Freelancer

Rating:
Summary: A BIG let down
Review: Well after reading the overview of the game and all the positive comments, I was ready to buy the game. Luckily I downloaded the demo first. This a poor excuse for a flight simulator.

You start off on a planet and you are told to go to the bar. I think, "ok lets walk around and find one". Lol, no walking allowed in this game, you just click the bar icon to go there. Want to talk to people in the bar, well click them and watch the cut scene.(Get use to them the game is filled with cut scenes versus exploring yourself)

Once you get into space, then you have control. Well control over average quality graphics as you spins in circles with the shoot button held down :::yawn:::

I'm sorry, but I'm deleting this demo and not buying the game after all. Its just a cheap game ment to get your money and take advantage of the no return policy on games :-P.

Rating:
Summary: The most repetitive RPG ever made
Review: First, I will state right up front that it is pretty and the space combat engine is pretty nice to fly. Having said that, I will have to point out that all the combats play out basically the same. Every mission you get from the NPCs is essentially the same. All your canned face-to-face interactions with the NPC are pretty much the same. In about two hours of playing this, you will already be extremely tired of the repetitious conversations. The combat will hold its fascination a bit longer, but in the end, that too will start to seem really repititious. In essence... As a space sim, it lacks complexity and detail. As an RPG, it lacks depth and variety. This game was truly disappointing to me after reading all these glowing reviews.

Rating:
Summary: Add a joystick!
Review: Just downloaded and tried out the demo. The graphics are excellent, and so is the sound. Definitely reminded me of the old Privateer game with two exceptions: No transport missions, and no joystick. I know there've been people saying that you won't miss it, but trying to track a rogue with the mouse is pretty darn tough on the ol' carpal tunnel syndrome. A patch giving you the option to fly with a joystick, and switch back to a mouse for neural net interface would raise this game to 5 stars. Other than that, I'm going to have to wait until after my CTS operation in order to play it again. Damn good game otherwise.

Rating:
Summary: Just Plain Amazing
Review: This is a space simulation game that has come out this Tuesday by Microsoft; and they have really outdone themselves this time. About a week ago I downloaded the demo, and I was hooked right from the start. Even though I only had access to one of the 48 solar systems, it was still one of the best games I've ever played. The strange thing about Freelancer is the fact that you control your ship with your mouse. I admit that I was not sure if they could do this effectively, but they did. Also, the amount of choice is amazing, you can be a merchant, Traveling, buying and selling goods. Or a pirate, stealing the goods for yourself. Overall, this is an amazing game, and I'd reccomend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Freelancing Excellence
Review: Microsoft is really becoming a big force in the gaming industry. First Dungeon Siege, and now this? Two wonderful games in a row!

Contrary to other reviews, Freelancer's graphics are amazing, as long as you play it on a decent computer with a good 3D-accelerator. With all the graphics settings enabled to the fullest (which my computer can handle and still run at a high framerate), there are ultra-realistic fog effects (and ultra-freaky! Fly to the Badlands in the New York system to see what I mean), amazing amounts of polygons (look at the characters!), cool special effects, and all that in a highly detailed background of stars, nebulae, galaxies, etc.

Also contrary to other reviews, there are indeed two views to fly in... a cockpit view and a chase camera view. Old school Wing Commander, Privateer, and Strike Commander fans would enjoy the cockpit view (by pressing Ctrl-V during flight) and, if they have surround sound, be simply amazed as they hear all of the lasers and missiles coming from every which way during a large dogfight. Of course, we old school players will miss the good ol' trusty radar, but the small arrows that mark off-screen enemies should be substitute enough. Now, if you were not around back in the Wing Commander days, the chase camera view is definitely a better view to get used to (tactically speaking). While the surround sound won't be nearly as impressive with your camera a slight distance away from your ship, it definitely gives you a tactical advantage by providing you with a wider field of view. Personally, I use both views regularly: chase camera during battles so I can be fully aware of the surroundings, cockpit view while navigating so I can listen to the spiffy trade-lane surround sound effects while I fly from one place to another. Of course, if you are a sticker for realism, there's nothing wrong to staying in cockpit view the entire time.

