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Still fun

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I played and finished this game when it came out a number of years ago. I really liked it then. Only one of its kind. Since then, I gave it away and went on to other things. I recenlty bought it again for the same reason. AS far as I can tell, it's the only one of its kind. The only thing out there that's close is EVEonline, which is a MMO. But even that, I'm not quite as happy w/ as this. The two main reasons, this has no monthly fee to play, and fighting is in realtime. I'm not totally crazy about the game b/c it does get pretty redundant. Also, I would've liked to have had more things to do at the various bases, and have more things to do w/ my money besides buy bigger ships and more weapons. I think if they could ever work on those areas and make a Freelancer2, it would be a fantastic game. Some things I do like about it: Pretty easy learning curve, lots of systems to explore, little hidden things here and there in the systems that make it fun to fly around and see what I can find. I'm hoping someday someone will make the game w/ all the components I want in it.

Freelancer

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is the best space trader game ever. Not because of the original game but because of all the mods available. Blaster universe mod, Discovery mod and crossfire mod. Using freelancer mod manager. There are many more mods too, even starwars mods. No game is beter. And some mod continue the story. I bought this years ago but lost it. I need to buy a new copy. I lost or traded probably. If I had all the mods back then I would still have it. The mods give the game 100% replay value due to the fact some are xml and I gave my rino freighter in the demo 100,000 cargo capacity and got 2 billion credits. New worlds to explore and galaxies and new merchandise to trade and new enimie. Mods realy help this game but most all require the original version.

A bit of a dissapointment

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 11
Date: August 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Well... It looks like ELITE, it smells like ELITE but.. It ISN'T, definitely, ELITE! ELITE was an old time classic, a game that set an era, ages ago. Freelancer tries to capture its spirit but fails. Microsoft seems to have the "gift" of turning to CRAP everything they set their hands on (like the Battletech series, it stopped being an awfull good tactical mech combat game to start being a lousy "shoot every mech that moves game" the moment Microsoft bought the license).
First... Freelancer crashes a lot due to (apparently) sound problems (it might be my PC, but then why does this game crashes ten times more than any other I have?... Microsoft at its best...
Second... This game features an "awesome" 150 unique places to land... Guys, YEARS ago, ELITE had THOUSANDS of places to go (and ran on 48K of RAM) I really don't care if the tables at some sleazy bar in a dark corner of the galaxy are different from all the other 149 tables, I would rather have the same tables but with different markets, and gear to buy... DATA! people, DATA is what matters, not just pretty graphics!!
Third. Why can't I land on planets and skim the surface, I could do that in ELITE II. I don't care if the mountains are rendered with fractals or are made of "building blocks", clever programming can build thousands of places out of almost "nothing", and we would get the "flying simulator" feel, which is so important to add depth to the game.
Fourth. The distances in space are RIDICULOUS!!! I can see all planets, with a naked eye, in a system!! I can even see them bigger than I see the moon watching through my bedroom's window, at night. I mean, how close are they to each other? Most of them are earth-like planets, you know, not too big, and at a TINY distance like 10 million km I should see little more than a dot of light! If you say that they are closer than this than it's the whole physics of the planetary systems that are a MESS.
Fifth. In ELITE II the planets had orbits, ok, they were ROUND orbits but, still, they had orbits. These planets here seem frozen in space and the travel system... No comments... FIXED TUBES in space, Now that's cool, explain to me how they keep them with the planets moving around the sun! I can cope with a jump gate but a travel tube in space is a bit too much.
To end it. Much more would there be to say but, just to finish. The graphics are OK, the combat is too "shoot'em up" but has some nice touches, still, it should be viewd from INSIDE the cockpit, not from OUTSIDE. The story plot adds a nice touch to it but it should be flexible, not "do this, go there, do that..."
there should be a way to program a trade route, together with all the buys and sells along the way and run it indefinitely until intercepted by badies, at which point an alert would sound to call the player. This way valuable playing time would be saved for those who like to trade but don't like to watch the endless repetitive docking sequences and moving between jump gates. ELITE didn't have this feature but programming this at 2003 you had the obligation to do better... Still, it reminds me of the great all time favourite, ELITE, so I give it a 3 star, otherwise it would get 2.

