Freelancer

"The Comeback of a genre?"

INTRODUCTION:

It is no secret that the space simulation genre has been on the decline over the past few years. Intimidating control setups, steep learning curves, and unvaried gameplay all have contributed to lackluster sales, and general apathy by the gaming industry. Microsoft and Digital Anvil hope to turn that all around with the release of their long awaited game, Freelancer. While in the same vein as the Wing Commander and Privateer series, Freelancer promises to be more accessible and more interesting than any space flight sim to come out in a long time. For the most part, Freelancer lives up to this promise.

Control: 9/10

Normally I would rate a game's graphics first, but in space flight sims, control is the most important consideration. If you cannot effectively control your ship, great graphics and sound do not matter. Digital Anvil has taken a gamble by making the game joystick-incompatible, opting instead for a simplified mouse/keyboard control scheme. While this will sure upset many hardcore sim fanatics, I feel it is for the better.

During dogfights I can engage enemy ships with the same precision and accuracy as I would have using a joystick, and there is no need to memorize tens if not hundreds of shortcuts. The interface is especially clean and intuitive, and any game function can be found in a matter of seconds.

A highlight of the control scheme is the mouseflight option that can be enabled / disabled by hitting the spacebar. While enabled the mouse acts as a joystick would, moving and positioning your ship as you see fit. Disabling the mouseflight allows you to access game menus, target enemy ships, and the like, all while still retaining control over your ship.

Even though I feel a joystick option should have been included, most will feel right at home with the exceptional controls and not miss their joystick one bit.

Graphics: 8 /10

Some felt that Freelancer's long development would hurt it's visual presentation, but gladly it did not. Every graphical aspect of the game, from character models to nebulae are sharp, colorful, and a pleasure to look at. Special mention must be given to the many lighting effects the game offers. Whether it be the lens flare effect of stars, or the trippy ''warp'' jumps, the lighting is definite eye candy.

Unlike many other space-flight sims, the game feels ''alive.'' There are debris fields, space stations, gas clouds, mining posts, and many other elements to be seen. There is always something to look at, unlike the barren worlds of other space flight sims.

Finally, Freelancer runs at a silky smooth frame-rate even when battling dozens of enemy ships at once, which is a plus to those without brand new hardware.

Sound: 7 / 10

For some reason, I pay more attention to sound and music in a game than most people do. I believe that having great audio in a game enhances virtually every aspect of it, and Freelancer does not disappoint, but it doesn't impress either.

The music is varied, and changes dynamically depending on the situation. Sound effects, like lasers, missles, and engine noise all sound realistic, and the explosions will shake your room if you have a good set of speakers.

The voice acting is where the sound in Freelancer takes a dive. Although the voices themselves are for the most part well done, the conversations between characters is incredibly forced. The main character in the story has a monotonous voice, which I got sick and tired of in about five minutues. All in all, the sound is about average.

Gameplay: 8/10

The gameplay of Freelancer is simple, but addictive. You start out with a dinky ship and hardly any cash, but by doing missions, you get more money to buy better weapon, shield, and ship upgrades that are needed for some of the tougher battles in the game. The main storyline is comprised of 13 missions which are often long and full of twists, which are used to propel the storyline forward.

However, the game does not force you to do the main missions right away, opting instead for a more open-ended approach, much like Morrowind. I spent a great deal of time just doing the various randomly generated jobs and missions, trying to raise my reputation, not to mention my bank balance. Its a tried and true formula, and it is deceptively addicting.

Another great aspect of Freelancer is that you do not have to make your money just by hunting down rebels and blowing up starbases. You can, if you choose, live the semi-quiet life of a trader, buying goods low at one planet, and selling high at another. Although not as exciting as engaging enemy fleets, the trading option is well executed, and adds more variety to the game.

With that said, the randomly generated missions do lack in variety. Almost all of them involve killing rebel X at location Y for Z credits. Genre staples like escort missions and the like are few and far between, which is unfortunate.

Replay Value: 7 / 10

It is true that Freelancer is an open-ended game, that is in theory limitless; however I found that after beating the very linear main storyline the game got rather dull, rather fast. As mentioned above the game gives you plenty of things to do, but with little variety. The police force of the Sirrus system should all be fired, because it seems that there are thousands of escaped bandits and rebels that no one can find but you. With the little variety in missions, I felt that I was on a leveling treadmill, a'la Everquest, which to me is not much fun.

The game also suffers from a relative lack in different ships that you can pilot. I thought it would be great to play the game through as a light fighter that was hard as heck to hit, but could not deal tremendous firepower, then playing it through again as a lumbering heavy fighter that was slow, but could devastate enemies caught in its path. However, the game does little to encourage you from trying this because all the ships in the game move at the same speed, and can perform the same maneuvers. There is simply no reason to have a light fighter if you can afford something better.

Im sure there are plenty out there that would have a blast playing this game even after they completed the main story. However the lack of variety in missions and ship choices made it rather dull for me.

Multi-Player: 8/10

The multi-player of Freelancer could be called Earth & Beyond Lite. You start a new character, then level him up on various servers, all while getting more powerful ships and weapons. There is no main story in the multi-player component of the game, just good ol fashioned bandit hunting and other randomly generated missions.

Friendly fire can be enabled on a server by server basis, which can lead to some awesome dogfights with your fellow freelancers.

The multi-player portion of the game still suffers from the lack of mission variety, but doing the missions co-op is incredibly fun and takes away much of the tedium of doing them alone.

Conclusion: 8 /10

Freelancer is definately one of the best space flight sims to come out in a long, long time. By simplfying the controls and learning curve, Digital Anvil has created a game that is easy to learn, fun, and addictive. Sure the game isn't the complete revolution it was supposed to be, but it does many things right, and is polished throughout. A great game, and comeback title for the long lethargic space sim genre.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/16/03, Updated 03/16/03