Freelancer for Windows

Freelancer is a space combat / trading / exploration game developed by Microsoft Game Studios and now available as a budget re-release on the XPLOSIV label. It reminded me very much of Frontier (Elite 2), but of course with the modern graphics and sound capabilities and greater storage media it's much more aesthetically pleasing. Still the same general idea that's been going around since the first classic Elite game on the 8-bit computers remains the same - you are the captain of your ship and have to make money any way you can - trading, scavenging the remains of your combat victims, bounty hunting, or completing missions (okay this last idea wasn't really implemented until Elite 2). As you earn more money you can upgrade your ship, buy better ships, deal in more exotic commodities, etc.

This basic idea has been done many times and Freelancer does it well. The visuals are beautiful - space isn't just black with a few white dots for stars any more, there are lots of swirling gas clouds and colourful distance nebulae to gaze at. The ships are well modelled and each looks quite distinctive. The only real downside with the graphics was that the ship movement itself often looked quite jerky, at least for your own ship (which is generally viewed from a short distance behind, though this can be changed). Another slight disappointment was the planets - as you get quite close to them you can see a little detail on the surface, but as you get closer still this just gets bigger, not more detailed. There are are quite a few different types of places that you can land (150 unique places according to the blurb, but I don't think I've found them all yet!), and once you're on the planet or in the station, you can visit places. There's a bar in every port, an equipment dealer, and in the larger docks you'll be able to find a ship dealer. You can visit these places and, in the bar, actually talk to the different characters there. This is a way to get missions, learn gossip, or improve your reputation with certain factions - for a price, of course.

The voice acting is very well done, but although they've made an effort to have people using different phrases, the dialogue for most characters that you meet quickly becomes very stale and repetitive. There are 5 distinct realms up there in space (you'll find out why with the back story in the intro), and on some of them the speech is less convincing. Be prepared for some really corny German and British accents among others! The cut scenes are rather better. These are related to the main storyline, which you can play all the way through (that alone will take you many hours), or at any point you can branch off and just do your own thing. I tend to find that most completely non-linear games eventually get boring, so I stayed on the main storyline. It's actually pretty good and relatively involving. It all starts off with you being one of the few survivors of an attack on a space station while about to do the deal of a lifetime, and things quickly escalate to the extent that you find yourself on the run from the very security forces that you're working for trying to find the culprits. To advance in the story you need to level up - this is accomplished either by completing missions or increasing your "net worth". This is based on your current ship, equipment, and cargo, but also your reputation with the many factions in the game universe. If you gain with one you'll probably do so at the expense of what another think of you though, so you have to choose wisely at times.

The music in this game is outstanding - very atmospheric and excellent quality. The same music is used for every combat encounter so it's just as well that it's top notch! The space combat sections are handled very well - they get quite intense and, depending on your ship (and allies), your enemies, and sometimes the environment, you have to develop different tactics for different situations or you won't last long. The game autosaves before every encounter so if you get killed you can start that combat mission again straight away - but sometimes it's better to go back to a slightly earlier point and maybe rethink your ship and equipment before boldly venturing forth/

The only really disappointing element is that the missions are very limited in nature - it's almost always "go there and get rid of this enemy" with the only variation being who you're working for and who the enemy is. Though the space combat is good and I'm not sure what else could have been added, a little more variety would certainly have been nice.

Overall, Freelancer is a very solid Elite-style game that plays well and looks great. (Even though my graphics card - a GeForce 7300L - is far from the best model around, it never struggled in 1024x768 resolution at the highest detail level). If you like this sort of game then I'm absolutely certain you'll enjoy this. Although the RPG element of the game is a little limited, RPG fans might enjoy this too - though if you want a proper space RPG I'd be much more inclined to suggest KOTOR.


Freelancer and Vista

I had absolutely no problems running this game on Vista.

System tested on: Packard Bell iMedia J2489 Desktop PC

Minimum System Specs

Windows 98 / 2000 / Me / XP (doesn't say Vista on the packaging but obviously Vista's fine as well!)
RAM: 128Mb
Graphics card: 16Mb (no models specified so I'm guessing it should be compatible with any)
Free HDD space: 1.5Gb
DirectX: 9 or higher



Related Links

KOTOR (Knights of the Old Republic) - an RPG set in the Star Wars universe - this game has one of the best storylines of any game I've ever played. I'm currently playing the sequel, but haven't yet got far enough to review it... keep your eyes peeled!

Homeworld - this is the space game for you if your tastes go more to strategy games.

For a similar style of action-RPG but set in the high seas rather than space, try Pirates! (the original version of this on the Atari ST was probably the cause of me wasting more of my youth than any other game!)