Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11260 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Microsoft
• Published on: 2003-04-11
• Released on: 2003-04-11
• Platforms: Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows XP
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .35 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
In the open-ended space action/adventure game Freelancer you play a ne'er-do-well with a lucky streak, one of two survivors of a space disaster. Penniless and shipless you venture around a space dock until you find a ship and a job. You'll encounter a heady mix of canned missions that follow one main quest, and a million opportunities to make money or annoy the various factions that coexist in the universe. Like an online role-playing game, or Bethesda's Morrowind, you determine who your enemies are and who your friends are by your own actions, and, in another nod to role-playing, you can customise your ship with guns, rockets, and equipment just as you would customise a RPG character with swords, bows, and magic items. Best of all, you can play cooperatively with friends or fight it out with enemies online.

The back story posits a future where various countries, divided by both nationality and, seemingly, race, have boarded massive colony ships and ventured into a wormhole that appears within reach of our crude space technology. They found themselves in a galaxy far, far, away and they got stuck there when the wormhole collapsed. They quickly colonised their new home worlds and named everything with familiar locales that make navigation a breeze. In the American sectors you'll feel at home entering the New York system and landing at a spaceport called Manhattan, for example. While contrived, this device is used beautifully and it's far better than having to memorise a bunch of SF names and remembering where they are, perfect for a massive universe such as this one.

Though Freelancer is set in space, it is technically not a space simulation. The game was designed to be accessible to casual gamers. For example, Freelancer makes you use the mouse for ship control. This is quite a shift for a setting known for requiring joystick control. But even old-school Wing Commander or X-Wing fans may find that the sacrifice of verisimilitude is made up for with gains in agility. The mouse controls your guns, while you use the keyboard to manoeuvre around the rich universe developer Digital Anvil has constructed. Much like a first-person shooter, you can dodge and weave while precisely blasting your enemies.

Despite its age the graphics are spectacular, as is the sound and voice acting, and in that way, fighting and trading with friends or alone, Freelancer proves worth the wait. Just keep in mind that it is explicitly not a hardcore space simulation, and you'll have to leave your joystick on the shelf. --Andrew S Bub

Manufacturer's Description
Freelancer offers cutting edge space combat within a vibrant, living universe on an intensely epic scope. The player can freely navigate, providing vast opportunities for exploration, trade and combat. Additionally, Freelancer offers aseemingly endless pool of missions that the players can choose from to create their own adventures. For players who are more interested in a structured experience, "Freelancer" also features a compelling storyline that draws the player deeper and deeper into the mysteries of the human colonies in the distant Sirius System and against a villain unlike any mankind has faced before.

Customer Reviews

half-story/half-open ended (to an extent) hmm...
I loved Starlancer and couldn't wait for Freelancer as its exactly the types of game I like (freedom to roam and do pretty much whatever you like).
The game itself has a superb, strong storyline which has quite a lot of playability due to the ability to take part in the story whenever it takes your fancy. Alternativly you can play the story solidly in which case it won't last very long (a day's worth of solid playing time could finish it off).
However once the story has finished there is a huge real-time real-size (i.e. you can use the provided jump gates/holes to zoom about in seconds or turn on you boosters and leave it flying for hours and you can still reach you destination!). The stations and planets are full 3D and pretty huge too which is good as a lot of space-sims minimize things to a totally impractical size.
The trading is very well thought out as you can set up proper trade routes (using actually freighter ships rather than fighters) with different commodities between systems rather than fumbling about here and there. Or, if you're a bit of a hero/villain you can fight the baddies/goodies as with the freelance missions provided by the different factions on board stations and planets.
The universe you have in the story is the most basic there is, however, there are huge amounts of undiscovered systems, routes, planets and important parts in the game. The very best ships are hidden away in stations not chartered on your 'nav map' and the best weapons must be salvaged from wrecked prototypes that are scattered about all over the universe.
This doesn't quite have endless playability but it is certainly the longest lasting of any space sim I have played so far. Highly recommended in my opinion.

At long last....it's finally here
Cast your minds back 20-odd years to the time of BBC model B micro's and a game called Elite, the original wireframed space exploration/trading/combat game that kept kids in their bedrooms for months at a time. Freelancer is the long awaited latest incarnation, it has taken its time getting here, but it has been well worth the wait!

The game starts with a space station mysteriously blowing up, as luck would have it though, you survive (would be a short game else!)A member of the Liberty Security Force ofers you some work & a basic ship, and from here the game begins. There is a central storyline which is based around a mysterious artifact & the disappearance of all the other survivors of the explosion which you are free to follow, and will help to keep the action fast paced.

The way to advance in the game is to make money, which you can do either by trading with different planets or by undertaking jobs for various employers, the choice is yours. However, one mans friend may be another mans enemy, so choose your allegiances wisely. More money means better & bigger ships, more powerfull weapons and bigger & better bribes to keep people on your side.

The visuals on this game are just amazing, you thought freespace 2 was good?? this will blow you away, but to really appreciate it you will need a really high spec system, otherwise you just wont do it any justice.

The controls take a bit of getting used to, its the first 'space' game ive played which uses only the mouse to move about, which kind of turns it into a first-person-shooter rather than a space-combat-sim, but once you do get the hang of it, its kind of easy. There is no roll though, which still leaves a kind of unnatural feeling to turns & im still not 100% convinced that an option for joystick movement shouldnt have been included.

This has to be the best looking & most wanted game for the PC in a long time, the space combat 'genre' has been neglected for a while, but this offering more than makes up for it. Definately going to be around the top of the sales charts for quite some time.

Buy it, play it, keep playing it!!

Freelancer
This is a very good game. Graphically the game is very good, and well designed. There is a problem with the sound sometimes, but it is being addressed by the developers. The game moves along at your pace, you get set missions that develop the story line and you can go on your own missions, either paid jobs such as destroying bases for police, or for pirates, depending on where you are, and also you can make lots of money buying and selling cargo. Your level advancement is based on how much money you make, when you get a certain amount, you move up a level, and also you advance when you complete some of the story related missions. As you attain higher levels, you can get better paid jobs, and better weapons and spacecraft.

Piloting your spacecraft is fairly basic, you can let autopilot take you to a set waypoint, or you can use mouse flight for free flight mode, essential in battles. You can control everything with one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse, so its not a fligt simulator, but this doesn't detract from gameplay.

Freelancers story is a bit cliched, but well thought out. The plot develops very nicely, leading up to the "end" mission, and leaves you feeling there might be more to come.... hopefully expansions will be downloadable from the internet, and you can then carry on playing as before, trading, being a pirate, working for the police and navy and advancing levels, accumulating wealth and heading for the Titan spacecraft, which cost 750,000 credits! There is plenty of scope in this game for expansion, even after completing the "game" I have discovered new solar systems, space craft and technology, and factions.

Online gaming is good too, but I have not had much luck finding a server with a decent ping, because they are all in the USA at the moment.

Well worth the money!