Freelancer a little HOLLOW

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 12
Date: March 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I downloaded and played the Demo.. I thought great, what a kicka$$ game.. The storyline is great, the graphics are awesome if your video card is compatible or Recognized by the game(Radeon 9700 is not).. If not MAJOR BUGS from slow windows inside the game to rough game play!!! It only took 15hrs to beat single player mode, Multi-player [smells].. You have to restart a new character every time you play or change servers..You lose your money and ship!!! SO much for progress.. My system XP2500+ Nforce 2 Radeon 9700 1GB 333DDR.. Save your money for something else!!!...

Unlimited possibilities

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: March 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

There's so much to do in this game. I'm glad it's not a space sim, but a game with limitless depth.

Nothing 'Free' about Freelancer

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: July 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The game makers declare the game to be open-ended and you are free to go and do as you choose. Nothing could be further from the truth. You MUST do EXACTLY as you are told or you are not allowed to buy better weapons or ships. ( YOU MUST BE LEVEL 16 TO PURCHASE THIS WEAPON. .. YOU MUST BE LEVEL 26 TO PURCHASE THIS SHIP.) And how do you achieve these levels? Well, in the minds of the corporate clones who designed this game, by being funneled into desperate and ridiculous scenarios with inadequate weapons, shields or resources. You are not allowed to break from the 'missions' and go make money or improve you gear as you were allowed in Privateer ( a FAR superior game) and you are FORCED to sit and watch embarrassingly lame little movies with laughable dialogue, none of which has the tiniest significance to the game, because after all, you will be TOLD what to do and when to do it, and you must repeat the sorry little chore until you are successful. It is impossible to divert for better weapons or resources, such as sheild batteries. (Absurd .. a spaceship that runs out of sheild batteries like a weak flashlight) The difficulty factors of the game are as simple minded and cliche as are the huge asteriod feilds and drifting junkyards. This is what happens when game makers should have been accountants. This game should be scrapped. It's junk.

Fun for awhile!...7.5/10)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: March 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Quick thoughts:

Single player mission is fun although about as linear as they come. There is no obvious way (feel free to correct me) to play single player without being involved in the "mission" or running your own server and connecting to it.

The game is fairly static in terms of economy, planets, bases and ships. Reminds me of the feeling I got playing Dungeon Siege. Very little depth to the non-mission aspects of the game beyond fighting battles, trading goods, exploring, and upgrading your ship.

Multiplayer games are organized and run like quake 3 servers. In theory dozens of people can join a server, depending on the settings. Most servers allow about 16 or less players to control lag. Controllable wingmen are not possible in the game, which is unbelievably [weak] -- even so, the single player missions have only "temporary" wingmen.

Unfortunately, the character you start and build on a particular multiplayer server is not transferrable to other servers. Since nearly all of the servers are player run, it's very likely you'll lose your character as gamers propagate into new games and stop playing this one. Also you cannot take your single player character into a multiplayer server.

Graphics are "par" for recent 3-D titles, some of the backgrounds are really nice, textures are realistic.

The main jewel in Freelancer's crown is the care that went into the voice acting and scenes in the single player mission. Minus a few glitches and some repetitiveness, this aspect alone lends a fresh feeling to a typically "dull" genre.

The mouse driven combat system is smooth and easy to learn, although my clicking muscles were out of shape from not playing Diablo 2 much, so I found myself feeling tired after a couple hours playing.

Overall: Fun, addictive at first -- although lack of game depth is a big minus, cheating is common (another big minus), universe is big and takes days to explore. I expected more: something along the lines of persistent state servers with dynamic economies, random encounters with a purpose, a larger variation in enemy AI, more variety in quests/missions, variations/bonuses in ship/pilot capabilities per your faction allegiance.

