PC – Freelancer, [Insert iconic space phrase here]

[Jeffk38uk]

PC – Freelancer

Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Digital Anvil

Requirements:
Minimum system: PIII 500, 128Mb RAM, 3D Card
Recommended: P4 1.5GHz, 256Mb RAM, Geforce 3 or better

Multiplayer: LAN, Internet
Web Address: www.microsoft.com/games/freelancer


Now, normally, just by the name alone “Space Simulation”, was kind of an off putter for me. Even for someone like me who likes his fare set of Science Fiction. But Space simulation is either too complicated or just riddled with so many controls that you need a real crew to pilot the ship on your monitor. Well, all has changed now, as a game called Freelancer has docked into the station. And is one the most addicting games to play and as close to the old popular game Elite as it will ever be.

Even if you don’t like space simulation, Freelancer is worth the shot for its story, its graphics, its unique control system and the actual game play. For me and probably for others who have tried it, this is GTA in space. The game boasts a largely free-form universe for you to explore and exploit, carving out what you will become, with main story missions and plenty of side-missions to last you a lifetime. It’s not as free form as Vice City but it does its job well.

The story, which is the driving force for the single player portion of the game basically continues off the story that revolves around the story for the game Elite. Set several hundreds later from a large group of survivors who have spread to a large civilisation spanning a whole galaxy. Anyway, the story starts off with a space station been strangely destroyed by rebels of sorts. Casting you as one of the survivors, with nothing but the clothes your wearing, but as luck would have it, you hook up with the Liberty Navy and help around with your own little, and weak ship. Along the game you uncover a larger conspiracy, which overly involves you and is up to you to find out the truth. The story is laid out quite well, and its campaign missions that push the story forward do well to not be overly boring and just an excuse to move the player forward.

Now one of the gripes I had with space simulation games is the control. Frankly, you just need a joystick to play it (Something I don’t have), and even so its kind of confusing with all the controls needed. I mean you probably need to go to an actual academy just to get to grips with the movement alone. Thankfully, Freelancer shines here with its intuitive control system. Out goes the joystick control and in comes your trusty mouse. Yes, you use your mouse to determine your direction and it works very well. The further your mouse is from the middle and its direction, the faster your ship will turn to that direction. You also fire by a simple click of your right button depending on where you’re facing. It’s that simple. Then you use your keyboard for speeding up, targeting, and weapon system. There may be sim purists who say it forgoes the idea of true simulation. Screw them, it works, and it works well.

Moving on to other elements of control. Nothing too complicated. No need to look over a thick manual to find out how to shoot. It’s pretty easy to remember what does what once you played long enough. This makes it a whole lot more fun when you actually go out in the many battles laid out for you. The games battles are less on simulation and more on the arcade action of good old-fashioned shoot-ups with some simulation subsystems attached to it. I’ve got no problem with that. You have your standard shields and armour that protects you from your processed air and the open vacuum of space and plasma weapons. Apart from weapon choices and missile and repair systems. That’s all you really have to look at. Everything else is either done for you or was removed from the game to make the game an easier experience. You don’t have to wait for your weapons to load or stuff you see in normal space fights, nor do you need to check your power for a better response time. Just point and shoot. And it’s incredibly fun. You still need to think tactfully, like when to launch your missiles or mines and where to shoot, but overall it’s the basic ness of it that I guess will appeal to casual gamers and those not fully adept to simulation games.


Large epic battles and a mass of weapons wouldn’t do any good if the playing field were no good. And this is where I mean this is GTA in space. We have a playing field, a whole freaking galaxy of it. The galaxy in which you are in is massive. You have star systems, planets, asteroid fields, ice fields, mining stations, space stations, planets, and other ships. It’s a living, breathing galaxy. Not just that, but we also have the inhabitants as well. You aren’t the only freelancer around you know. You see a local patrol fly off to its area, ships docking to trade with other systems, a ship trying to escape from the police. It’s incredibly detailed. All around you, you can hear the radio communication of other passing ships, vast space stations hovering in front of you, large planets waiting for you to take a visit. The detail even goes to the local surroundings. Large asteroid belts, space debris and asteroids that you have to avoid as you pass through them, which heads off for hundreds of miles in every direction. It’s a sight to behold. They aren’t just the background; they are part of the game. This amount of detail makes a complete and realistic world to play in.

Now of course, the free-form element kicks in round about here. On the whole you have pretty much as much freedom as you have in the game. You can ignore the campaign missions and just go off and do some bounty hunting. Do some trade in neighbouring planets and stations (which you can dock or land into More later), take on missions, generally what you like.

