Competent. (Freelancer (PC))

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Freelancer (PC)
Date:	28/05/04 (137 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good initial gameplay, Innocative control system, Good graphics and sound providing atmosphere

Disadvantages: Repetitive

One day, years ago one of my mates ran up to me one day and showed me what looked suspiciously like his geometry homework. He was trying to say something, but the bit of paper he held in his hands only contained what looked like a random collection of simple triangles. I took the bait...

"Wassat?" I asked, squinting at the paper.

"Fer de Lance" he replied, grinning. "Amazing, isn't it?"

And so began my education of what was known as Elite. Elite, if you didn't already know, was a space-based trading and combat game released on the BBC Micro (and later on the more popular home computers). It was the first game to truly immerse you in a created universe and let you do what you wanted (within reason). People have been trying to emulate it for years without success.

There have been many attempts to produce 'the new Elite'. Frontier (the official Elite sequel) or X: Beyond the Frontier are provably two of the most successful and well known, and to this list we can now add Freelancer.

Freelancer is produced by Microsoft and Digital Anvil, which might not mean a lot, but if I mentioned that Digital Anvil consisted of the same guys who did the Wing Commander games, then you might take notice.

Of course, in order to set the scene there has to be a story. The background to the Freelancer universe is told in the animated introduction which shows a war in our Solar system fought between two rival factions ? the Coalition and the Alliance. We are told by the gravelly voiced narrator that the Coalition eventually took the upper hand and launched an all out attack on the Alliance who had built huge spaceships to escape to another galaxy. The escape plan worked, and five of the spaceships (each representing a nation on Earth) left to start new colonies in the Sirius system.

Eight hundred years later, you are Edison Trent (where having a name like a power company isn't co
nsidered to be uncool). You are one of the few survivors of a devastating and ruthless attack on Freeport 7, a space station. However, your troubles are not over. Someone wants you dead and you want your money which is due to you from a deal which was taking place at the time of the attack. Added to this, you are under suspicion by the authorities simply because you are a survivor.

In order to try and make some sense of it all, you're going to have to get a ship and get out there to look for some answers while you wait for your acquaintance to recover from his injuries enough to repay you.

Luckily, a representative from the Liberty Security Force, Jun'ko Zane, offers you a ship in return for doing a contract for her. That's your cue to get out into the void and, well, do essentially whatever you like.

Doing whatever you like is pretty much the main selling point of Freelancer. Once you get your ship, you can take off and explore the universe, funding your way using whichever means you like ? that might mean being a pirate or a trader or a bounty hunter.

That's not entirely true though because there is the story/plot to consider. It involves around thirteen missions which can get very difficult if you try to play them through from the start of the game. The best course of action is to take your time, build up your cash to buy better weapons etc. and then take on each mission when you feel ready to do so. The good thing about the story arc through the game is that you can divert off from it and do your own thing for a while in order to build up your ship and flying/fighting skills.

Getting into the game is easy enough as there are plenty of hints and explanations given to you regarding various aspects of the game. The control method is quite innovative using the mouse for most things (although the keyboard can be used for other things, too) and while it is a bit awkward initially, soon becomes second nature.


Graphics.

The graphics are by no means state of the art, but that's not a bad thing. They're colourful and detailed when necessary and even on a relatively old PC, they still move around quickly. The planets and nebulae look wonderful, although there is a certain similarity in all things i.e. the space stations all look as if they come from the same mould as do the interiors of the bars, dealers etc. which does mean that you're not really as inclined to explore than if there'd been more graphical variety.

Each of the different 'nations' has its own graphical identity, although once you've seen one or two star systems in each nation, you've pretty much seen everything. But no-one plays games purely for the graphics, and this lack of variety is only a minor negative point.

Sound.

The sounds effects are very good, complimenting the gameplay perfectly. They're quiet when they need to be, often practically fading into the background e.g. the background hum when you're on a space station or in a bar) or being incredibly loud (when you're in a fight) when necessary. There are some nice touches such as when you're flying around and you 'overhear' other radio transmissions between a group of spacecraft and the space version of air traffic control, although these are only aesthetic touches. It would have been nice if you could use the information from these overheard snippets to perhaps find some secrets in the game.

