Well now that I have gotten all my new games out of the way (Quake 4, Fear, Call of Duty 2) I am going to go back and play one of my favorite pc games. No, its not System Shock 2, thats a good guess though. I am actually talking about Freelancer. Its hard to describe the game, but I feel its one of the best space game ever created. I guess the easiest way to describe it is to say its a sort of Grand Theft Auto in space, but thats not exactly true. Here are some quotes from a review of the game:
“Think of Freelancer as Privateer 3, with hints of Diablo and Morrowind. You take on combat-intensive missions for money, buy and sell commodities for extra profit, and use the money to buy better ships and equipment. Freelancer tracks who you attack and who you help, which determines your reputation among the 50 different factions. Your reputation dictates who helps you, where you can land, and who tries to kill you.”
“Freelancer is rife with little details that flesh out the “living universe.” Pilots here are the most talkative bunch in any space sim; they’re constantly yammering about who they’re fighting, what they’re shipping, or why they need help. While you can’t hear anyone scream, you can certainly hear everyone chatter. Luxury food and alien organisms are perishable cargo, and decay much faster if you foolishly travel through a radioactive nebula. A derelict ship hauling cargo from a military research station might carry experimental weapons not sold in normal retail outlets. In multiplayer, I saw fellow editors use different docking bays in the same station when we all landed simultaneously.
Exploration is encouraged, and is perhaps the most exciting aspect of the game. Playing the story, I went through 30 (out of 48) systems in a little more than 25 hours, with my pilot hitting Level 18 out of 40. I only flew a handful of ships, and some ships I’ve never seen before were on sale at certain dealers. One time, I found myself in a heavily trafficked system through which all the shipping companies ferry, and I decided to become a pirate and raid all the freighters there (free tip: It’s the Galileo system in between Libertania and Kusari space).”
Not only is the universe great and fun to explore but the story is great as well. You wont believe all the things that will happen, all the places you will go and all the things you will see and do. Its probably one of the best single player games I have played in years.