As to the gameplay... think of all the good features of Dungeon Siege and leave all the bad ones behind. The AI for everything in the game is impressive, greatly simplifying your management during peaceful times (you will beg for those soon enough). Now, the bad thing about Dungeon Siege was its storyline... too little role-playing, too much combat. That will not be a problem in Freelancer. Everywhere you go there will be something to do. Cargo running (yes, you WILL be running), scavenging debris fields, exploring the systems to the fullest, keeping the peace by helping the police, upholding chaos by raiding innocent merchants, fighting for your life against unimaginably deadly, mysterious forces in the universe (oops, I mean, the Order... *cough* *cough*), and you get the point. If you want a game to keep you occupied for hours on end and never get boring... Freelancer is IT!

Rating:
Summary: Based on the Demo - A worthy successor to Elite, Privateer
Review: If you have played the Elite or Privateer series, you are familar with the basic game structure - an open-ended trading, fighting, adventuring space combat sim.

The dog-fighting is fast and furious. The graphics are on par with Freespace 2. In the single system you get to play in the demo, there are about 12 different places to buy and sell. There are Nebulas, junk fields and hidden bases where pirates lurk. The full game has 48 systems and 30 ships you can purchase. So far I have seen over 40 different weapon systems you can buy or loot off your kills.

When I first read there was no joystick support I was disappointed. I figured that you would just click on your target, hit the 'a' key and hope for the best; then loot the rusty shortswords and run to the merchant to sell - I mean loot the machinery parts and sell at the starbase. But after playing the demo I was pleasantly surprised to find the dog fighting fast and furious. I am not sure the agility and precision provided by the mouse guidance could be matched with a stick.

Given the different types of ships, weapon systems, defensive system and other ship components available, the combat should provide a wide range of tactical possibilities.

The AI pilots I have encountered haven't been overly sophisticated, a well-timed lead turn is always victorious in one-on-one. But groups of them are capable of launching some dangerous ambushes on you, especially once you have bad faction with them. Perhaps the flight skills of opponents get stronger outside the first system.

I suspect that the programmers did the voice acting for the toon story sequences, and some of the dialog seems to have been written by their grade-school children. But these are minor flaws as far as I am concerned.

I have played Freespace, FS2, X-wing, Tie, Privateer, WC, Elite, etc., etc. I tend to get bored with the sims that provide static story lines and missions pretty quick. Here is a space combat sim that looks like it will provide many, many hours of fun.

I am buying this one. A resounding 4.5 stars!

Rating:
Summary: Played the demo.
Review: I've only played the demo, and I must say, I'm already hooked! At first, much like everyone else, I was apprehensive about the lack of joystick support. ("What? They want me to fly with a MOUSE? That'll never work!) But, having tried it, after my first dogfight, I was convinced. It works, and it's fun. =) By default, the game has some strange key mappings (such as Shift-W to toggle Cruise mode), but those can be re-configured.

In my mind, this game is very much the logical successor to Privateer for the title of "My Favorite Space Sim". (Don't even talk to me about the horrible sequel)

My biggest gripe is that the enemy AI is, to put it bluntly, dumb as a post. Hopefully this has been fixed by release time (or will be addressed in a patch). Enemy ships don't so much dogfight as they afterburner out of weapons range, turn about and come back straight at you, guns blazing. If you attempt to follow, their buddies will invariably line up behind you and shoot your tail off. Every fighter I've gone up against so far has followed this exact same pattern.

Also, the non-story related NPC dialogue on the bases is...well, very repetitive and dull. The conversations follow a very simple script with little variation. Some variety would be nice.

And, finally, the commodities trading system is very primitive. Each commodity has a fixed price at each station. It would be nice if there was some price fluctuation to make life interesting. On the flip side though, the Neural Net interface is really nice, since it provides you with a list of all the commodity prices for every base you've been to, and lists what the current best price is, along with which bases sell a given commodity. That makes it easy to plan your trade routes.

