Fight, trade, explore, maybe die a bit, its all good (Freelancer (PC))

Member Name: Barold

Product:	Freelancer (PC)
Date:	19/05/09 (6 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great gameplay, graphics and story

Disadvantages: Linear story

Freelancer is a space flight combat / exploration game. You find yourself in the middle of a large colonized universe with various political and racial groups living and trading for the most part peacefully. You start with a spectrum of political affiliation and as you progress through the game this changes based on your actions. As you advance through the story you level up, the only real benefit of this being that all of the ships in the game have level requirements you must to meet before you can purchase them.
The biggest problem with this game is that the story keeps you on rails for most of the game. Although you get a certain amount of freedom on some missions generally you're kept on a straight path with no game changing decisions to make. The story also controls your alignment and where you are in space. On the plus side this stops you from wandering off into an area of space where high level enemies await but on the down side it restricts the amount of exploration you can do in what is a very interesting and visually pleasing universe.
Despite this the story portion of the game is very satisfying and I've played through it several times as it is out of the box as well as trying a few of the many mods which are available. (On 2nd play through I recommend increasing trade lane speed)
So the story is good but once it's over what is there to do? Given how much you see and do in the story it's something of a shock to realize that there are still plenty of places to go, things to see, ships to fly and weapons to try. And since you don't know what's available at a given location until you go there this means plenty of exploring. The joy of this game is that there is no single perfect ship. The ship classes are Light Fighter, Heavy Fighter, Very Heavy Fighter and Freighter. Each class has different qualities - Light Fighters are fast turning but relatively weak, Very Heavy Fighters can mount the best weapons but are slow turning, Heavy fighters are a mix of the 2 and Freighters have vast cargo capacity for trade runs. And of course each ship within the class is different. The ship you will probably end the story in is not the best in its class and you won't have anywhere near the best weapons or shields so continuing to play is rewarded.
The interface is simple and easy, the ships look and feel individual and the combat if great fun.

Summary: Best space combat game I've played, SP great, MP better!