The missions available for you is generally go and kill enemies of one of the many factions represented in the game in a set area that they are currently flying about. You can get these missions in the many outposts, planetary bases, and vessels littered throughout the galaxy, and each one will offer a range of missions for you to do, some harder than others. But of course, the harder it is, the more money you get. You also have the opportunity to trade in a variety of goods and equipment, of which their prices vary in different systems.

Succeed in these missions and you get money and change your overall support for the many factions. Gain support from the Liberty Navy and expect to be hated more by other factions. Not something that you completely need to look over, but it can affect the way you play the game slightly. And there are many ways to gain support and money, not just by missions. You can trade, loot and destroy asteroids for materials, which can then be sold on the market. So really a broad choice in you can actually do in Freelancer.

For the actual campaign missions, they are a bit different to your standard find enemy and kill them fashion. Each of the missions has smaller objectives, which usually means going from one place to another or attacking someone. These campaign missions are also longer than your normal missions, so its good to know that the game saves after every checkpoint, in case you get yourself killed, however you did it. While, these missions have more depth and such, it still boils down to killing a group of enemies, and defending and attacking. Still, the story along with it makes it that much more interesting.

Lets move back to your ship now. At the start of the game, you start of with a pretty weak ship, but powerful enough to at least defend itself a bit. As you complete missions and such, you can improve on your ship such as better shields, engines, and weapons. The amount of weapons or missiles depends on how many weapon slots and the level of the ship. If you want a better ship, you can trade for a better one later on, and there are a fair amount of ships to choose from, depending on which region you are around. Just choose the ship, and your weapons and cargo are moved to your new ship. You can reduce the overall price of the ship by selling weapons, cargo and such to at least save some of your money.

As for moving around, there is a fair amount of ways to move around the large galaxy, which basically comes to these three formats; Trade lanes, Cruise speed, and Jump gates. Trade lanes accelerate you through normal space in predetermined directions and are the most common way to get from planet to planet. Cruise speed, while slightly slower, allows you to get that much more quicker than normal speed, but you can’t use your weapons. Jump gates are large access ways that connect the different systems in the Freelancer galaxy. Much better than cruise speeding from system to system, which I don’t think is possible.

But you know, it’s not just the combat and such that makes the game, the other half is when you explore the many planets and stations. You can interact with the many NPC’s available, mostly in the bar and you can get new information, new missions, or improve your reputation with other factions. Its quite good, a bit of homage to those point and click adventure games. As well as that, in the bars of these planets and stations is where you can get new missions, or check the local news, which makes the world more realistic on the whole. While on planets and stations you can also improve or repair your ship or trade your cargo for other items of money.

There are more elements in the game, but too many to describe. Lets just say that it’s a very well crafted single player game with an excellent story coupled with it.

Of course, playing single player is fun enough, but what about online? Yes, this game also allows you to fight against others online, or play with others in the Freelancer galaxy, completing missions, trading with other systems, exploring the galaxy and generally earning a living. A mini MMOPG in a sense huh. The possibilities with this game are endless. Since the gaming world is so vast, and the single-player campaign only advances your character to 18 out of a possible 38 levels and doesn't allow players to use some of the best equipment in the game, Freelancer has a great deal of replay value beyond its campaign.

Finally lets move on to graphics and sound. Well, with all the descriptions of large asteroid fields and chatter of fellow ships means a very beautiful game. Ships, planets and stations are incredibly detailed and the sound fits well with the game. Neither over the top nor are they weak and cheesy sounds like they came from a budget sci-fi flick.

So, what is the final result? If you are a fan of Simulation of action games I would definitely recommend this game. One of the best games to play that is currently available.



Overall Rating
Gameplay - 9/10
Controls - 9/10
Graphics - 9/10
Music - 8/10

Overall Score - 9/10

Take that road and go where no gamer has gone before.


How will Freelancer play on your PC

Freelancer, at it’s top whack, will challenge mid-range PC’s. It can stutter at high resolutions, even on the most powerful machines available today. However, on the whole, the game is pretty much configurable and well optimised. It will run well on lower spec computers, but you would need to turn off many of its graphical options.

Supported Resolutions: 640x480 to 1600x1200
Scalable options: General environmental details, star details, effects, etc.



Technical Information from Gamespot and UK PC GAMER

[masyauefa]

Great review, very well writen.

I'm not going to argue with anything but I have to say few things.
The graphics are not so good even for early 2003. Another thing is the voice acting - it's just terrible! And monotoneous.


Well, that's about it...

[Jeffk38uk]

I thought the voice acting was good, not horrible but not the greatest either. But it doesnt detract the overall experience of Freelancer.

Thanks as well