
*Non-story missions can be a bit repetative.
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