A truly fun space sim involves getting clobbered sometimes, and running away while on fire. Each "system" is geared toward a particular player level, so you're hard pressed to feel a challenge if you stay in a particular system for long.

My rating is a 7.5 out of 10 on a linear scale.

Great but too short

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: March 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have to say, this has been one of my favorite games in a while. To start with the controls, i didn't think they were so bad, but this could be because I dont play space sims too much and dont have a joystick anyway. Others have said the mouse system gives horrible aim and the interface was horrible, but its extremely simple and anyone can get into the game in several minutes.

The reason I gave the game a four however, is because the game is kind of repetitive and the game just doesn't take that long to beat. If you're no playing the storyline, then you are either exploring or doing missions for cash, which are almost the same every time, and the AI doesn't get any different. The computer always tries to rush past you, turn around, head towards you while firing like mad, and rushing past you again until the process repeats. Also, the game is kind of very easy until the later parts of the game, where it can just get plain annoying.

Although i've just said alot of negative things, this is by no means a bad game. The good far outweighs the bad, like a good flight system, an awesome and engaging storyline, and some nice rpg style elements. The main problem is that the storyline isn't long enough and i found myself finishing it after two days. Finally, the multiplayer should give the game some extra life to most of you, as it is fun, but doesnt include any of the great storyline missions.

I highly reccomend this game, but dont expect anything mindblowing and phenominal.

Good game with Extreme community support

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: July 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is one of only a few flight/space sims that I have played, but it has become one of my standards for judging other games that I come across. It is truly remarkable in scope, taking countless hours to fully explore the sector.

While the single player campaign introduces the player to all of the elements of gameplay that one will need to continue advancing and exploring the rest of the systems that were not forced upon the player, it is somewhat restrictive in freeform advancement potential.

The multiplayer cuts the campaign out of the gameplay and leaves all the choices up to the player, though having to start over at lvl 1 on every server can get a little old, though it helps to ensure that ships are not hacked.

There are a few things that can be nitpicked, such as the solars do not orbit, the economy is often haphazard and not dynamic at all, the different governments have completely different tech levels for their ships, somewhat counter-intuitive to the story in some instances (Liberty). Also, if you played the Starlancer games in their entirity, you may note a slight storyline deviation in the game startup video. The only potential dealbreaker would be Microsoft's horrible support for their games, but luckily all of this and more can be overcome.

The community support for Freelancer is outstanding for a game that was not intended to be modded. I have rarely seen such devoted development teams as those that make and continue to update mods for Freelancer. Only games such as Diablo II, Neverwinter Nights, TESIII: Morrowind and TESIV: Oblivion have or had similar community support. The most useful and simple mod out there is the Open SP mod that allows you to basicly turn single-player into a one person multiplayer, it tags the story as completed, so you can make your own choices from level one. Some of the more comprehensive mods are hundreds of Megs in size and address economy, added ships, systems, and equipment, rebalanced house technology levels, random encounters with capital ships, open access to story line only systems or alternate versions for non stroy line access, amongst other things. One is even a Total Conversion to a Star Wars universe. The most common source for Freelancer mods would probably be the Lancer's Reactor. Given the scope of the original game and that of any given mod, the replayability is unlimited and until a Freelancer 2 or new Starlancer game appears, the community support is unlikely to fade for the forseeable future.

So, to sum it all up, if you like space fighter sims, get this game, the potential drawbacks can easily be overcome by the community and then some.

FREELANCER

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: January 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

i dont think i have ever played such a game in my life! the only real thing i hate is no joystick compatibility (come on get with the 21st century) that and after a while the game starts to be seemingly IMPOSSIBLE i have had it for a long time and i still havn't beaten it but hey it's a good game you can trade commodities weaponry and occasionally ships. the graphics are pretty nice as well, all in all a great game.

WARNING: not for the IMPATIENT

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