Interestingly enough, THIS is the first game I've seen that I think could make it as a MMORPG. (I was unimpressed by Earth and Beyond) Having a large number of human players competing online would really help alleviate the first two issues. I can't wait to try the multiplayer! =)

Rating:
Summary: There IS 1st person mode...
Review: My title is just there to help out the other 2-star guy. It's Ctrl+V. Also, you can shrink most of the HUD with the Backspace key, in case you were wondering...

This game is great. The demo is probably the longest and most entertaining I've ever played. You can't get to level 2, but you can explore an entire start system and gain many weapons during that time. You can play the demo for dozens of hours. And the full game has dozens of systems with the same scale as the single one in the demo. Dozens x Dozens = WOW! Also, because of the extended development time, the system requirements are relatively low, and the bugs are few (haven't found any yet). So just about everyone can play this game, and it looks beautiful.

The mouse support has been as principle design aspect for the whole development process. All the other space games using the joystick is the exact reason why this game doesn't. It's this way to appeal to a larger audience. Fast and furious action like a FPS, but sci-fi like, well, sci-fi games. And even if you did have joystick support, you'd invariably have to use the mouse for the menu-driven part of the interface. That's a LOT of desk space to take up, and it'd be unnecessary as the mouse is perfectly capable in both movement and menus.

Getting bored of the random missions is exactly like getting bored of random encounters in RPGs - if you are like this, the game probably isn't for you. But for those that like exploring and acquiring higher levels to get higher-level equipment, this will be great for you. And it has multiplayer so you can do this with your friends too. The mod community has already begun, and the game hasn't even been released yet. Get ready for some entertainment!

Rating:
Summary: Very well done!
Review: I picked this up about a week ago, and just beat it this afternoon. Wow, talk about one heck of fun ride!

The game has a common progression.. you start at the bottom of the heap with a tiny cheap ship, and as the game progresses you use your money to buy new ships and upgrade weapons/shields/thrusters etc however you see fit. Its well done and never at any point felt too powerful for the battles or overwhelmed. You can also use a tractor beam in the middle of a dogfight to grab nanobots or shield charges (from the debris of annihilated enemies) to help you continue the fight or goods you can sell at a nearby station.

The whole immersive level of the game is pretty awesome, you'll frequently visit a nearby bar to look for missions. There you can also scan the news channels, pick up on rumours, or slip someone a little cash to fix your reputation with a certain group. If you're getting tired of fighting you can take a turn at transporting goods.. using the tried and true rule of buy low and sell high.

As for gameplay itself, its pretty fun. I guess some were complaining about the no joystick support.. but the mouse and keyboard setup is incredibly smooth and intuitive. The dogfights are incredibly fun, full of flashing laser beams, mines, missiles, debris, and explosions. In asteroid fields you can use asteroids for cover and swing around one to come up behind the person who was chasing you. Every fight was its own fun experience and I NEVER felt bored at any point. Later on in the campaign you start flying into places which gives a Star Wars Ep 4 feel to it as you weave throughout the insides of whatever you are infiltrating at the time (I'm trying not to give too much of the campaign away).

Overall, this game was a BLAST to play, had incredibly good graphics out in space (I was amazed at how many beautiful but different each system was), intuitive, and easy to learn and start having fun. I'd recommend it to anyone who is in the mood for a good space combat with an immersive world and fun plot.

Rating:
Summary: Great Game So Far
Review: The demo is excellent. The random missions add so much more game time into the game. The area you get to fly is is huge. The customization of your ship is good too. All these factors will make the game last a long time.

The 'no joystick' isn't so bad. I was use to the mouse the first couple minutes. But it would be nice if the developer could add joystick to it. The cockpit view (Ctrl+V) isn't so nice.

To sum it up, so far the game is great - graphic wise and gameplay.