Freelancer

"Falls short of great... but just by a little."

Take a mediocre storyline. Slap on impressive graphics, sound, and some good ship designers. You'll have Freelancer.

STORYLINE-6/10
Definitely the worst part of the game. It involves the war from Starlancer, mind-controlling aliens, and big, murderous battleships. More or less the topic for about a billion B-Class movies from the 80's. Microsoft could have done so much better.

GRAPHICS-9/10
Microsoft has never had graphic-revolving games. This is no exception. But the simple meshes, explosion effects, and unchanging long-distance textures work out just fine. They convey the idea of the distance of space, speed, and distance. The ships are well designed, and look good and in place in their respective environments.

SOUND-9/10
Great sound. New-age music gives you something to listen to while on your interplanetary voyages, and some action music sets the perfect setting for a fight against 50 enemy ships. The music genre is, really, what I like, so I went into the game folder and made a playlist... this, of course, is the kind of music I like, so I only speak for myself. The only problem with sound are the lasers... the constant **ptiuh!** and **zap zap!** can get annoying at times.

GAMEPLAY-10/10
Gotta love the gameplay in Freelancer. The controls are detailed, yet simple. The different ship systems are modifiable, but not to complicated to do so. The random missions are based on three kinds of missions, but change completely. And the story missions, although based on a bad storyline, are great, just because of the creativity for them. The immenseness of the maps is also absolutely marvelous... think GTA: San Andreas, except in space. The creative names for systems and planets, and factions... the entire idea of factions, which you could ally against or with really made the game more interesting, regarding the fact that, after you beat the storyline, you can be a criminal if you want, or be a law enforcer. The only problem with gameplay is that distance and speed factors are screwed up... but the rest of the gameplay overrules that. I would give more to gameplay if it was possible.

REPLAY-VALUE-9/10
Depends on how much you liked the game. The storyline gets so good, that when you end it you want to play it again; but using tiny little lasers, when you used missiles and cannons at the end of the game, makes replaying the first bit rather boring...

OVERALL-8/10
A great game, but with a bad storyline. A better story would score this game a 100... too bad it wasn't. The graphics and sound boosted it, but what really made this the game of the day was the gameplay. Expansive scenarios really made the game what it is.

THE GOODS:
--Great Gameplay
--Nice music
--Nice graphics
--Replayable for most people
--Expansive maps
THE BADS:
--Bad story
--Screwed up distance and speed factors
--Sounds of lasers can get annoying

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/01/05