by Igor - July 19, 2003

After more than two years in development, and a large hype that accompanied it, Freelancer was finally released. It is a successor to a long forgotten genre, the space trading/combat, with games such as Elite or Privateer. The genre now strikes back � Freelancer is born. Become a Freelancer in space, and do whatever deeds your heart desires. Loot, pillage, assassinate trade; the list goes on and on. But is it the revamp of Elite we�ve been waiting all these years for? And where is the promised joystick support?

Gameplay

You, John Trent, start the game on the planet Manhattan, in the system Liberty. No ship, no money � your only hope to get a job to sate those two bare necessities. A quick stop at the bar, and you wind up with a ship, and a job. The journey begins.

Once you get your ship, there's actually a multitude of things you can do. You can go back to the bar to check out the sector's news, rumors, or look for jobs. You can also visit the equipment aand �necessity� dealer (but at this point you have no money to actually buy anything). Your only option is go to the landing pad and launch. You see your ship power up and fly out of the traffic-filled planet. The docking ring is passed and control of the ship is ceded to you. Your first job begins.

The first mission starts out as a run-of-the-mill. No biggie, right? Not unless you get ambushed by pirates (but hey, what are the chances of that happening?). As you complete your first job, the campaign ensues. The further you delve into it, the more you find out which may indeed shock & amaze you. There is a conspiracy rooting, and you�re caught in the middle � unaware of just what exactly is going on. The further you go down the rabbit hole, the more intricacies you will encounter, the more awed you will be left. Enticing? So why couldn�t the campaign be longer? Or why do people not recognize the hero that you are at the end of the game when you talk to them?

People � some of them will outright refuse to speak to you, hinting that it�s �not safe for you� (empty, unfulfilled threats). The NPCs all belong to a faction of some kind, and your reputation to a faction may be affected mostly by one chief influence: the ships that you shoot down (the allies of the downed ships will like you less, and the enemies more). In turn, the selection of ships available to be shot at (without angering the natives) is influenced by the campaign missions, the jobs you take, or just the section of space you are in.

Traveling to the job location is usually done by autopilot. You select the waypoint and off you go. Unfortunately, even in the 29th century autopilots make silly mistakes. Some range from annoying, i.e. not automatically exiting a jump lane when the final destination is just in the middle of the jump lane, or not including jump holes in the calculation; to deadly, i.e. traveling through a star�s corona (as opposed to around it), or just playing flying into a planet (the atmosphere just burns you up!). If your autopilot actually gets you to the job unharmed (and assuming you complete it) you will get your money (and maybe lots of it!) and be on your marry way (at which point you pray your autopilot won�t screw up again on the way back home).

Acquiring money has a beneficial effect; as you earn more money, you will attain higher levels. Unlike other games, Freelancer sets your level based on how much your character is �worth� (experience has no play here). Your worth, in turn, depends on how much money you make from jobs, campaign, missions, selling various apparel, or trading. Let me point it out right away that it is possible to get to level 38 (maximum) instantly if a person online gives you a couple of millions.

One would think that you would level up based on earned money, but alas, the developers seem to have forgotten that little notch. The same thing goes for the ships; most have a level requirement on them (but you probably wouldn�t be able to afford most of them before reaching the necessary level anyways).

The variety of the ships you can buy is quite large; the ship types range from Freighter, to Light and Heavy Fighters. The ships themselves are bought from factions that use them (and you can even buy military ships should you have a good standing with the governments). It is unfortunate, however, that ships vary too widely. Ships in Liberty (the starting location), the �business center of the sector� are the weakest, and even as you come back to the system later on in the game the ships there remain weak. I don�t suppose Liberty being the most advanced system in Sirius means anything.

In fact, the ships aren�t the only things that stay the same in the systems throughout the game. The necessities, the equipment, that you can buy at planets/space stations, also stay the same. So do their prices. That�s right, no price fluctuation whatsoever. But when necessity prices change on different planets, the equipment prices stay the same no matter where you bought it. Did you think you had a pretty nice deal on some high-teach weaponry out in the middle of nowhere? Well, when it�s time to upgrade, you will have to sell that nice weaponry for the same price. You�d think the prices would not only change, but would vary depending on how advanced a planet is in its technology.

Not too shabby graphics

For a game that was in such a long development, Freelancer has some appealing graphics to accompany it. Space is beautifully depicted, with stars (including the ones in your system), planets, nebulas, or asteroid fields all part of the daily sight. The real beauty, in my opinion, is when the fighting breaks out. The projectiles themselves resemble non-corporeal entities, with the missiles and mines just plain pretty 3d models that give off glows. There is also engine glow, and as you increase the speed of your ship, the engine glow increases with it. The world/environment on the other hand, is populated with numerous ships, space stations, and other tangible matter. The only drawbacks I could, in fact, spot in this otherwise fine-looking game, is the action that takes place on the planets� surfaces; they are filled with characters, buildings, ships, but are unfortunately quite low-polygon.

Sound? Hardly Noticeable

The sound is hardly noticeable in Freelancer, but it�s not a bad thing. It�s very ambient and it drives the mood of the game. During battle music will be loud and intense, pumping your adrenaline; outside of it, during traveling, music will be calm and peaceful, soothing to the mind.

... or what happened to Earth?

The action in the game takes place in our own galaxy, in a future a few hundred years away. It seems our ancestors have been driven away from Sol by a long war; all that remains now of the past are the solar systems named after the ships which brought the inhabitants to the new Sirius sector; Bretonia (from Great Britain), Liberty (from U.S.), Kusari (from Japan), and Rheinland (from Germany). There was also another ship, the Hispania, but it is a �mystery� as to what happened to it. Personally, I don�t suppose the developers know what happened to the ship from Russia; but then again it was merely the first country in space (unless of course they were on the other side of the war, which is doubtful).

Multiplayer

Freelancer has multiplayer. But it might as well not have had any. Multiplayer in Freelancer is essentially single player, with some of the NPC ships replaced with other player ships. You can't do missions together, you can't do the campaign together. The most you can do is trade and shoot at each other (if player fire is on). It's really a shame too, it could've been wonderful if the multiplayer was worth something.

Freedom

The scheme of Freelancer is quite enticing; do whatever it is you want, whenever you want. That whole prospect just sounds so darn intriguing. In all actuality, you can do exactly what the developers promised, but not much more. Then again, with the level of linearity in most of today�s space games, even a little freedom should be cherished, yes? Just this makes me think that Digital Anvil has caught the other space game makers with their hands caught behind their back. You can literally travel anywhere in the sector (provided you have access to the jump gate/hole) at any point in the game, even during the campaign!

In a nutshell

I�ve said it before, and I�ll say it again: A game of great expectations does not always meet it. Freelancer has spent years in development, and it came out a fine game. But not the game we were all waiting for. It�s definitely not the next Elite. The lack of joystick support, the linearity of the campaign, and the mundane multiplayer even makes me wonder.. did they mean to release it for the Xbox and accidentally wind up releasing it for the PC? Don�t buy this game, not at least until you feel the price is low enough to not swear at the game at being a waste of money.