Freelancer Review

Oscar Sodani is a founder of Help2Go and owner of Help2Go Networks, an IT consulting firm in the Washington D.C. area. Oscar holds the CISSP certification as well as industry certifications from Microsoft, Cisco and Novell.

The game basically has 2 elements: you can play the single-player game, which sets up the Freelancer universe for the excellent story that will unfold, or you can play in a multiplayer mode.

The Universe

The game universe offers dozens of different solar systems, each rife with planets and space stations that you can visit. The universe contains as many as 50 different factions, each with different allegiances and ideals. As a freelancer, you can go on missions for any faction, but in doing so, you will hurt your reputation with their enemies. This adds immense value to the game, as you can truly decide whether you want to be a hero, a pirate, a rogue, a smuggler, a cargo hauler, an assassin, or a mix. If you help the police forces, you'll be attacked on sight in the seedier parts of the universe. Ally yourself with a rogue group, and you may find yourself being chased by hordes of police or naval ships.

During the single-player campaign story line, you will find your alliances and enemies changing as the story unfolds, which allows you to view much of the game's universe. But even when you finish the single-player game, you will not have visited a great number of systems and bases. That's where the multi-player comes in...

The multiplayer game, whether you set up your own server or join one of the many available servers over the Internet, provides a universe that is changed by the people who play in it. You can go on missions with other players online, or go up against them if you are allied with different factions. You have complete freedom, in every sense of the word. I haven't spent much time online, since I'm currently fighting through the single-player, but I am eager to explore the rest of the universe and go down different paths (maybe a pirate?)

Gameplay

They have fixed everything I ever hated about other space shooters. Don't you hate it when you go on a long complex mission and die just as you're about to defeat the last ship? Freelancer autosaves your game after every major battle, so you won't have to worry about repeating the same missions over and over ad nauseum. Plus, whenever you land on a planet or station, you can save the game yourself.

I also hate the length of time it takes to get from place to place in most space sims. Freelancer does an effective job of getting you to the battle in a short time, and keeping the game play moving along.

The dogfights themselves are excellent. While the type of missions you go on can get repetitive, they are always a challenge. And since you are playing a role within a universe of factions, it makes who you fight and when you fight them an important consideration.

The major change with this game is that you fly your ship using your keyboard and mouse (like a first person shooter), rather than a joystick. While it takes a few minutes to get used to, you'll soon feel like it's second nature. The controls are very responsive, and you'll need them to be during those dogfights.

The graphics of the in-game engine are excellent. Each solar system has its own look and feel, and you really feel the great distances and sizes of objects in space. The dialog of your character as it interacts with computer-controlled characters is quite limited and can get annoying. Luckily, you are able to hit the Esc key and get a quick synopsis of the converstaion on-screen.

I'm not a role playing game fan at all, but the combination of battling it out in space while being wary of the political systems in place make this a game that will get stuck in your head. The single-player story is engrossing, and the freedom you feel while playing is the next big thing in computer games. Freelancer is highly recommended. Grade: A

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