The voice acting of the main cast is excellent, despite the really poor B-movie dialogue. This really isn't really that much of a surprise when you consider that the cast includes Ian Ziering (the blonde one out of Beverley Hills 90210), John Rhys Davies (Gimli in Lord of the Rings), Michael T. Weiss (Jarod from the almost unknown 'The Pretender', which is fabulous) and I think even George Takei (Sulu from Star Trek) shows up along the way. <
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It's hard to say that much about the supporting cast though as their lines seem to be done in that way which means the phrases can be mixed and matched to produce many different 'conversations' and can appear wooden at times.

Controls.

As stated above, Freelancer uses the mouse primarily. I think it is possible to use the mouse entirely if you choose to do so, but it's so fiddly that it's really not worth the bother. However, once you get used to the mouse system for moving your craft around, it does seem as if you've used it for years.

The keys are well defined and it is possible to redefine them to a certain extent e.g the weapons keys can be changed by changing how your weapons are placed on your spaceship.

Gameplay.

Well, the plot grabs you from the start and gets you out into space. Once there, there's so much for you to do initially that it's pretty compulsive stuff. The difficulty level was set just about right for me and I always seemed to be making progress (albeit at varying paces, but progress nonetheless) and I didn't really hit a wall until the latter 'plot' missions which were too difficult at the time.

It was fun trying to balance my reputation with the many different factions in Freelancer (e.g. do a mission for the Liberty Police and your standing with a group of smugglers will decrease), but ultimately, this held limited appeal once the plot had finished.

By this time though the novelty had worn off slightly ? I'd seen most of the graphics, found a few secrets and was most of the way through the plot. I was fed up of hearing the same lines from different bartenders in many different systems and doing the same small number of missions for the varying factions.

I should add that there are secrets in the game, mostly derelict ships and space stations not included on any maps which can yield rare (i.e. expensive) items to sell
. I think there are also rumours about another secret (which I won't go into here to avoid spoilers), so if you have the patience, there does seem to be enough to keep you going.

There are also many modifications out there for you to install and try. They mostly seem to be of the type to change the graphics, so you could fly around in Star Wars spaceships, or even Battlestar Galactica ones. They're usually freely available on the internet if you want to search through your favourite search engine.

Multiplayer.

I tried playing this over 56k dialup modem and I really shouldn't have bothered as it was so slow and jerky it was unplayable. The idea seems pretty good to have a consistent universe where people can do what they like (following on from the single player game) and there are areas set aside for new players to hone their online skills without fear of some experienced player coming in with a huge, heavily armed ship and shooting them within minutes.

Only worth experiencing if you have broadband.

PC Specifications.

Recommended:
600 MHz processor
128MB RAM
16MB, 3D video card
CDROM and soundcard
900MB hard drive space

My specs:
1.3 GHz processor
704MB RAM
GeForce 4 440MX video card
Soundblaster Live! Platinum Soundcard

With these specs, I found the game ran very well with no graphical glitches or slowdown, although the game is not technically advanced, so slower machines could potentially run this game happily.

Overall.

Initially, I thought it was great ? interesting, fairly addictive, easy to pick up and get going (no tutorial to speak of, but plenty of in-game advice). At the start, it did seem like an Elite beater, but once the initial rush of playing a good space combat/trading game had gone, it did get repetitive rather quickly and after the plot missions had finished I saw no reason to continue playing.

I bought m
y copy off eBay for around £15, and I don't think I'd like to have paid any more than £20 for it. At £20 it's acceptable for the amount of entertainment you'd get out of it, but don't expect it to be a game you can come back to time and time again like GTA: Vice City, Unreal Tournament, Civilization 3 or the like.

It's hard to say if there ever will be an Elite beater, at least for me. Perhaps I no longer have the mindset to suspend reality like I did nearly twenty years ago or perhaps, in terms of gameplay, Elite was really years ahead of its time.

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