Freelancer - Review

Freelancer

Where to start. This is a HUGE game. First I'm going to tackle which game genre it fits into. Hmm. Arcade/Sim I guess. In more straight forward terms it's a game filled with space ships, guns and explosions. Lots of the latter. In the review I based it all on what I had seen in the Trial Edition. The Trial allows you to play through the first main mission and allows you a few ships.

I booted up the game and the first thing I noticed was an awe-inspiring title. The words “FREELANCER” in big white letters set against the background of the universe. What a way to start a game.

Freelancer has lots and lots of beautiful cinematics which are thankfully unstoppable as missing them is a crime. They are well scripted and look amazing in the urban planets. Apart from the weird “I am totally smashed” NPC eyes, the NPC's animations and emotions are admirable.

The controls are 100% keyboard friendly, being controlled with the Mouse and WASD keys.

After absorbing some incredible well scripted intros I was tasked with finding a job. The interaction interface is understandable and really easy to use. At the top there are a layer of buttons with which you can use to interact with the environment and vendors. After finding myself a job with the Liberty Defence Force I was shown my ship which I would be enforcing justice with. Sure, it was tiny and a bit decrepit compared to some other ships I had seen but I instantly fell in love with it.

I clicked launch and gasped as my ship slowly hovered, then flew straight over the beautiful city in which I was previously based. I took off following the objectives that were clearly portrayed at the side of my screen. As soon as my ship entered space I was greeted with an authoritative voice which my HUD told me was emanating from an allied ship whom I would be questing, no that sounds wrong, adventuring with. I could instantly tell how different his character was compared to the bar owned back down on the planet I had dispatched from. After some chit-chat, my new partner “King” ,as he is called, and I flew over to admire a huge beast of a ship which, from what I can only assume belonged to someone vewy vewy important. My camera suddenly zoomed in one approaching rogue ships as a haggard female voice announced to the rogue ships they should turn back or be shot down. The rogue ships didn't seem to care much as they swooped in gracefully and nuked the dukes ship. Instead of feeling angry at the rogues, which I did, I was staring in awe at the explosions which were glowing all over my screen. Angelic. After the cinematic ended, I was ordered to open fire and I obeyed mindlessly, wanting to test out the lasers which were bolted to my bucket of rust.

The combat is absorbing but slightly arcade style. Baring in mind that this is the first combat section of the game, I can't stop imagining what the final battles are like with all of the fully upgraded weapons. Now seems an appropriate time to rant in blatant admiration towards the wonderful graphics effects. It is an old game, so it's not very demanding, but the graphics are simply beautiful. I'm trying not to use that word too much but frankly, this game deserves all the praise it deserves. After you have destroyed a ship you simply hit “B” to use a tractor beam to, err, suck in all the loot, no, goods. After destroying sed rogue ships I felt attached to King. Not in that kind of way, sick readers, sort of like loyalty.

Once I had terminated the rogues I was clearly designated to a “Waypoint”. These are portals to another location in the solar system. It's really easy to do. Just cruise up to the waypoint, dock with it and wait. You enter the portal doctor who style with all the flashing colours and emerge into a totally different yet still awe-inspiring world. It's moments like these which make freelancer such a worthwhile buy. The levels of exploration and free-roaming are immense and the opportunity for role playing is also high.

The game also features multiplayer which is just like the single player campaign, you start with a basic ship but you have to find jobs and adventures, on some servers PVP is enabled which can be enjoyable.

If you have a fiver in your pocket and you are wondering what to do.. Buy this game. Well worth every minute of “Bloody Awesome”-ing you will do.

92%

-Screenshot Album coming soon-

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