I'm not quite sure whether to rate this as a space ...
Strengths:Good story line, decent graphics, low learning curve (yes, even I can do spaceship combat); face it, it's a fun game.
Weaknesses:NPCs and dialog are so cookie-cutter as to border on pathetic. Economics and some aspects of combat stretch willing suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. The navigation system is lacking.
Posted May 29, 2004 - I'm not quite sure whether to rate this as a space-based trade game, a space-based combat game or as a space-based mystery. It has very strong elements of all three. As a hybrid, it is a pretty good game, but no more than that. As a single genre, though, it falls short.
As a trade game, the economic system is very unrealistic. The implementation of "buy low, sell high" is way too simplistic. Market prices do not change. You will get a higher price at bases that are farther from the source of supply, but the trade aspect seems to be designed only as a means of allowing you to upgrade your ship and weapons.
As a mystery, you are led by the nose and aren't given a chance to figure out anything for yourself. All story-line information is presented through cut-scenes and ship-to-ship dialog. The cut-scenes are generally well done with exceptionally good voice talent (John Rhys-Davies and George Takei, among others), but the overall effect is "here's what we found out for you, now go shoot some ships." All of the exploration that you do is related to trade and does not serve to advance the story.
As a combat game, Freelancer works only moderately well. The interface and controls are simple enough for anyone to master quickly, but reading the manual is required as there is almost no in-game help available. Fortunately, the manual is small. Enemy combatants become progressively more challenging, fueling the need to upgrade your ship and weapons whenever possible. The overall effect is of an arms race rather than skill development, though.
Single missions are handled through NPCs and always happen in a bar. NPC dialog is repetitive to the point of being boring and your character's attempt at sounding street-wise is almost laughable. The fact that the voice talent could pull it off with a straight face is proof of their abilities.
In some things, logic is completely lacking. For example, the sector is plagued by pirates and such that will pounce on you in spite of the fact that they are out-gunned and out-matched. Where they come up with the hordes of replacement ships needed to fight you, the military and the police is beyond me. As I said earlier, the economic system is unrealistic.
The waypoint navigation system makes getting around simple enough. But in its overwhelming desire to be helpful, it does get in the way at times. Rather than just remind you that you have a story-line mission pending, it automatically sets up your waypoints to the story-related point, forcing you to manually override them when you want to do something else.
Also, there are a few points when you are forced to start a story-line mission, whether you want to or not. For example, if you need to meet your story-line contact in a bar on the other side of the sector, but would rather be shooting raiders in your current system, the game will not let you accept the non-story-line mission.
As a single-genre game, Freelancer is lacking. As a hybrid, it works, but not well. But if you are just interested in spending a few hours making piles of insterstellar scrap, it's decent.
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